The Kinetic Theory of Economic Crises 23 



person worth so and so much is looked upon as the possessor of 

 something permanent which can not be impaired except by physi- 

 cal destruction. But the kinetic idea looks on a fortune as a 

 flowing fluid like a river, that can not be grasped, and can only 

 be kept in channel with unwearied pains. Evidently the kineto- 

 physical analogy is more psychic than the stato-physical. The 

 latter must be used in those lower forms of reality that are them- 

 selves static, while the former indicates a kinetic reality ; the 

 kinetic reality is the more psychic (cf. Ill, infra). 



A few illustrations of the materialistic conjuncture and its rela- 

 tion to progress may help to clear up the subject. The year 1875 

 was a turning-point in English agriculture, due to importation 

 of American and Indian grain. The consequent fall in the value 

 of agricultural land was accompanied by a severe depression, 

 which was relieved 1880-83 by the revival in English shipping 

 due to the importation into Europe of grain largely from the 

 countries mentioned. It was not till the end of 1883 that agri- 

 cultural depression was united with transportation depression so 

 as to produce nearly a state of general commercial and industrial 

 crisis. The falling off in the demand for rails from the United 

 States due to depression in' that country increased the English 

 depression. Was this quasi-crisis indicative of a move upward 

 or downward? The only test is the psychic one. Agricultural 

 depression was caused by the opening up of new and distant 

 sources — crop areas. This was made possible by inventions in 

 ship and railroad building. The overcoming economically of 

 obstacles of space and time is the test of a more psychic con- 

 juncture; in other words, the conjuncture is more psychic when 

 man is technically less impeded in space and time, and hence has 

 a wider scope for his economical activities. India was little avail- 

 able economically in earlier periods — for the European market. 

 Argentina had been hitherto unsown. America had but just 

 filled up the central west. Railroad and shipping rates were 

 rapidly falling. 



Here was a new environment — because physically wider — 

 partly of virgin soil, but embracing also the oldest country, 

 India. The question of materialistic or psychic conjuncture is 



23 



