So much for the teaching of ecclesiastical and ethical authorities. What are the objective reasons in favour of the capitalist's claim to interest? In this chapter we consider only the intrinsic reasons, those arising wholly out of the relations between the interest-receiver and the interest-payer. Before taking up the subject it may be well to point out the source from which interest comes, the class in the community that pays the interest to the capitalist. From the language sometimes used by Socialists it might be inferred that interest is taken from the labourer, and that if it were abolished he would be the chief if not the only beneficiary. This is incorrect. At any given time interest on producing capital is paid by the consumer. Those who purchase the products of industry must give prices sufficiently high to provide interest in addition to the other expenses of production. Were interest abolished and the present system of private capital continued, the gain would be mainly reaped by the consumer in the form of lower prices; for the various capitalist directors of industry would bring about this result through their competitive efforts to increase sales. Only those labourers who were sufficiently organised and sufficiently alert to make effective demands for higher wages before the movement toward lower prices had got well under way, would obtain any direct benefit from the change. The great majority of labourers would gain far more as consumers than as wage earners. Speaking generally, then, we may say that the capitalist's gain is the consumer's loss, and the question of the justice of interest is a question between the capitalist and the consumer. The intrinsic or individual grounds upon which the capitalist's claim to interest has been defended are mainly three: productivity, service, and abstinence. They will be considered in this order. _The Claims of Productivity_