Sec. 1] CAPITAL ACCOUNTS 67

mon unit, capital-value. Similarly, a quantum of property
rights existing at any instant is called capital-property,
and its value, capital-value. As a general term to include
both capital-instruments and capital-property, we may
employ capital-goods, a term first suggested by Professor
Clark.
We have, then, a definite antithesis between capitalgoods
 and capital-value, capital-goods being measured in
various units appropriate to the various goods, as, for instance,
 in bushels of wheat, gallons of oil, acres of land,
shares of stock, and capital-value being measured in a
single uniform manner, as in dollars or other convenient
units of value. The simple term “capital” is only employed
 as an abbreviation of either of the compound terms
“capital-goods ” and ““capital-value.” The business man
ordinarily uses the term “capital” in the sense of capitalvalue,
 and hereafter, unless it is otherwise specified, the
term “capital” will be understood in this sense. In
adopting this nomenclature we find ourselves in harmony
with Professors Clark, Fetter, Tuttle, and others referred to
in the preceding chapter.
We are now ready to consider the “capital accounts”
employed in business. It is strange that any treatment
of these accounts is generally omitted from economic
text-books. There seems to be no systematic study of capital
 accounts in any work on political economy.
© A capital account is a statement of the amount and
value of the property of a specific owner at any instant of
time. It consists of two columns, — the assets and the
liabilities. The liabilities of an owner are the debts and
other obligations owing to others; that is, they are the
property-rights of others for which such owner is responsible.
 The assets ov resources of the owner are all his property-rights,
 irrespective of his liabilities. = The assets
include both the property which makes good the liabilities,
and the property, if any, in excess of the liabilities. They