From the moment, however, when fixed capital has developed to a certain extent - and this extent, as we indicated, is the measure of the development of large industry generally - hence fixed capital increases in propor­tion to the development of large industry's productive forces - it is itself the objectification of these productive forces, as pre­ supposed product - from this instant on, every interruption of the production process acts as a direct reduction of capital itself, of its initial value. The value of fixed capital is reproduced only in so far as it is used up in the production process. Through disuse it loses its use value without its value passing on to the product. Hence, the greater the scale on which fixed capital develops, in the sense in which we regard it here, the more does the continuity of the production process or the constant flow of reproduction become an externally compelling condition for the mode of production founded on capital. Marx, Grundrisse (Penguin Classics), p.703