Readings in Money and Banking: Selected and Adapted — John Shaqi
Readings in Money and Banking: Selected and AdaptedPhillips, Chester Arthur
General
Readings in Money and Banking: Selected and Adapted
Phillips, Chester Arthur
Banks and banking; Banks and banking -- United States; Money
Two other general propositions respecting profits are suggested. First,
other things being equal, profits varied inversely as the average wage
per day paid to employees. This conclusion follows directly from the
fact that the money wages of men earning $1-$1.49 per day before the
perturbation of prices increased in higher ratio than those of men
earning $1.50-$1.99; that the wages of the latter class increased more
than the wages of men in the next higher wage class, etc. Second, other
things being equal, profits varied directly as the complexity of the
business organization. By this proposition is meant, for example, that a
farmer who paid money rent, used borrowed capital, and employed hired
labourers, made a higher percentage of profits than a farmer of whom any
one of these suppositions did not hold true. If, as has been argued, the
increase of profits was made at the expense of laborers, landlords, and
capitalists, it follows that that _entrepreneur_ fared best whose
contracts enabled him to exploit the largest number of these other
persons.
PROFITS IN AGRICULTURE
The farmers of the loyal states were among the unfortunate producers
whose products rose in price less than the majority of other articles,
and from this standpoint they were losers rather than gainers by the
paper currency. Of course, it is possible that the farmer's loss from
this inequality of price fluctuations might be more than offset by his
gains at the expense of labourers, landlord, and lending capitalist.
But there is good reason for believing that the increase of the
_entrepreneur's_ profits in the latter fashion was less in farming than
in any other important industry. This conclusion seems to follow from
the proposition that, other things being equal, profits varied directly
as the complexity of business organization. The American farmers of the
Civil War were in a large proportion of cases their own landlords,
capitalists, and laborers. So far as this was true, they had few
important pecuniary contracts with other persons of which they could
take advantage by paying in depreciated dollars. Of those farmers who
hired labor very many paid wages partly in board and lodging--an
arrangement which threw a considerable part of the increased cost of
living upon them instead of upon their employees. Finally, the renting
farmer probably gained less on the average from the contract with his
landlord than tenants of any other class, because in a majority of cases
the rent was not a sum of money, but a share of the produce. While,
then, the general effect of the paper standard was in the direction of
increasing profits, it seems very doubtful whether farmers as a whole
did not lose more than they gained because of the price disturbances.
STATISTICAL EVIDENCE REGARDING PROFITS
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