Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

What is Capital?

1896; Oxford University Press; Volume: 6; Issue: 24 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2957184

1742-0350

Irving Fisher,

Political Economy and Marxism

every year there appears some new attempt to settle the disputed conceptioni, but, unifortunately, no authoritative result has as yet followed these attempts.On the contrary, many of them-only served to put inore combatants in the field and furnish more matter to the dispute.''A mere bibliography of the works whichl investigate the nature of capital would fill several pages.Many of their authors admit frankly that they are dissatisfied with their results, while others make the same confession indirectly by recasting their treatment of the whole subject in successive editionis of their works.2Out of the large accumulation of definitions which economic literature now contains, the following may be selected as chief types: TURGOT :-' Whoever. . .receives each year more value than he has need of spending, can put in reserve this surplus and accumulate it.These accumulated values (valeurs accitnttl4es) are what is called Capital . . .It is of absolutely no consequence whether this sum of values or this capital consists of a mass of metal or of anything else, since money represents every kilnd of value just as every kind of value represents money.'RAflexions sur la,formation et la distribution ,des Xrichesses, ?LIX.ADAM SMITH:-' [A man's] whole stock, therefore, is distinguished into two parts.That part which he expects is to afford him this revenue is called his.capital.'TVealth of Nations, Book II., Chapter i. RICARDO :-' Capital is that part of the wealth of a country which is employed in productioln and conlsists of food, clothing, tools, raw materials, machinery, etc., necessary to give effect to labour.' Principles of Political Econom,y, ?37. SENIOR :-' [Capital is] an article of wealth, the result of human exertion,.employed in the production or distribution of wealth.'Political Economny, Encyclojnedia Metrojpolitana, vol.vi., p. 153.JOHN STUART MILL:-'. . .besides the primary and universal requisites of production ... there is another . . .namely, a stock, previously accumulated, of the products of formiier labour.This accumulated stock is termed Capital . . .The distinction, then, between Capital and Not-capital, does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist-in his will to employ them for one purpose rather than another; and all property, however ill adapted in itself for the use of laboureys, is a part of capital, so soon as it, or the value to be received from it, is set apart for productive reinvestment.'