Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/124

 104 much the greater appears to be the relative importance (taking, as far as possible, the same basis and method of calculation) of the 'living' to the 'dead' capital. It has already appeared in the course of this inquiry that the method of calculation adopted by Mr. Giffen is, in some respects, inconsistent. There seems to be no sufficient reason discoverable for the precise figures adopted for turning income into capital, nor for deciding what part of income ought to be considered as derived from capital proper, and what part from the management of the capital. Farmers' capital, for example, is calculated on the basis that it yields over 12 per cent. per annum—

O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Agricolas!

In conclusion, after this reiteration of the necessity of caution, an attempt may be made to give the appearance of numerical precision to the estimates of the national capital, living and dead. For the latter, Mr. Giffen makes a grand total of some £10,000 millions. Of this amount, however, the movable property in houses, &c., and the government and local property in the shape of buildings, docks, &c., to the amount of nearly £1,500 millions do not yield income, whilst another £500 millions of capital is invested abroad. Thus the dead capital in the country yielding income is about £8,000 millions, and the income yielded (deducting that from foreign investments) is about £500 millions.

Now it will be observed that the pure interest on £8,000 millions at 3 per cent. is £240 millions only, or not quite half the amount (i.e. £50O millions) put down as derived from dead capital. It follows, adopting the principle examined above, that the other 3 per cent., or thereabouts (or the other half of this income), must be put down to the the 'living capital' associated with the dead capital; in other words, if the capital (in the ordinary sense) of the country actually yields 6 per cent., whilst the rate of interest, pure and simple, is only 3 per cent., half this total yield is due to the labour of the capitalist. Now the capitalist (i.e. the species, not the individual) qua labourer, remains as much a permanent factor of the industrial resources of the country as the land itself, and therefore we may fairly assume that the aggregate value of the living capitalist (considered as an enduring species) is, on Mr. Giffen's showing (adequately interpreted), about equal to the aggregate value of his capital, i.e. about £8,000 millions.

In giving, however, an estimate of the national 'living' capital, it will be best to take the items in the order of their importance. The figures, as Mr. Giffen says of his comparatively