—^ I Capital a man's motive were the hope of en-
joying the interest of it himself. But there is



another motive almost equally powerful — in



secondly,
to his
family

i^mme^iatersome . cases more powerful — and that is the
hope of transferring or transmitting it to his
The bulk ifamily or to his children. Now four-fifths of
capi^i the Capital of the United Kingdom has been
b^those^^ created within the last eighty years. The
lSpioy?t°* total Capital in 1812 amounted to about
hM^Jomr^ ^ii?o thousand millions; now it amounts to
from^their ^Imost ten thousand millions. Therefore eight
winT^^ ^hoiisand millions of the Capital of this
country has been created by the Ability of the
parents and of the grandparents of those who
now possess it, supplemented by the Ability
of many who now possess it themselves. The
most rapid increase in it took place between
1840 and 1875. If we regard men of fifty as

the Capital would be consumed as well. The tendency, in
fact, of the arrangement would be neither more nor less than
this : to increase the consumption of the nation at the expense
of its savings, until at last all the savings had disappeared.
It would be impracticable also for many other reasons, to
discuss which here would simply be waste of time. It is
enough to observe that the fact of its having been suggested
is only a tribute to the insuperable nature of the diJB&culty it
was designed to meet



fathers who
created it ;



Digitized by



Google



THE BEQUEST OF CAPITAL 261

representing the present generation of those bookiv.
