productive labor rather than as a profit on investment.' In industrial pursuits, as distinct from mercantile traffic proper, profits apparently come to figure as a regular and ordinary incident only when the industries come to be carried on on a mercantile basis by relatively large employers working with hired labor.
This orderly increase is, of course, taken account of in terms of the money unit. The "ordinary" rate of profits in business is looked upon as a matter of course by the body of business men. It is part of their common-sense view of affairs, and is therefore a normal phenomenon.* Gain, they feel, is normal, being the purpose of all their endeavors; whereas a loss or a shrinkage in the values invested is felt to be an untoward accident which does not belong in the normal course of business, and which requires particular explanation. The normality, or matter-of-oourse character, of profits in the modem view is well shown by the position of those classical economists who are inclined to
1 Cf., r..g., Mun. EngUnd'f Trearurt, parlicularlj eh. II. ; Aghley, Econom'e HiHary and Theory- bk. II. cb. VI. pp. 391-307. Thia, esBeDtiall; handicraft, presumption is reflected even in the closBlcal economiBis, who feel & moral neceBsitj of explaining protlto on gome basli of productivity, or even of norkmanahip in aome Bophiaticaled ■enne. The whole disciuwion of the doctrine of Wages of Superintendence will serve to illustrate the esse ; the point is well shown in Mr. DavidRon's article on "Earning of Management" in Palgrave's Dietionary of Poliliml Ecnnomy.
- The " ordinary " rate, of course, differs in detail from one line of buBtuBH to another, u well t» from place to place.