I have spoken thus far as though in creating Capital a man’s motive were the hope of enjoying the interest of it himself. ◆¹ But there is another motive almost equally powerful—in some cases more powerful—and that is the hope of transferring or transmitting it to his family or to his children. ◆² Now four-fifths of the Capital of the United Kingdom has been created within the last eighty years. The total Capital in 1812 amounted to about _two thousand millions_; now it amounts to almost _ten thousand millions_. Therefore _eight thousand millions_ of the Capital of this country has been created by the Ability of the parents and of the grandparents of those who now possess it, supplemented by the Ability of many who now possess it themselves. The most rapid increase in it took place between 1840 and 1875. ◆³ If we regard men of fifty as representing the present generation of those actively engaged in business, we may say that their grandfathers made _two thousand millions_ of our existing Capital, their parents _four thousand millions_, and themselves _two thousand millions_. It will thus be easily realised how those persons who own Capital which they leave others to employ, and which personally they have had no hand in making, are for the most part relatives or representatives of the very persons who made it, and who made it actuated by the hope that their relations or representatives should succeed to it. ◆⁴ All history shows us that one of the most important and unalterable factors in human action is a certain solidarity of interest between men—even selfish men—and those nearly connected with them; and just as parents are, by an almost universal instinct, prompted to rear their children, so are they prompted to bequeath to them—or, at all events, to one of them—the greater part of their possessions. We might as well try to legislate against the instincts of maternity, as against the instinct of bequest. Therefore, that the ownership of much of the Capital of the country should be separated from the actual employment of it, is a necessary result of the forces by which it was called into existence; and in proportion as such a result was made impossible in the future, the continued operation of these forces would be checked. [Sidenote ◆1 Further, it is impossible to prevent interest being both offered and taken for the use of Capital.]