Denkschrift über die Maschinenindustrie der Welt, bestimmt für das Komitee B des Vorbereitenden Ausschusses der Internationalen Wirtschaftskonferenz des Völkerbundes

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1760044229

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-137264

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Wege zur Rationalisierung

Place of publication:: Frankfurt am Main

Publisher:: [Frankf. Societäts-Dr.]

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: 92 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Rationalisierung des Haushalts / von Dr. Erna Meyer (München)

Collection:: Economics Books

CAPITAL AND INTEREST 71 ing. Depreciation is treated precisely as is the outlay for materials and supplies. Such items are treated in the accounts as if they were quite separate from the wages bill and the “labor cost.” For the purposes of the economist, however, and not least for the theory of international trade, they must all be reckoned in the labor account. Their significance for our purposes lies in the fact that the economic analysis of capital outlays points to differences in labor cost; to variations in this essential regard from country to country and from commodity to commodity. A country that makes large use of tools, machines, plants, and uses them better than another country, has a comparative advantage in the production of the commodities turned out with the abundant use of capital. Such in general is the situation between the coun- tries of advanced capitalistic development, Western Europe and the United States, when compared with the tropical and back- ward countries. As between the Western countries themselves, there are similar differences. England had a marked advantage of this kind for a considerable period, from the early stages of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century through the first third of the 19th, perhaps the first half. England continued during that period to have a comparative advantage in making those articles to which the machine-using processes could be applied with most effect; all countries applied them more or less, but England applied them better. The United States attained a development of a similar kind by the middle of that century, Germany and Switzerland before its close. Gradually all the Western countries learned to apply the new labor-saving processes. Yet they did not all learn to apply them with equal effect. Differ- ences persisted, and these had their effects on international trade. A curious contrast appeared in the latter part of the 19th century between the situation in England and that in the United States. It serves to bring into clear relief the distinction between the two ways in which the use of capital affects international trade, accord- ing as it operates on the one hand to introduce the element of return on capital or on the other hand to increase the effectiveness of labor. In both countries the use of well-devised tools and

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