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THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

which  it  is  proposed  to  displace.  It  follows  then  that  in
a  competitive  society,  it  may  be  the  distinct  interest  of
individuals  to  set  up  “  savings  "  in  new  forms  of  capital,
which,  having  no  regard  to  the  destruction  of  the  value
of  older  forms  of  capital,  confer  no  net  economic  advantage
on  the  community.
This  free  play  of  individual  self-interest  in  saving  leads
to  a  purchase  of  each  step  of  industrial  progress  by  a
most  expensive  cancelmcnt  of  old  “  savings.”  Since  obsolete
forms  do  not  at  once  perish,  but  struggle  to  keep  the
breath  of  industrial  life  and  to  play  their  accustomed  part,
we  find  in  existence  at  any  given  time  a  large  excess  of
plant  of  various  kinds  beyond  what  is  fully  utilised  for
actual  work  of  production.
§  2j.  A  Nation  is  not  a  Community.
In  ascribing  necessary  limits  to  the  “savings”  of  a
community,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  modem
industry  a  “  nation”  is  by  no  means  coterminous  with  a
“community.”  Every  year  more  and  more  the  whole  body
of  nations,  which  are  related  by  close  ties  in  common
world-markets,  or  are  otherwise  in  direct  or  indirect  commercial ­
  relations  with  one  another,  must  be  regarded  as  a
single  commercial  community.  This  being  so,  it  is  clear
that  no  absolute  limit  is  set  at  any  given  time  to  the
“  savings  ”  of  a  single  nation,  other  than  the  total  field
of  investment  of  the  industrial  world.  It  would  therefore
follow  that  not  only  is  there  no  theoretic  limit  to  the
proportion  of  his  income  which  any  individual  Englishman
might  legitimately  save,  but  that  no  limit  could  be  placed
upon  the  proportion  of  the  national  income  which  can  be
saved,  provided  that  the  surplus  savings  beyond  what  can