PRIVATE CAPITAL 35 



nearly so great as the mobility of the capital 

 of an individual. So often do people speak of 

 national capital when, in reality, they are think- 

 ing of capital belonging to individual members 

 of the nation ; and so important and interesting 

 is the difference between national and individual 

 or private capital, that a few sentences will be 

 devoted to it. 



A great railway system consists of land, per- 

 manent way, rolling stock, stopping and collect- 

 ing stations, stores, and a built-up business. 

 That business is the transfer from place to place 

 of passengers and goods ; it is for that transfer 

 business the railway system exists ; all its stock, 

 all its lines are devoted to that business — a 

 business which in that special district can be 

 carried on, and is continuously carried on, only 

 by that particular railway system in the country 

 in which it exists. This system is therefore a 

 part of the national capital which cannot be 

 moved out of the country where it is. 



Let us suppose two such railway systems, one 

 in Great Britain, one in Argentina ; each system 

 forming a part of the national capital of Great 

 Britain and Argentina respectively, each system 

 doing its work of transportation in its own 

 country, and each system fixed in its own country 

 and not capable of being moved from it. 



Let us suppose each railway system to be the 

 property of a company. Then each shareholder 

 owns some definite part of his railway, and that 

 part of the railway is his capital, or a portion 

 of his capital. But a shareholder may cease to 



