The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other EssaysVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays
Veblen, Thorstein
Economics; Science
The basis of this business enterprise on the higher plane is
capital-at-large, as distinguished from capital invested in a given line
of industrial enterprise, and it becomes effective when wealth has
accumulated in holdings sufficiently large to give the holder (or
combination of holders, the "system") a controlling weight in any group
or ramification of business interests into which he may throw his weight
by judicious investment (or by underwriting and the like). The pecuniary
magnate must be able effectually to engross the pecuniary initiative and
the business opportunities on which such a section or ramification of
the business community depends for its ordinary gains. How large a
proportion of the business community's capital is needed for such an
effectual engrossing of its capitalistic efficiency, in any given
bearing, is a question that cannot be answered in anything like absolute
terms, or even in relative terms of a satisfactorily definite kind. It
is, of course, evident that a relatively large disposable body of
capital is needed for such a purpose; and it is also evident, from the
current facts of business, that the body of capital so disposed of need
not amount to a majority, or anything near a majority, of the
investments involved,--at least not at the present relatively inchoate
phase of this larger business enterprise. The larger the holdings of the
magnate, the more effectual and expeditious will be his work of
absorbing the holdings of the smaller capitalist-employer, and the more
precipitately will the latter yield his assets to the new claimant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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