300 



REPORT — 1887. 



the (unmodified) Capital- Standard has not even this degree of definite- 

 ness. For, though with respect to embodied utilities it affords a determinate 

 and serviceable criterion, namely, the value (depending upon the durability) 

 of the material substratum ; with respect to incoi'poreal vendibles, to services 

 — as Professor Sidgwick has acutely pointed out — th(!re exists no definite 

 measure upon the principle under consideration.' Professor Nicholson 

 speaks of ' the labour of a British working man for a quarter of an hour.' 

 But why take the minimum divi.nhh of a day's work (if a quarter of an 

 hour is such) ? The largest multiple, rather than the least measure, would 

 seem to be recommended by analogy. Shall we say a year, or seven years 

 — the period of the oldest labour-contract on record— or the 2)eriod for 

 which soldiers sell their services ? In seeking the appropriate quantum, we 

 seem to float about on an infinite sea of arbitrariness, once we leave the 

 moorings of the Consumption-Standard. 



In short the Capital-Standard is a method, and a good method ; but 

 it has no claim to be regarded as the method : to be preferred before the 

 index based upon Consumption, or to constitute ' the principal standard.' 



In concluding this paper, the writer desires to acknowledge gratefully 

 that he is indebted for many important suggestions and corrections to 

 his colleagues, the fellow-members of this Committee, especially Professor 

 Foxwell. 



List of the Principal Authorities Cited. 



Airy, G. 



Bela Foldes, W. 



Bourne, S. . 

 Cross, W. 

 Dabos, H. 

 Dblmab, a. . 

 Drobisch, M. 



DUNKIN. E. . 



Edge worth, F. Y 



Engel, E. 

 Faucher, L. 

 forsell, h. . 



Foxwell, H. S. 



Geyer, r. 

 Gipfen, K. . 



Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, xxviii. 



Jahrb. f. Nat. Oekon. 1882 



Statistiscbe Monatssclirift (Vienna), 1881. 



Journal of the Statistical Society, 1879. 



Hta/ndard pound v. pound Sterling (185G). 



Etalon invariable de la Valeiir (1878). 



Soicnce of Mo7iey. 



Bericht. Kon. Sachs. Gesell. Wissenschaft (Leipzig), 

 1871. 



Jahrb. f. Nat. Oekon. 1871. 



Memoirs of the Astronomical Societ}', xxxii. 



Journal of the Statistical Society, 'Jubilee volume 

 (1885). 



Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, 1885. 



Metretikc (1887). 



Volkswirthschaftliche Zeitfrage. 



Vierieljahrsschrift fiir Volkswirthschaft, 1868. 



Ovldhruten (Stockholm, 188G). Translated into Eng- 

 lish. 



Irregularity of Em2)loyment and Fluctuation of Prices 

 (1886). 



Theorie und Praxig des Zettel-Banheesens, 1867. 



Parliamentary Keports, 1881-85. 



Essays in Finance. 



' It may be held, perhaps, that it is allowable to omit productive labour as being 

 paid out of the profluct (of. the fourteenth page, third paragraph, of Prof. Nicholson'.s 

 paper). Upon the principle of the Consumption- Standard it is of course proper only 

 to count finished products (or wages and materials, as representative of, but not 

 along with, finished products). But, in the case of a standard which is based upon the 

 ' aggregate of purchasable commodities in the widest .sense ' {op. cit.p. 257), it is not 

 at all clear why any commodity should be omitted because its 'result appears ' (op. 

 cit. p.2(i6) in the form of a finished product. B}' parity we should omit all unfinished 

 products. 



