Pagina 718 van 2651

Secondly, it may be employed in the improvement of land, in the

purchase of useful machines and instruments of trade, or in such

like things as yield a revenue or profit without changing

masters, or circulating any further. Such capitals, therefore,

may very properly be called fixed capitals.

Different occupations require very different proportions between

the fixed and circulating capitals employed in them.

The capital of a merchant, for example, is altogether a

circulating capital. He has occasion for no machines or

instruments of trade, unless his shop or warehouse be considered

as such.