ABSTRACT
The idea implicit in the discussion of problems of this sort is that there is a quantitatively determined fund of capital, which can be distributed and redistributed in any way between the different lines of production without changing its aggregate value. And as people shall see, it is not even possible to attach a definite sense to this phrase if people try to apply it to a changing world, independently of why we want to do so. We are not interested in its magnitude because there is any inherent advantage in any particular absolute measurement of capital, but only because, ceteris paribus, a change in this magnitude would be a cause of a change in the income to be expected from it, and because in consequence every change in its magnitude may be a symptom for such a change in the really relevant magnitude, income.
