The more durable a commodity, the longer it may remain in circulation, but other commodities are highly perishable. Unless consumed in a given time, their use value disappears and, along with their exchange value, because a commodity only has exchange-value to the extent it is also a use value. This was a greater problem in the 19th century, prior to the development of refrigeration systems.
“In general, it is clear that although in absolute terms the quantity of the commodities which have been stored up in the reservoirs of circulation increases as a result of the development of industry, because production and consumption increase, this same quantity represents a decrease in comparison with the total annual production and consumption. The transition of commodities from circulation to consumption takes place more rapidly.” (p 285)
Marx describes three reasons why the rate of turnover increases. Firstly, increased production means that any given quantity of commodities remains in the production stage for less time. The working period is determined by this quantity. In other words, in each industry, there is a given quantity of production that must be produced before it is sent to market. For large items, like a ship, it may be just a single commodity. For smaller items it may be that, say, a thousand ball-bearings have to be produced before they are shipped. There is no point sending single ball-bearings to market. The actual size of this minimum output will change, for any commodity, over time, because more efficient transport may enable larger shipments to be made, wholesalers and retailers may require larger quantities to sell, because their own rate of turnover increases. On the other hand, improved communications may mean that orders can be sent out more quickly, and responded to. So, for example, with Just In Time, end producers want smaller more frequent deliveries, which means that their suppliers have to work on smaller minimum levels of output, for a working period.
As productivity rises for any given level of output, less time is taken up in production, so the rate of turnover rises. The increased productivity may be the result just of the division of labour, but the main improvements arise from the introduction of more and better machines.
Even just production on a larger scale reduces the time spent in production, because if 1,000 units is required for a production period, and it takes 10 workers 10 days to produce, 20 workers will reduce that to 5 days, or less. But, similarly, production on a larger scale brings economies of scale. It also means that production becomes more concentrated, so that the components of production, in one industry, are often produced nearby, and thereby, more quickly delivered, and so on.
Where the production time is extended, beyond the working period, because of a reliance on natural or chemical processes, scientific advances can also speed up those processes. Animal breeding makes them ready for market sooner, plant selection means that more than one crop per year can be harvested, chemical processes can be speeded up, and so on.
Secondly, improvements in transport and communications speed up the time spent in circulation. As I've described elsewhere, that can today be seen notably in things like containerisation, but, in economies dominated by service production, the role of the Internet has had an even more revolutionising role. The removal of borders in the EU has also acted to speed up the circulation of goods and services.
Thirdly,
“This whole development—the shortening both of the various phases of the production process and of the transition from one phase to another—presupposes production on a large scale, mass production and, at the same time, production based on a large amount of constant capital, especially fixed capital; [it requires] therefore a continuous flow of production. But not in the sense in which we have earlier considered the flow, that is, not as the closing of and overlapping of the separate production phases, but in the sense that there are no deliberate breaks in production. These occur as long as work is done to order, as in the handicrafts, and continue even in manufacture properly so-called (insofar as this has not been reshaped by large-scale industry). In modern industry, however, work is carried out on the scale allowed by the capital. This process does not wait on demand, but is a function of capital. Capital works on the same scale continuously (if one disregards accumulation or expansion) and constantly develops and extends the productive forces. Production is therefore not only rapid, so that the commodity quickly acquires the form in which it is suitable for circulation, but it is continuous. Production here appears only as constant reproduction and at the same time it takes place on a mass scale.” (p 285-6)
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