on the basis of immaterial assets and the medieval business perplexities and fictions relative to loans on interest. In both cases the business community has had to face untried exigencies together with a popular, traditional prejudice that discountenances the expedients by which these exigencies are to be met. The medieval pre•amption was that the management of productiTs goods ftnd tlw
U8 THE THEORY OP BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
The various descriptions of securities which in this way represent corporate capital are quotable on the market and are subject to market fluctuations ; whereby it comes about that the aggregate effective magnitude of the corporate capital varies with the tone of the market, with the manoeuvrea of the business men to whom ia delegated the management of the companies, and with the accidents of the seasons and the chances of peace and war. Accordingly, the amount of the busineaa capital of a given concern, or of the business community as a whole, varies in magnitude in great measure independently of the mechanical facts of industry, as was noted above in speaking of loan credit.' The market fluctuations in the amount
profits Bccnilng fruiu iheir uae must go to their users. (Ct. Aalilejr, Economic Historn, vol. I. cb. III., vol. II. ch. VI. j EndemaDU, Die nationalSkonomisdte Grundsilie dfr koHonittiichen Lelat.) The modern presumption is lliat tlie ni&nagemetit of the equipment and the g&luB from such niBiiageiDCDt must vest in the owners. The modern eiigeucies decide that the equipment must be managed by
I others than the owners and that proflu must largely accrue to those who financially manage the oonoem. The expedient by which this result is sought to be reached is the fiction of Intangible assets and the Impersonal, irrevocable credit eiUnaion covered by the preferred stock. The effect Is to dissociate ownership from mana^ment. This Is the