supplied with capital is a question which need not be debated until the
possibility of such a system becomes a matter of practical politics.

For our present purpose it is enough to have shown that the capital,
which is the stock-in-trade of finance, is not a fraudulent claim to
take toll of the product of industry, but an essential part of the
foundation on which industry is built. A man can only become a
capitalist by rendering services for which he receives payment, and
spending part of his pay not on his immediate enjoyment, but in
establishing industry either on his own account or through the agency of
someone else to whom be lends the necessary capital. Before any industry
can start there must be tools and a fund out of which the workers can be
paid until the work that they do begins to bring in its returns. The
fund to buy these tools and pay the workers can only be found out of
the proceeds of work done or services rendered. Moreover, there is
always a risk to be run. As soon as the primitive savage left off making
everything for himself and took to doing some special work, such as
arrow making, in the hope that his skill, got from concentration on one
particular employment, would be rewarded by the rest of the tribe who
took his arrows and gave him food and clothes in return, he began to run
the risk that his customers might not want his product, if they happened
to take to fishing for their food instead of shooting it. This risk is
still present with the organizers of industry and it falls first on the
capitalist. If an industry fails the workers cease to be employed by it;
but as long as they work for it their wages are a first charge which has
to be paid before capital gets a penny of interest or profit, and if the
failure of the industry is complete the capital sunk in it will be gone.

FOOTNOTES: