Only _Ricardo_ himself (ch. 21) and his school postulate altogether too unconditionally that their wants would always coincide with the minimum of maintenance or support. Thus, for instance, _J. S. Mill_, Principles, IV, ch. 3, 4. However, _Mill_ instead of _Ricardo's_ "wages" employs the better expression, "cost of labor." _Senior_ teaches that the distribution of the aggregate result between laborers and capitalists depends on the anterior course of both classes: on the value of the capital previously employed by capitalists to produce the means of satisfying working men's wants, and on the number of workmen which the previous laboring population have brought into existence. (Outlines, 188 ff.) Concerning _von Thünen's_ vain attempt at a general formula, see _supra_, § 173. _Fourier's_ idea that 5/12 of the product should be distributed among labor, 3/12 among talent, and 4/12 among capital, is entirely baseless. (N. Monde, 309 ff.) _Considérant_, Destinée sociale, 192 ff. As early a writer as _H. Boden_, Fürstliche Machtkunst, 1700 and 1740, 42, came strikingly near the truth. According to him, a low rate of interest is produced by four circumstances: surplus capital, a dearth of landed estates, a want of credit and exact justice, and lastly, the heavy taxation of capital.] [Footnote 183-5: Thus, in the last century, Spanish capitalists loaned capital readily to sure commercial companies, at from 2 to 3 per cent. per annum. (_Bourgoing,_ Tableau de l'Espagne, I, 248.) The contemporary low rates of interest in Hannover, _Büsch_, Geldumlauf, VI, 4, 12, endeavors to explain by the absence of opportunities for investment, as no one dared to loan to any extent on fiefs or on the land of the peasantry, and because there was no law governing bills of exchange, etc.] SECTION CLXXXIV. HISTORY OF THE RATE OF INTEREST.