International trade

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1758394757

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136209

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Taussig, Frank William http://d-nb.info/gnd/120199459

Title:: International trade

Place of publication:: New York, NY

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XXI, 425 Seiten; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part I. Theory

Collection:: Economics Books

CAPITAL AND INTEREST Re an Lh ig 69 The concrete way in which the element of previous labor is reckoned by the business world is through the charge for depre- ciation in cost accounts. If machinery lasts 5 years, a considerable item must figure in the expenses of production to make up for its depreciation ; if it lasts 20 years, the allowance is less, but is still there. Something must always be set down on this score; unless indeed the machinery last forever. Now, in the illustrative figures used in the present chapter, no allowance at all was made for any such item. In other words it was tacitly assumed that capital (machinery or what not) did last forever. On that assumption the only new element brought into the account by the introduction of capital is the returns on it; past labor and depreciation need not be considered. In the actual world, however, it must always be considered. When making up the complete summation of the labor given to an article, we must put down something for the labor of the past which has been given to making the tools or machinery. It will be much or little, according as the capital instruments last a short time or a long; much or little, according as depreciation bulks large or small in the accounts. Our total for the expenses of production (referring now to one of the previous illustrative examples), as modified by the introduc- tion of capital, might then be stated in some such form as this: INTEREST Do- CHARGE TorAL MESTIC Wages TorAL AS Ex- SuppPLY PER Day WAGES BEFORE PENSES Propuce Price 10 days’ current labor = $20) U.S. $2 ¥ $30 810 $40 30 copper $1.33 $ 5 days’ past labor = $10 pper_$ There is still more to be considered, however, than this revision of the method of figuring. The revised calculation (as the reader is likely to say) in itself adds nothing of moment. The number of days’ labor for the given article, and the wages item in the expenses of production, became greater, and the figures are readjusted accordingly. What really signifies lies in quite another direction. The use of capital means not merely that an apportionment must be made (perhaps somewhat intricate) of the total labor given per

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