[291] "Royal" has been estimated at $5,000,000; "Spearmint" at $100,000,000. Mr. Guy C. Hubbard, of the Dry Goods Economist, New York, has given the writer some exceedingly interesting data regarding the value, as bankable collateral, of various trade-marks and firm names.
[292] Cf. our discussion of "The Reconciliation of Statics and Dynamics," infra.
[293] Significant in this connection, is the contention of recent students of American agriculture, that the great need is better organization and credit, facilities for marketing.
[294] Loc. cit., p. 89. Though Fisher does not conclude that banking is bad, he does conclude that gold mining is a parasitic and socially injurious industry, like the making of burglars' "jimmies." See his Elementary Principles of Economics, N. Y., 1912, pp. 499-500.
[295] Fisher does admit that the character of the banking system, and of the money system, will affect the volume of trade. "There have been times in the history of the world when money was in so uncertain a state that people hesitated to make many contracts because of the lack of knowledge of what would be required of them when the contract should be fulfilled. In the same way, when people cannot depend on the good faith or stability of banks, they will hesitate to use deposits and checks" (78). But there is nowhere an admission that the amount of bank-credit has any influence on the volume of trade, and there are repeated assertions, as already instanced in the text, that the volume of trade is quite independent of the volume of money and bank-credit.
[296] Part IV of this book gives a detailed analysis to the problems involved in these contrasts.
[297] This thesis was set forth by the present writer at the 1915 meeting of the American Economic Association. See Papers and Proceedings, Supplement to March, 1916, Amer. Econ. Rev., pp. 168-169.
[298] Cf. J. B. Clark, Distribution of Wealth, passim, and J. Schumpeter, Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, pp. 1-101. See also the present writer's "Schumpeter's Dynamic Economics," Pol. Sci. Quart., Dec, 1915, and A. S. Johnson, in Quart. Jour. of Econ., May, 1914.
[299] Principles, Bk. III, ch. xviii, par. 1.
[300] Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, p. 77. Since the foregoing was written, Professor W. C. Mitchell has presented an admirable historical paper on "The Rôle of Money in Economic Theory," in which he has multiplied instances, in the history of the science, of this contempt for money, or abstraction from money, in economic theory. He finds that Marshall, and some other later writers, have given much fuller recognition to the rôle of money, which he conceives of primarily as an institution which has rationalized economic behavior, by forcing upon the individual bookkeeping habits of thought. This still leaves it legitimate to abstract from money, however, for "pure theory." Highly important as is the "measure of values" function, it does not explain the main work which money, as money, actually does in economic life, nor need it be a source of value for money. Cf., infra, our chapter on "The Functions of Money." Professor Mitchell's paper will be found in "Papers and Proceedings," Supplement to the March, 1916, number of the Am. Econ. Rev.