The nature of capital and income

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 102659555X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-82920

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Fisher, Irving http://d-nb.info/gnd/118533541

Title:: The nature of capital and income

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: The Macmillan Company

Year of publication:: 1923

Scope:: XXI, 427 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2019

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part I. Capital

Collection:: Economics Books

60 NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME [Crar. IV nition of the time principle here propounded. The “capi- tal account” of a railway, for instance, gives the condition of the railway at a particular instant of time, and the ““in- come account’ gives its operation through a period of time. $5 It has been objected that the proposed definition does not conform to established usage. So far as economic prece- dent is concerned, we have already seen that there is no established usage.! Moreover, in the immense literature on the subject there is no lack of precedent for the defini-' tion here proposed. Turgot? employed the term capital in practically the sense of a stock of wealth. J. B. Say? Courcelle-Seneuil,* and Guyot * followed. Edwin Cannan,® among present economists, reintroduced it, and in a very tlear and explicit way. To-day it is used in five or six standard works,” as well as in some minor writings. Many economists have orally expressed their approval of the pro- posed definition. Others virtually or approximately adopt it, as, for in- stance, Knies,® Clark ® Pareto,® Giffen,’ De Foville,”® Flux, 1 For a fuller statement of this fact see the writer’s “Precedents for Defining Capital,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1904. 2 Formation and Distribution of Riches, § 58, Ashley’s translation (Macmillan, New York), pp. 50-59. 3 See Tuttle, “The Real Capital Concept,” Quarterly Journal of Beonomics, November, 1903, p. 83; but cf. Bohm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, English translation, p. 59, n. 4 Traité théorique et pratique d’ Economie Politique, 1867, tome I, p. 47. 5 Principles of Social Economy, English translation, p. 50. ® Theories of Production and Distribution, London, 1894, p. 14. " Among them are Cannan’s History of Theories of Distribution, Hadley’s Economics, Smart’s Distribution of Income, Daniels’s Fi- nance, Fetter’s Principles of Economics, Seligman’s Principles of Eco- nomics. 8 See “What is Capital?” loc. cit. ® In his Growth of Capital. In his “Wealth of France and of Other Countries,” English translation, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1894. 1 Economic Principles, London (Methuen), 1904, pp. 16-18.

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