3oS THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



but it does not impoverish. But what are savings ? The surplus of 

 wealth made over wealth consumed. If it is turned into capital and 

 applied to increased production, the nation becomes richer ; if it is 

 expended on any luxury or any folly, the nation is where it is." These 

 declarations no one, we imagine, will dispute. 



But Prof. Price, in attributing business stagnation to extrava- 

 gance, to " over-spending and over-consuming," assumes the whole 

 question. He produces no evidence whatever in support of the attes- 

 tation. He does not show that consumption and expenditure have 

 exceeded production; he declares that capital has been impaired, but 

 gives no facts nor tigures in support of the affirmation. The whole 

 groundwork of his theory is boldly and flatly assumed, without the 

 slightest regard whether there is evidence to support it or not. It is 

 grossly illogical to assume that there is over-spending simply because 

 to casual observation there is high and extravagant living. A clasrs 

 may be extravagant ; a group of people may be impairing their 

 capital; but where are the figures to show that the English people as 

 a whole have been indulging in undue excesses, have reduced the suni 

 of their savings, " by which the means of producing are diminished ? " 

 There is absolutely nothing whatever upon which to base these as- 

 sumptions ! Prof. Price tells us in another place that "her (England's) 

 producing power, her fixed capital, her machinery, remain unchanged," 

 and that " she is compelled to shut up many of her factories, to dis- 

 miss or put on half-time immense numbers of her working-people, 

 because there are fewer buyers of the articles they manufacture." 

 This, he declares, is the very pinch of the matter. Indisputably it is, 

 but whether fewer buyers is the consequence of over-consumption or 

 of some other cause is also the pinch of the philosophy of the matter 

 and this let us ascertain, if it is possible to do so. 



How is it, if the savings of a country have been really impaired, 

 that capital at the same moment should be seeking investment at any 

 rate of interest it can command that all the financial centres are 

 choked with an excess of money, for which it is impossible to find 

 borrowers? Assuredly, loans at a low rate of interest imply an excess 

 of capital over the needs of trade or production; it shows that busi- 

 ness operations are restricted, for whatever reason, and have released 

 capital from its ordinary uses to such an extent that it accumulates 

 in trade-centres, seeking for borrowers that do not come. It can 

 make no difference whether we call money capital or not ; it cannot 

 afiect the heart of the question what it is that is oifered at one per 

 cent. gold, notes, assets of any kind whatever money may really 

 be, it would seem clear that, if over-consumption had impaired the 

 capital of the country, those individuals who could come into the 

 field as lenders would be enabled to dictate terms to the needy bor- 

 rowers. Over-consumption means a destruction of food, clothing, 

 coals, metals, etc., to an extent that impairs the reserves of these 



