216 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
The American farm population slightly exceeds thirty millions. 
The population of Germany is nearly twice as great—over sixty 
millions. The value of American farm property is about sixty 
billions. Exactly what the capital wealth of Germany is at the 
present moment no one can say. It was nearly a hundred billion 
dollars before the war. The loss of shipping and foreign invest- 
ments, together with property losses in ceded territories, the 
deterioration of lands, industrial plants, railways, ete., could not 
have impaired the physical property of the nation by so much as 
one-half. But we will say that the impairment amounted to fifty 
per cent. World values stand about fifty per cent above the pre- 
war level. The capital value of German property ought there- 
fore to be at least seventy-five billions. 
This figure may be challenged as too high. An actual inventory 
of German property, taken at its current value, would probably 
tall well short of seventy-five billions. Capital values, as every- 
one knows, fluctuate widely with the mood of the investing 
public. A piece of property which yields a net income of a 
thousand dollars may be valued at ten thousand dollars, when 
the prevailing mood is sober and pessimistic. It may be valued 
at twenty thousand dollars when the prevailing mood is buoyant 
and over sanguine. The Germans have been sunk in depression 
and discouragement ever since the war, and place a low capital 
value on their property. The American farmer puts his capital 
values high. In the end, however, what counts in the measure- 
ment of capital is the capacity to yield income. From this point 
of view the German capital certainly exceeds that of the American 
farmer, and probably at least in the ratio of 75 to 60. 
Before the war the German national income was about ten 
billions of dollars. What it is now nobody can say with certainty. 
And even if we could make a precise compilation of money 
incomes actually received it would mean little, since the price 
structure in Germany has not recovered entirely from the distor- 
tion brought about by monetary inflation. There is good reason 
for believing, however, that the German consumer commands, on 
the average, at least two-thirds of the goods he enjoyed before 
the war, or the value, in pre-war money terms, of six and two- 
thirds billions. In terms of world prices of today, the value 
would again be nearly ten billions. 
The aggregate income of the American farmers is estimated by