Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1Roscher, Wilhelm
History
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1
Roscher, Wilhelm
Economics
the destructive force of nature is greater in warmer than in colder
countries. (§ 209.)(204)
Section XXXIII.
External Nature.—Gifts Of Nature With Value In Exchange.
B. Those gifts of external nature which may become objects of private
property, and at the same time possess sufficient relative scarcity to
give them value in exchange, are either movable, and exhaustible in a
given place, or firmly connected with the land. The first category
embraces, for instance, such wild animals and plants as serve some useful
purpose, minerals, above all, fossil combustible matter(205)—the “black
diamonds,” coal, of which, with its canals, Franklin said that it had made
England what it is. The economical effect of their moveable character is
best seen, when the use made of an ordinary stratum of coal is compared
with that of a protracted subterranean fire in a coal mine.(206) The
latter can be directly useful only to those in its immediate vicinity.
Every lower layer of the burning coal would be less useful. An increase of
its actual power by accumulation in time or place is scarcely possible. In
all these respects, the movable coal is incomparably better adapted to the
satisfaction of man’s wants. It may be said that the capacity of heat for
drying, distilling, melting and hardening purposes, of imparting rapid
motion to heavy objects by the production of confined steam, is, at least,
a thousand times as great when a thousand bushels of coal are consumed as
when one is consumed. In most cases even the concentration of a large
quantity of coal will increase, the result not only absolutely, but
relatively.(207)(208)
Section XXXIV.
External Nature. (Continued.)
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