Full text: The nature of capital and income

Sec. 2] CAPITAL 55 
Marx * makes it depend on the effect of the wealth on the 
laborer, and Tuttle, upon the amount of wealth possessed. 
Again, while most authors confine the concept of capital 
to material goods, MacLeod® extends it to all immaterial 
goods which produce profit, including workmen’s labor, 
credit, and what he styles “incorporeal estates,” such as 
the Law, the Church, Literature, Art, Education, an au- 
thor’s Mind. Clark * takes what he styles “pure” capital 
out of the material realm entirely, making it consist, not 
of things, but of their utility. Most authors leave no place, 
in their concept of capital, for the value of goods as distinct 
from the concrete goods themselves, whereas Fetter,’ in his 
definition, leaves place for nothing else. Some definitions 
are framed with especial reference to particular problems 
of capital; many, for instance, have reference to the prob- 
lem of capital and labor, but they fail to agree as to the re- 
lation of capital to that problem. MacCulloch ® regards it 
as a means of supporting laborers by a wage fund; Marx,’ 
as a means of humiliating and exploiting them; Ricardo,’ 
as a labor saver; MacLeod? as including labor itself as 
a special form of capital. 
Many definitions have reference to the problem of 
production, but in no less discordant ways. Accord- 
ing to Senior,® Mill,’ and many others, capital must be 
itself a product. Walras® MacLeod,’ and others admit 
1 Capital, English translation, London, 1887, Vol. II, p. 792. 
? “The Real Capital Concept,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 
November, 1903. 
3 Dictionary of Political Economy, article “Capital,” p. 331. 
4 Capital and its Earnings, Publications of American Economic 
Association, 1888, pp. 11-13. 
§ “Recent Discussion of the Capital Concept,” Quarterly Journal of 
Economics, November, 1900, and Principles of Economics, 1904. 
8 Principles of Political Economy, 4th ed., p. 100. 
7 Principles of Political Economy, § 37. 3 
8 «Political Economy,” Encyclopedia Metropolitana, Vol. VI, p. 
153. 
® Principles of Political Economy, Book I, Chap. IV, § 1. 
0 Fléments d'Economie Politique Pure, Lausanne, 4th ed., p. 177. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
	        
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