ooo REN 
CannUTHERS.—On some of the Terms used in Political Economy. 27 
and others, the spendthrifts and prodigals, are dropping out of the list 
of capitalists, the average rate of interest tends, even when the population 
is stationary, to become lower, to approximate more closely to what will 
satisfy the more frugal part of the class. 
As population inereases, and it becomes necessary to cultivate inferior 
land in order to produce a sufficiency of food, the average effectiveness of 
labour tends to decrease, and the rents of the landlords to increase, the 
labourers can then, besides making new implements, produce little more than 
is sufficient to maintain themselves and to pay the landlords. The tempta- 
tion to expend wealth instead of to invest it becomes greater, and in the 
struggle for a position the smaller eapitalists are gradually pushed out of 
the ranks by the larger, who can, with less sacrifice, afford to invest a 
larger proportion of their capital. 
There is thus a tendency of wealth to fall into the hands of a few, and 
the extremes both of riches and poverty are generally found in the same 
community. 
In an extreme case, the number of capitalists may become so small that 
2 practical combination may occur amongst them to reduce the wages fund; 
and something like this appears to have taken place in the later years of 
Rome. 
Those who share the interest fund are the owners of money and land, 
the fund-holders, and those whose wealth, invested either in implements or 
wages, had been instrumental in its production. 
The owners of that large stock of wealth which is in the hands of the 
consumer, dwelling houses, furniture, clothes, ete., do? not share in it, nor 
do the owners of goods manufaetured for the use of capitalists. The velvet 
manufacturer, for instance, gets no interest on his velvet; it is the product 
of ** expended " wealth. As a rule, he would not himself be the consumer 
of his own manufactures; he has only manufactured them so as to 
procure other goods which he requires ; the velvet was made because other 
capitalists had so willed it, he knowing from former experience that they 
had done so, and that, in the same way, whatever he willed to be produced 
would be duly provided. If he intended to invest his wealth, others would 
provide the commodities which he requires to give to his workmen, and 
he will be able to get these in exchange for his velvet. He has, it is 
true, “ expended " his wealth in making a commodity for the use of 
capitalists, but by so doing has induced those capitalists to ** invest " theirs 
in making goods for the future use of his labourers ; by exchange each gets 
exactly what he wants, more conveniently than he could otherwise have 
done. If there had not been a prospect amounting to a certainty that this 
