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 powell] SOCIOLOGY, OR THE SCIENCE OF INSTITUTIONS 4^9

stages of consumption. Entelic consumption is forever in prog- ress, and what it produced is finally consumed. Wealth is that which remains over and above relatively immediate consumption. Capital is that part of wealth which is used by its owners in gaining other wealth. Investment is that part of capital which is used by its owners in gaining other wealth as interest, while the capital itself is in other hands in order that it may produce prop- erty for these others. Endowment is that part of investment which is dedicated to perpetual purposes, which the endowers believe to be important to mankind and from which they do not expect gain for themselves. We call all of these things possessions.

Corporations

The several forms of possession which we have described lead severally to forms of corporations. We have already defined corporations and shown how a body of men may be incorporated by organizing for a purpose.

Assisting Corporations. — That form of possession which we have called property, in which the possession is held by the owner for consumption, gives rise to a class of corporations which we will call assisting corporations. They are necessarily temporary in their nature, but they are often organized. A group of forest men unite to make a circle hunt of. deer, or a driving-hunt of mountain sheep. Such a corporation would be- long to this class. The instance to which we have already alluded of the men united to build a log house would be another example. In frontier countries the men of a community often unite to build a bridge across a stream, or they unite to work the roads, or they unite to burn the grass-lands that they may be more valuable for the production of natural hay. These in- stances will suffice to set forth the nature of what we call assisting corporations.

Partnership Corporations. — Two or more men unite by form- ing a partnership to carry on a business together. They com-

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