the commonplace conduct of the corporar tions' business trafHc. The capital employed, as well as the potential credit extension which it affords for the purposes of this higher busineaa traffic, is therefore in a peculiar degree intangible, and, in reapect of its amount, highly elusive.
Much the same is true of the good-will employed in this traffic. It is also in good part good-will which already serves the piu-poses of the commonplace buainess traffic of the corporations on whose securities the business man in question rests his solvency. So that in this higher business traffic the good-will engaged is also here turned to a secondary use. The business economies which are in this way made practicable by a reduplication of uses and made to inure to the greater business men's profit are of great magnitude ; but the magnificent additions which are in ttiis way made to the business community's capitalizable forces need scarcely be dwelt on here.
The elusive and flexuous character of the ele menta of wealth engaged, as well as the absence of
MODEEN BtTSINEBS CAPITAL 165
an ascertainable ordinary rate of earnings in this line of business, has led economists to speak of this traffic in vendible capital as a " speculative " business.* The mere buying and selling of stocks by outsiders for a rise or a decline is of course a speculative business ; it is a typical form of speculative business. But in so far as such buying and selling is carried on by the managers of the corporations whose securities are the subject of the traffic, and especially where the securities are bought and sold with a view to the