Skc. 6] CAPITAL 63

in a joint stock company, it consists of the total sum of the contributions
 of the shareholders. b. Pol. Econ. The accumulated wealth of
an individual, company, or community, used as a fund for carrying
on fresh production; wealth in any form used to help in producing
more wealth.

In business manuals and articles on practical accounting
 we find that capital is employed in the sense of the
net value of a man’s wealth. Thus L. W. Lafrentz, speaking
 of the difference between assets and liabilities," states:
“The residue will be the net worth of the proprietor —
the capital of the proprietor.”
Inquiry among business men also reveals the fact that
in business usage all wealth is included in the term “capital.”
It would astonish a business man to have an economist
strike out from his assets as non-capital his raw materials,
as would Kleinwiichter; his perishable goods, as would
Hermann; his fuel, as would Walras; or, above all, his
land, as would most of the classical economists. That land
is capital, business men all emphatically declare. As the
manufacturer would express it, land is the very first thing
into which the “paid-in” capital of a new concern is converted.
 Again, business men maintain that the junction
of any given wealth has nothing to do with its classification
as capital. It need not be “for production” nor “for sustaining
 laborers,” nor for any particular object whatever.
The only point on which some of them hesitate is whether
or not all articles in consumers’ hands are capital. The
reason for this hesitation may possibly be found in the customs
 of bookkeeping. As one business man expressed it,
“Capital is simply a bookkeeping term.” Consequently
the business man naturally associates the term with his
shop and not his home, for he keeps a balance sheet in the
former and not in the latter ; but, once given a balance sheet,
14 Beonomic Aspects of Accounting and Auditing,” Journal of
Accountancy, April, 1906, p. 482. Cf. Victor Branford, Economics and
Accountancy, London (Gee & Co.), 1901, and Charles E. Sprague, The

Accountancy of Investment, New York (Business Publishing Co.), 1904,
p. 12.