Capitalists maintain and increase their wealth because they start the equation M-C-M off with money. This means that they don’t even sell a commodity in order to receive money to buy another commodity. It is harder when somebody has to sell a commodity to gain money because now they have to buy something more valuable than the commodity they have sold for the same price they were given for said commodity. When M-C-M ends with money or capital, more money than the initial amount, the capitalists can invest and keep the trend going.