THE PIONEERS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY 39 



Farmington canals were estimated to cost about $500,000 

 each, and the others ranged from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. 



From these facts it is safe to conclude that corporations 

 before 1830 were not able to raise any large amounts of capi- 

 tal without public assistance. This was not due to a lack of 

 adequate supplies of capital, as we have seen. The difficulty 

 related rather to the means of securing control of the existing 

 supply, — of inducing its owners to invest it in the various en- 

 terprises of the day. -The nature of that difficulty will be 

 apparent if we consider for a moment the position and charac- 

 ter of the persons who did the saving and supplied the capi- 

 tal for the community at that time. So far as domestic 

 capital was concerned, there was no large class of persons, 

 who on account of large incomes were willing to devote a 

 part of their savings to risky investments or to those from 

 which a return must be slow as well as uncertain. Such capi- 

 tal as existed was chiefly in the hands of small savers, who 

 were naturally more interested in security than in the chance 

 of large returns. There was no doubt a certain number of 

 persons affected by the gambling spirit, as the prevalence of 

 lotteries goes to show. There was also a considerable number 

 of speculators pure and simple, — men who buy and sell, mak- 

 ing or losing from the fluctuations of prices. But there were 

 very few speculative investors, — men who devote a part of 

 their savings to investments involving great risk and requir- 

 ng long periods of time to yield a return. This latter type of 

 persons is very numerous in this country at the present time ; 

 and, as a result, there is a great amount of savings constantly 

 seeking new and uncertain investments. The existence of this 

 speculative fund renders it certain that every project which 

 offers even a remote chance of success, be it either the expan- 

 sion of an old industry or the establishment of a new one, will 

 receive a thorough trial. In the early part of the nineteenth 

 century such persons were comparatively few. Consequent^ 

 there was no such speculative fund, and no such assurance 

 that promising industrial experiments would be tried. It is 

 this difference which made the argument for protection to 

 infant industries have so great force in the time of Hamilton 

 and Clay, and gives it so little in our own time. 



