30 ON CAPITAL 



used to set labour to work, and, at the same 

 time, part of the national capital. Then the 

 employer has also his share of the means of 

 creating that something to sell, or of providing 

 the necessaries for moving or selling it. That 

 also is capital, and may be machinery, shelter, 

 engines, trucks, shops, fittings, and so forth. 

 That capital, too, is part of the capital of the 

 employer, and of the country in which his work 

 is carried on. 



An employer must also have a goodwill ; that 

 is, his business must be a going concern, or it 

 is ineffective. A goodwill always costs a lot 

 of trouble and outlay to build up ; sometimes 

 it is partly the result of great expenditure in 

 advertising. It cannot by itself be exchanged, 

 but it adds considerably to the exchangeable value 

 of the business of which it is a part. Therefore 

 to the employer it is capital. It is also, in a 

 similar sense, capital to the State. Suppose an 

 employer to have done but little towards working 

 up a goodwill ; then he does a little business 

 instead of a great business. The greater the 

 business done by the whole of the employers in 

 a State, the greater the business of the State as 

 a whole. Therefore if some of the employers do 

 but little business, there is a diminution of the 

 business of the State as a whole. But though 

 some employers may in this way be making much 

 less profit than they might do, it does not follow 

 that the loss to the State is always exactly 

 equal to theirs. For it may happen that all the 

 workmen, in the particular trade concerned, are 



