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

Sec. 7] CAPITAL 65 §7 Should economists continue to reject the simple defi- nition above explained, and insist on restricting the term capital to some narrower meaning, our only re- course will be to follow the example of John Rae,' and, after defining capital as a part of ‘stock, quietly shelve the term and proceed to the analysis of “stock” instead.’ We shall then be in the curious position of acknowledging that the “problems of capital ”’are not problems of “capital ”’ only, but of stock, and shall have to regard such common phrases as “the interest on capital,” “l'intérét du capital,” and “capitalzins” as misnomers. But this or any other settlement of the difficulty will be welcome to all who are tired of the present confusion of tongues. A business friend recently complained that he was chiefly deterred from read- ing the books of economists because they seemed to have no settled terminology. It does not so greatly matter what name we select by which to call a concept. The important matter is to select for consideration those concepts which are fruitful in scientific analysis. That the concept —by what-. ever name we call it — of a stock of wealth at an instant of time is thus fruitful will, we believe, appear more plainly as we proceed to apply it to what have been called, rightly or wrongly, the ““ problems of capital.” 1 Sociological Theory of Capital, edited by Professor Mixter, Mac- millan, 1905. 2 Tt is not, of course, denied that “stock ”’ falls into several more or less distinct groups. One classification has already been given in the chapter on “Wealth,” and there are many others. One of the most striking divisions of the stock of wealth as it exists in modern society is between that at home and that in business. This is the basis of many definitions of capital, especially that of Komorzynski (Credit, Innsbruck, 1903, p. 138). But the distinction applies only to modern and highly differentiated societies. Like all classifications of concrete things, it serves a descriptive purpose but does not help analysis. It is well known that in science the most general conceptions are the most fruitful. Professor J. Willard Gibbs, noted for the gen- erality and simplicity of his methods in mathematical physics, used to say, “The whole is simpler than its parts.” F

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