The nature of capital and income

Bibliographic data

Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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

Volume

Identifikator:: 1896935052

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-238139

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 2

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XI Seiten, Seiten 570-1100

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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

Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part IV. The federations and the union // Chapter II. The commonwealth of Australia

Collection:: Economics Books

Sec. 11] PROPERTY 39 increased simply by multiplying the titles to it, would be checked, and the usual atrocities of double taxation, for in- stance, of farm and mortgage, or of railways and railway shares, would be avoided. If we bear in mind the distinctions in this and in the previous chapter, we shall see that there is no advantage, but much disadvantage, in including any “immaterial” elements in wealth. ‘Immaterial wealth” is, in fact, one of those bugaboos which have done a great deal to obscure the simplicity of economic relations. Legal advice or medical attendance are not “immaterial wealth”; they are, as we have seen, simply services of wealth (human wealth in this case). The “properties and powers of nature’ are not wealth, but, as explained in the previous chapter, are attributes of land and enter economic science merely as giving characterization to that particular kind of wealth. They cannot be counted as wealth in addition to the land any more properly than can the elasticity of rubber be counted as wealth in addition to the rubber. Likewise, swift horses are wealth, but not their swiftness; honest, wise, successful, and healthy men are wealth, but not their hon- esty, wisdom, skill, or health. Most of the mystery of banking to the ordinary mind consists in the mistaken no- tion that credit is something “inflated,” without a tangible basis. A mere inspection of a bank’s balance sheet should serve to make clear the fact that behind every claim upon the bank is something to make it good. If the anterior something be itself a claim on some other bank or person, there lies behind it, in turn, some basis, and so on until a concrete instrument is finally found. Another common error is the belief that “wealth con- sists of utility.” If this were true, the law of diminishing 1 See Report of Professor Edward W. Bemis and Carl H. Nau, on Value of Ohio Railroads, 1903; also, Report of the Interstate Com- merce Commission on Railways in the United States in 1902, 1903, Part V.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The nature of capital and income

Multivolume work

Volume

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation