38 ON CAPITAL 



transportation work done is as great and as 

 valuable as it was, and the dividends paid are 

 pretty nearly as good. 



It is easy to say why the national capital is, 

 as a rule, not altered by the movements of the 

 capital of individuals, though, of course, it some- 

 times is. The foreign stocks and shares now 

 so largely bought, when British subjects send 

 their capital abroad, do not represent British 

 capital now going abroad : they represent British 

 capital that went abroad, as it did in immense 

 quantities, in past years ; and of course capital 

 that goes abroad goes only once, in the form 

 of exports. 



The difference between national and personal 

 capital is aptly illustrated by money itself. To 

 any individual citizen a banknote or a cheque is 

 the same as capital, provided the note was issued 

 by a sound bank, or the cheque is signed by a 

 man of means. As far as the State is concerned, 

 neither banknote nor cheque are capital. Both 

 are mere promises to pay in money on demand. 

 When the demand is met capital is merely 

 transferred from one pocket to another ; the State 

 is neither richer nor poorer for the transaction ; 

 yet the individual who receives payment certainly 

 is so. 



Money, like any other commodity, is capital, 

 but is national capital only when in the form 

 of gold. 



To sum up broadly the nature of the national 

 capital : it consists, first, of all the skill-capital 

 of its workers, so long as they continue to work 



