SELF-INTEREST  CAUSES  WASTE  OF  CAPITAL  83

necessarily,  leads  him  to  prefer  that  employment  which
is  most  advantageous  to  the  society,”  *  has  been  largely
replaced  in  modern  minds  by  a  perception  that  “  the
mere  conflicts  of  private  interests  will  never  produce  a
well-ordered  commonwealth  of  labour,  ”f  the  implications
of  this  new  doctrine  have  not  been  properly  digested.
Many  of  those  who  most  fully  recognise  the  necessity  of
imposing  restraints  upon  “conflicts  of  private  interests”
in  the  competition  of  the  labour-market  and  in  the  sale
of  goods,  still  hold  that  the  selfishness  of  individual
“  savers”  can  be  relied  upon  to  secure  the  most  economical
disposition  of  capital  at  the  several  points  of  the  industrial
machine.  We  have  seen  that  this  is  not  true  in  fact,
that  the  operation  of  saving  individuals  under  the  existing
industrial  dispensation  leads  to  a  wasteful  accumulation
of  forms  of  capital.  It  remains  to  ask,  Why  should  this
be  so  ;  why  should  the  free  selfish  action  of  saving  individuals ­
  disturb  the  right  adjustment  between  “  saving”
and  “spending”  from  the  standpoint  of  the  community?
Why  should  it  be  possible  for  us  to  endeavour  to  establish
new  capital  to  the  extent  of  £200,000,000  a  year,  when
£  150,000,000  might,  perhaps,  suffice  to  supply  the  current
rate  of  consumption,  increased  by  ¿50,000,000?
§  21.  How  Self-inter  ext  of  Individuals  Causes
Social  Waste  of  Capital.
We  have  already  seen  that  in  retail  trade  the  selfinterest
  of  individual  traders  may  and  does  lead  them  to
establish  a  far  larger  number  of  shops  than  are  required
for  the  effective  distribution  of  commodities  in  a  district.
*  “Wealth  of  Nations,”  book  iv.,  chap.  ii.
f  Article  on  Political  Economy  in  “Encyclopaedia  Britannica.”