of capital proceed on variationB of confidence on the part of the investors, on current belief as to the probable policy or tactics of the business men in control, on forecasts as to the seasons and the tactics of the guild of politicians, and on the indeterminable, largely instinctive, shifting movements of public sentiment and apprehension. So that under modem conditions the magnitude of the business capital and its mutations from day to day are in great measure a question of folk psychology rather than of material fact.
But in this uncertain and shifting relation of the business capital to the material equipment there are one or two points which may be set down a3 fairly secure. Since the credit instruments involved in modem capitalization may be used as collateral for a further credit extension, as noted in the chapter on loan credit,' the aggregate nominal capital in hand at a given time is, normally, larger by an appreciable amount than the aggregate value of the material properties involved ;^ and at the same time the current value of these material properties is also greater than it would be in the absence of that credit
■ Inerui
Tsrjr In magnitude, or even disappeu, when a ooncem entera » larger coalition ; «l80, on the same general bead, W. F. Willoughby, " Integntion at Industry Iq the United States," IbU.. November 1902.
cap' = cap H — -> cap, In whicb cap' is tbe Domioal capital, aa IneruBed by the credit element — ^