62 NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME [Cuar, IV
ZL
stock as capital was explicit, as, for instance, in the year
1611, Cotgrave defined capital as, “wealth, worth ; a stocke.”
Again, we find : —
1678, Dufresne du Cange, Glossarium.— Capitale dicitur bonum
omme quod possidetur. . . .
More often capital is explained as a term employed in
business, as: —
1759, Rider, W. A New Universal English Dictionary. . . .
London. — Capital. Among merchants, the sum of money brought
in by each party to make up the common stock. Likewise the money
which a merchant first brings into trade on his own account.
Here the phrase ‘among merchants’ is perhaps intended
to specify the sphere in which the term is generally found,
rather than as a necessary limitation to that sphere, just
as ‘“hawser” is explained as a “nautical term” without
implying that a hawser could not be employed on shore.
With the advent of the economists the dictionary
definitions were thrown into confusion, although the great
majority of them continue still to adhere to the original
usage; e.g.: —
1883, Simmonds, P. L. The Commercial Dictionary. . . . Capital
. . the net worth of a party.
1894. Palgrave’s Dictronary of Political Economy, under ‘‘ Assets.”
The assets remaining after the discharge of liabilities are a person’s
actual capital.
In many cases it is thought necessary to distinguish
between the meaning of capital among economists and its
meaning among business men; e.g.: —
1893, Murray, J. A. H. A New English Dictionary. . . . Vol. II,
Oxford. — Capital, B. sb. 3. A capital stock or fund. a. Commerce.
The stock of a company, corporation, or individual with which they
enter into business and on which profits or dividends are calculated;
sented the distinction between a fund and a flow. The term soon
became applied to a merchant’s stock in contradistinction to the flow
of profits springing from it, and hence to. any fund or stock what-
ever. See “Precedents for Defining Capital,” Quarterly Journal of
Economics, May, 1904, p. 395.
! See “Precedents,” pp. 8, 9.
