COMPOUND CAPITAL. 527 



will. There was only an occasional market for large num 

 bers; and the form of payment was ordinarily not such as 

 rendered the amount easily available for commercial pur 

 poses. A money economy had to be well established; and 

 even then, so long as money consisted exclusively of coin, 

 large transactions were much restricted. Only along with 

 the rise of a credit-currency of one or other kind, could in 

 dividual capital or compound capital take any great devel 

 opments. 



Again, the form of partnership which joint-stock com 

 panies exhibit, had to be evolved out of simple partnerships, 

 having their roots in family-organizations and gild-organi 

 zations. Fathers and sons, and then larger groups of rela 

 tives carrying on the same businesses, naturally, on emerging 

 from the communal state, fell into one or other form of joint 

 ownership and division of profits. And we may safely infer 

 that the gild-organization afterwards evolved, wdiich, con 

 sidered in its general nature, was a partnership for purposes 

 of defence and regulation, further educated men in the ideas 

 and practices which the joint-stock system implies. Those 

 who constantly combined their powers in pursuit of certain 

 common interests, were led occasionally to combine their 

 individual possessions for common interests to form large 

 partnerships. 



A further needful remark is that these early companies 

 were not wholly industrial but were partly militant. Al 

 ready, when contemplating gilds, we have seen in them the 

 spirit of antagonism common to all social structures in their 

 days, when nobles fought against one another or joined 

 against the king, when the people of towns had to defend 

 themselves against feudal tyrannies, and when town was 

 against town. Like the gilds, the early combinations of 

 traders which foreshadowed companies, had defence and 

 aggression within their functions. Even now industry is in 

 a considerable measure militant, and it was then still more 

 militant. 



