148 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
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as ownership and as means of production.” Marshall listed with 
approval a veritable catalog of definitions mutually inconsistent, 
ut admitted that the divergent usage “has been ‘a great stum- 
ping block to many readers” and “appears to land the science in 
confusion.” He comforts himself, however, with the thought 
that “the difficulty is much less serious than it seems at first 
sight.” * The plan by which he hopes to minimize the confusion, 
if not avoid it, is to adopt two standard definitions, one each for 
individual and social capital respectively (apparently following 
ohm-Bawerk), and then (apparently forgetting that he himself 
Fe two) “to supplement his standard definition by an explan- 
ation of the bearing of each of several elements of capital on the 
point at issue.” His definition of “individual capital is that 
ortion of a person’s external goods by which he obtains his liveli- 
ood”; and of social capital is “those things made by man, by 
hich the society in question obtains its livelihood.” The latter 
onsists, first, of goods in a form to satisfy wants directly (‘“‘con- 
umption capital”) and, secondly, of production goods (“auxiliary 
apital.”) He recognizes that individual capital “is most com- 
only taken to include land and other free gifts of nature,” but 
his is to be left “to be decided by an interpretation clause in the 
ontext wherever there is room for misunderstanding on the 
oint.” He evidently here thinks of “capital” (either individual 
r social) as consisting of concrete goods rather than of their 
alue or the purchasing power they embody; and both his 
‘standard definitions” make capital consist of the external goods 
hemselves. Later, in a chapter headed “The growth of wealth.” } 
e discusses it as if it were identical with “the accumulation of 
apital” and to “the annual investment of wealth.” It is almost 
eedless to say that when he comes to discuss capital in business, 
t is in terms of investment and its monetary expression, while 
interest or earnings are percentages of a principal sum.’ 
n the successive revisions of his text, terminating with the 8th 
1920) Marshall's discussion of this subject steadily increased in 
ength and elaboration without gaining in clarity and consistency. 
n the whole, though, the change is in the direction of a greater 
reference for, and emphasis upon the individual concept and 
Idem., pp. 135-136. 
Idem., p. 133. = 
Idem., p. 284. 
dem., pp. 513, 620 ff., 635, 648, etc. 
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