-28 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
exchange would take place, the velvet consumer would have manufactured 
the velvet he required, and the velvet manufacturer would have made the 
commodities for workmen which he required. The essential part of invest- 
ment does not consist in what is actually manufactured by any capitalist, 
but in what he wills shall be manufactured for him, his will being equivalent 
to an order given to the makers. As long, however, as the velvet remains 
in the hands of the maker, he cannot invest it; he must exchange it for 
other goods, and, when exchanged, it comes into the user’s hands, when it 
is of just as little use to the working classes as the past services of the same 
user’s footman. 
It would be impossible to adjust the claims of the various capitalists 
without the help of a common measure of value, and throughout the world 
gold and silver have been adopted for the purpose. 
The capitalist measures his wealth in money; it is the quantity of gold 
he has, or which at current rates he could get, for the particular thing on 
which his claim to a share of future wealth is founded. The only capitalists 
who help, directly, in producing wealth are those who invest either in wages 
or implements, and the capital of each individual is measured by the 
current price of his implements or of the food and other things which he 
possesses. The money owner, indirectly, facilitates production, and his 
capital is measured by the gold he owns. The landlord and fund-holder do 
nothing towards production, but as they share in the product, their pos- 
sessions have, on that account, exchangeable value and therefore a market 
price. If the money value of the possessions of these five classes of 
capitalists were added together, it would form what might be called the 
capital of the country, if the term were not so likely to suggest other and 
different meanings. The share of the interest fund which any capitalist 
could apply to his own uses without lessening his future share bears the 
same proportion to the whole that his capital bears to the total capital of 
the country. 
The expression “ capital of the country " is often used to represent that 
part of the wealth of the community on which its prosperity and well being 
are supposed peculiarly to depend, but as in all other cases in which the 
word capital is used, there is great vagueness as to the meaning which is 
intended to be conveyed. 
In estimating its value, the price of land and of the national debt is 
often included, but the interest of these is simply a tax on the community 
at large, and cannot in any sense be said to further the general prosperity. 
Money also should not be included. It consists largely, and might 
consist entirely of paper, which costs nothing. Our just distrust of the 
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