Many businesses have the reputation of paying a very large interest on the capital employed in them, when in reality they only pay the undertaker of them wages unusually high as compared with the amount of capital employed in them. Apothecaries, for instance, are called in some places "ninety-niners," because it is said that they earn 99 per cent. To discover the error, it would be sufficient to inquire the rate of interest on the capital borrowed by the apothecary on hypothecation, for instance, to enlarge his industry. But on the other hand, such a man who has more than any other manufacturer to do with the most delicate materials and with them in greater variety, requires proportionately greater caution and knowledge. Besides, as the guardian of the health and life of so many, and even as the comptroller of physicians, he should be a man who inspired universal and unqualified confidence.[179-7] By the rate of interest customary in a country, we mean the average rate of the interest on money-capital employed safely and without trouble. [Footnote 179-1: In the case of fixed capital, we generally speak of rent; in the case of circulating capital, of interest. If interest be conceived as a fractional part of the capital itself, the relation between the two is called "the rate of interest," most generally expressed as a percentage, and for one year.] [Footnote 179-2: In Russia, great depreciation of the assignats, and yet the people complained of a "want of money." (_Storch_, Handbuch, II, 15.) According to the San Francisco correspondent of the Times, Jan. 31, 1850, one per cent. a day discount was paid there! Compare _North_, Discourse on Trade, 11 seq.] [Footnote 179-3: Gross interest and net interest corresponding to the difference between gross product and net product.] [Footnote 179-4: This is the natural rent of capital in contradistinction to the stipulated rent. (_Rau_, Lehrbuch, I, § 223.)]