54 NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME [Cuar. IV
many of them only served to put more combatants in the
field and furnish more matter to the dispute.”* Many
authors express dissatisfaction with their own treatment
of capital, and even recast it in successive editions.”
Adam Smith’s® concept of capital is wealth which
yields “revenue.” He would therefore exclude a dwelling
occupied by the owner. Hermann, on the other hand,
includes dwellings, on the ground that they are durable
goods. But a fruiterer’s stock in trade, which is capital
according to Smith, because used for profit, according to
Hermann does not seem to be capital, because it is perish-
able. Kbnies ® calls capital any wealth, whether durable or
not, so long as it is reserved for future use. Walras®
attempts to settle the question of durability or futurity
by counting the uses. Any wealth which serves more than
one use is capital. A can of preserved fruit is therefore
capital to Knies if stored away for the future, but is not
capital to Walras because it will perish by a single use.
To Kleinwiichter,” capital consists only of “tools” of pro-
luction, such as railways. He excludes food, for instance,
as passive. Jevons,® on the contrary, makes food the most
typical capital of all, and excludes railways, except as rep-
resenting the food and sustenance of the laborers who built
them.
While most authors make the distinction between capital
and non-capital depend on the kind of wealth, objectively
considered, Mill ®* makes it depend on the intention in the
mind of the capitalist as to how he shall use his wealth,
! Bohm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital, English translation,
London and New York, 1891, p. 23.
? B.g. Roscher, Marshall, Schiffle.
3 Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chap. I.
4 Staaiswirtschaftliche Untersuchungen, Munich, 1832, p. 59.
$ Das Geld, 2d ed., Berlin, 1885, pp. 69-70.
® Eléments d’ Economie Politique Pure, 4th ed., Lausanne, p. 177.
7 Grundlagen des Socialismus, 1885, p. 184.
8 Theory of Political Economy, 3d ed., 1888, Chap. VII, pp. 222, 242.
¥ Principles of Political Economy, Book I, Chap, IV, § 1.
