Essays on Political Economy by Frédéric Bastiat
page 25 of 212 (11%)
page 25 of 212 (11%)
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such a service without receiving anything from you in return: therefore,
if you wish for my plane, independently of the entire restoration already bargained for, you must do me a service which we will now discuss; you must grant me remuneration. And this was done thus:--William granted a remuneration calculated in such a way that, at the end of the year, James received his plane quite new, and in addition, a compensation, consisting of a new plank, for the advantages of which he had deprived himself, and which he had yielded to his friend. It was impossible for any one acquainted with the transaction to discover the slightest trace in it of oppression or injustice. The singular part of it is, that, at the end of the year, the plane came into James's possession, and he lent it again; recovered it, and lent it a third and fourth time. It has passed into the hands of his son, who still lends it. Poor plane! how many times has it changed, sometimes its blade, sometimes its handle. It is no longer the same plane, but it has always the same value, at least for James's posterity. Workmen! let us examine into these little stories. I maintain, first of all, that the _sack of corn_ and the _plane_ are here the type, the model, a faithful representation, the symbol of all capital; as the five litres of corn and the plank are the type, the model, the representation, the symbol of all interest. This granted, the following are, it seems to me, a series of consequences, the justice of which it is impossible to dispute. 1st. If the yielding of a plank by the borrower to the lender is a |
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