Now the factor which has enabled production to become indirect and
long-spread-out is capital. Capital consists of all the intermediate
things which men use in producing economic goods. It includes buildings,
materials, machinery, and the money which pays the wages of the workers.
The use of capital saves labor by enabling a given amount of it to
achieve vastly better results than would be the case if capital did not
exist. Capital is really stored-up labor in the form of economic goods
which have been produced but not consumed. In other words it is the
result of saving. If everything that the world produces were at once
consumed, there would be no capital.
[Sidenote: How the rate of interest is determined.]
=Interest on Capital.=—Interest is the return paid to the owner of
capital for its part in production. It is his recompense for saving his
economic goods instead of consuming them. Productive capital is
frequently in the form of material things but its value is reckoned in
terms of money and a certain per cent per annum is paid on this value in
the form of interest. Were it not so, there would be no strong
inducement for men to save, and capital would not be forthcoming. The
rate of interest depends, in a general way, upon the interaction of
demand and supply. If the demand for capital exceeds the supply, the
rate of interest will ordinarily go up, and _vice-versa_. But this does
not always take place because capital is sometimes obtained at a fixed
rate for a long period, and this rate, whatever it is, remains the same
for the duration of such period.
[Sidenote: Why organization is essential.]
=Organization and Management as a Factor in Production.=—When labor and
capital are brought into play upon natural resources the production of
economic goods is the outcome. But these three factors are in separate
hands and have to be brought into co-operation. Owners of lands, mines,
and forests control the natural resources; another class possesses the
capital; a third is in a position to furnish the labor. Organization
brings all three into joint action for the production of wealth.
[Sidenote: The forms of organization.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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