Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 2Roscher, Wilhelm
General
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 2
Roscher, Wilhelm
Economics
The most noticeable exception to this rule is only an apparent one. The
revenue (_Nutzung_) derived from the use of capital must not be
confounded with its partial restoration.[180-3] Thus, for instance, the
rent of a house, if the entire capital is not to be sooner or later
consumed entirely, must embrace, besides a payment for the use of the
house, a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of repairing it, and even
to effect a gradual accumulation of capital for the purpose of
rebuilding. The risk attending the investment of capital plays a very
large part and must be taken into special consideration. If the risk in
a business be so great that ten who engage in it succeed and ten fail,
the returns of the former, which are more than double those usual in the
country, in reality pay, when the ten who failed are taken into the
account, only the rate of interest customary in the country. The risk
may depend on the uncertainty of the person to whom the capital is
confided;[180-4] on the uncertainty of the branch of business in which
it is intended to employ it,[180-5] or on the uncertainty of the
commercial situation in general; but especially may it depend on the
uncertainty of the laws.[180-6] The temporary lying idle of capital, for
instance, in dwelling houses at bathing places during the winter season,
increases the rate of interest much more than it does the rate of wages
in the corresponding case of the lying idle of labor; for the reason
that there is something pleasurable in the repose of the latter.
(_Senior._) On the whole, the vanity of mankind has an effect upon the
rate of interest similar to that which it has on the rate of wages. (See
§ 168.) It causes the small chances of loss to be estimated below their
real value, and the extraordinary chances of gain above it.[180-7]
[Footnote 180-1: Compare _Harris_, Essay on Money and Coins,
13. _Per contra, Ganilh_, Dictionnaire analyt., 107.
According to _Hermann_, Staatsw. Untersuchungen, 147, a
product which withdraws an amount of capital = _a_ from the
immediate use of its owner for _n_ months must bring in in
its price a surplus, over and above the outlay of capital,
which would bear the same ratio to the profit from another
product which employed an amount of capital = _b_, _m_
months, that _an_ bears to _bm_.]
[Footnote 180-2: The class of bankers, etc. which precisely
in the higher stages of civilization is one so highly
developed, is called upon to adjust these differences.]
[Footnote 180-3: Life annuities and annual revenues, _à
fonds perdu_.]
[Footnote 180-4: Hence, for instance, good men engaged in
industrial pursuits who employ borrowed capital productively
pay lower interest than idlers who are suspected of desiring
only to spend it in dissipation. High house-rent usually
paid by proletarians.]
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