Economic essays

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Clark's reformulation of the capital concept / Frank A. Fetter

Collection:: Economics Books

148 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK op ar: -_ as ownership and as means of production.” Marshall listed with approval a veritable catalog of definitions mutually inconsistent, ut admitted that the divergent usage “has been ‘a great stum- ping block to many readers” and “appears to land the science in confusion.” He comforts himself, however, with the thought that “the difficulty is much less serious than it seems at first sight.” * The plan by which he hopes to minimize the confusion, if not avoid it, is to adopt two standard definitions, one each for individual and social capital respectively (apparently following ohm-Bawerk), and then (apparently forgetting that he himself Fe two) “to supplement his standard definition by an explan- ation of the bearing of each of several elements of capital on the point at issue.” His definition of “individual capital is that ortion of a person’s external goods by which he obtains his liveli- ood”; and of social capital is “those things made by man, by hich the society in question obtains its livelihood.” The latter onsists, first, of goods in a form to satisfy wants directly (‘“‘con- umption capital”) and, secondly, of production goods (“auxiliary apital.”) He recognizes that individual capital “is most com- only taken to include land and other free gifts of nature,” but his is to be left “to be decided by an interpretation clause in the ontext wherever there is room for misunderstanding on the oint.” He evidently here thinks of “capital” (either individual r social) as consisting of concrete goods rather than of their alue or the purchasing power they embody; and both his ‘standard definitions” make capital consist of the external goods hemselves. Later, in a chapter headed “The growth of wealth.” } e discusses it as if it were identical with “the accumulation of apital” and to “the annual investment of wealth.” It is almost eedless to say that when he comes to discuss capital in business, t is in terms of investment and its monetary expression, while interest or earnings are percentages of a principal sum.’ n the successive revisions of his text, terminating with the 8th 1920) Marshall's discussion of this subject steadily increased in ength and elaboration without gaining in clarity and consistency. n the whole, though, the change is in the direction of a greater reference for, and emphasis upon the individual concept and Idem., pp. 135-136. Idem., p. 133. = Idem., p. 284. dem., pp. 513, 620 ff., 635, 648, etc. ali

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