No productive capital can function without, on the one hand, a guarantee of its control of its own means of production (a guarantee which, in the last resort, relies upon "armed bodies of men"), and, on the other, a labour force that is doubly "free"-free from coercion by non-capitalist exploiters on the one hand and free from any way of making a livelihood than by selling its labour power on the other. The productive capitalists in any particular locality necessarily act together to try to shape its social and political conditions, that is to exercise influence over the state. As sociologist Neil Brenner puts it:
In its drive to accumulate surplus value, capital strives to . . . overcome all geographical barriers to its circulation process. Yet to pursue this continual dynamic . . . capital necessarily depends upon relatively fixed and immobile territorial infrastructures, such as urban regional agglomerations and territorial states . . . Capital's endemic drive . . . is intrinsically premised upon the production, reproduction, and reconfiguration of relatively fixed and immobile configurations of territorial organisation, including urban regional agglomerations, transportation networks, communication systems, and state regulatory institutions.70
Most capitalist enterprises operate not simply on market calculations, but also on the long-term relations they establish with other enterprises that sell to them and buy from them. Otherwise they would live in continual fear that any change in market conditions would cause their suppliers to sell elsewhere and those who transport and retail their goods suddenly to lose interest in them. They seek to "lock in" these other firms by a combination of financial incentives, business favours and personal contact. To this extent
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Understanding the System: Marx and Beyond