H^ 208 THE THEORY OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
^V It is true, cases occur, from time to time, of
^1 transactioDS of some appreciable magnitude in
H which some degree of recognition of this fact ia
V met with. Some large business man may yet rise
to the requisite level of intelligence, and may comprehend and imreservedly act upon the fact that the money base line of business trafSc at large is thoroughly unstable and may readily be manipulated, and it wUl be worth going out of one's way to see the phenomenal gains and the picturesque accompaniments of such a man's work. Parenthetically it may be remarked that if such a degree of insight should become the common property of the business community, business traffic as now carried on might conceivably collapse through loss of its base line. What ia yet lacking in order to , such a consummation is perhaps nothing more serious than that business capital be reduced to a u j somewhat more thorough state of intangibility tfy ki ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ attained, and that does not seem a >^0 ' remote contingency.'
ebsncter of the squipment Which comes near Baying that (he larg« fonuues originftte in such cbangea of the bue line, — trom which It follows that the larger accretioQH to the volume of capital are of this origlD. The luge profits are mtde In the form of caplUI, nblcb ia ■oqulred by virtue of a price variation. See foot-note, pp. 168-170,
■ A subfltantial move in this direction would be tbat advocated b; Bdr. F. S. SteWon before the New York Bar AMOclalion, and reiterated before the United States Indiutri&l Commlsaion : "To permi'. the formation ol a distinct c!a«s of butiineu stock corporations whose capital Mock may be IsBued as repreaentin); proportional parti ot the whole e^tital without any Domlnal or money value." Tbe market value