Phear， Aryan Village， p.233) or the equivalent of their work for about a month； while the value of the machinery alone on a well equipped large modern arable farm amounts to ？ an acre (Equipment of the Farm， edited by J.C.Morton) or say a year's work for each person employed.They include steam engines， trench， subsoil and ordinary ploughs， some to be worked by steam and some by horse power； various grubbers， harrows， rollers， clod-crushers， seed and manure drills， horse hoes， rakes， hay-making， mowing and reaping machines， steam or horse threshing， chaff cutting， turnip cutting， hay-pressing machines and a multitude of others.Meanwhile there is an increasing use of silos and covered yards， and constant improvements in the fittings of the dairy and other farm buildings， all of which give great economy of effort in the long run， but require a larger share of it to be spent in preparing the way for the direct work of the farmer in raising agricultural produce.
4.For instance， improvements which have recently been made in some American cities indicate that by a sufficient outlay of capital each house could be supplied with what it does require， and relieved of what it does not， much more effectively than now， so as to enable a large part of the population to live in towns and yet be free from many of the present evils of town life.The first step is to make under all the streets large tunnels， in which many pipes and wires can be laid side by side， and repaired when they get out of order， without any interruption of the general traffic and without great expense.Motive power， and possibly even heat， might then be generated at great distances from the towns (in some cases in coal-mines)， and laid on wherever wanted.Soft water and spring water， and perhaps even sea water and ozonized air， might be laid on in separate pipes to nearly every house； while steam-pipes might be used for giving warmth in winter， and compressed air for lowering the heat of summer； or the heat might be supplied by gas of great heating power laid on in special pipes， while light was derived from gas specially suited for the purpose or from electricity； and every house might be in electric communication with the rest of the town.All unwholesome vapours， including those given off by any domestic fires which were still used， might be carried away by strong draughts through long conduits， to be purified by passing through large furnaces and thence away through huge chimneys into the higher air.To carry out such a scheme in the towns of England would require the outlay of a much larger capital than has been absorbed by our railways.This conjecture as to the ultimate course of town improvement may be wide of the truth； but it serves to indicate one of very many ways in which the experience of the past foreshadows broad openings for investing present effort in providing the means of satisfying our wants in the future.
5.Comp.Appendix A.
6.They "discount" future benefits (comp.Book III， ch.v， section 3) at the rate of many thousands per cent per annum.
7.Comp.III， v， section 2.
8.Comp.Principles of Political Economy， by Richard Jones.
9.It must however be admitted that what passes by the name of public property is often only private wealth borrowed on a mortgage of future public revenue.Municipal gas-works for instance are not generally the results of public accumulations.
They were built with wealth saved by private persons， and borrowed on public account.
10.Above， III， v.
11.The suggestion that the rate of interest may conceivably become a negative quantity was discussed by Foxwell in a paper on Some Social Aspects of Banking， read before the Bankers'
Institute in January， 1886.
12.Karl Marx and his followers have found much amusement in contemplating the accumulations of wealth which result from the abstinence of Baron Rothschild， which they contrast with the extravagance of a labourer who feeds a family of seven on seven shillings a week； and who， living up to his full income， practises no economic abstinence at all.The argument that it is Waiting rather than Abstinence， which is rewarded by Interest and is a factor of production， was given by Macvane in the Harvard Journal of Economics for July， 1887.
13.See also VI， vi.It may however be observed here that the dependence of the growth of capital on the high estimation of "future goods" appears to have been over-estimated by earlier writers； not under-estimated， as is argued by Prof.B鰄m-Bawerk.
