capital generally plays a greater part than labor; and where this labor can be subjected to provisions which may be accurately laid down beforehand; as, for instance, in the case of docks, insurance companies, banks,(541) etc. Banks, then, become real reservoirs of capital, provided they are properly and judiciously established and managed; real reservoirs which receive in one place the capital which is superfluous elsewhere, in order to supply some other place with that which is necessary to it. The more confidence increases, the more are even the smallest driblets of capital awakened from their slumbers, and made active and productive. It is only by means of credit that the help of foreign capital can be obtained for home production. Indeed, credit, considered as an exchange of probable future goods against actually existing goods, is one of the principal functions of the temporal solidarity of the economy of nations. (_Schäffle_.) Without credit, there would be very little place for speculation proper. We may see how the possibility of giving and receiving credit promotes wealth, by contemplating the poorer classes, whose poverty, both as cause and effect, is very closely related to the absence of credit. And here we have a suggestion of the reverse to the bright side of the picture of credit, analogous to that mentioned in § 62 of the coöperation of labor, viz.: that it tends to intensify inequality among men. The man who is distinguished by the amount of his wealth, or by his position is naturally known to a much wider circle than others are. From which it follows, that he may, by the way of credit, increase his power, already so much greater in the economic world, by a much larger multiplier.(542) Hence, it need not surprise us, that the great obtain credit from those in a lower position, at least as frequently as they give them credit in turn. On the side of the creditor, the possibility of making loans is a powerful incentive to frugality. Were there no credit, those who were not in a condition to employ their capital productively would make savings only within very narrow limits.(543) Section XCI. Debtor Laws.