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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part I. Capital

Collection:: Economics Books

Skc. 6] CAPITAL 63 in a joint stock company, it consists of the total sum of the contribu- tions of the shareholders. b. Pol. Econ. The accumulated wealth of an individual, company, or community, used as a fund for carrying on fresh production; wealth in any form used to help in producing more wealth. In business manuals and articles on practical account- ing we find that capital is employed in the sense of the net value of a man’s wealth. Thus L. W. Lafrentz, speak- ing of the difference between assets and liabilities," states: “The residue will be the net worth of the proprietor — the capital of the proprietor.” Inquiry among business men also reveals the fact that in business usage all wealth is included in the term “capital.” It would astonish a business man to have an economist strike out from his assets as non-capital his raw materials, as would Kleinwiichter; his perishable goods, as would Hermann; his fuel, as would Walras; or, above all, his land, as would most of the classical economists. That land is capital, business men all emphatically declare. As the manufacturer would express it, land is the very first thing into which the “paid-in” capital of a new concern is con- verted. Again, business men maintain that the junction of any given wealth has nothing to do with its classification as capital. It need not be “for production” nor “for sus- taining laborers,” nor for any particular object whatever. The only point on which some of them hesitate is whether or not all articles in consumers’ hands are capital. The reason for this hesitation may possibly be found in the cus- toms of bookkeeping. As one business man expressed it, “Capital is simply a bookkeeping term.” Consequently the business man naturally associates the term with his shop and not his home, for he keeps a balance sheet in the former and not in the latter ; but, once given a balance sheet, 14 Beonomic Aspects of Accounting and Auditing,” Journal of Accountancy, April, 1906, p. 482. Cf. Victor Branford, Economics and Accountancy, London (Gee & Co.), 1901, and Charles E. Sprague, The Accountancy of Investment, New York (Business Publishing Co.), 1904, p. 12.

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