consists of all the goods which have been newly produced within that time. The net[145-2] income is that portion of the former which remains after deducting the cost of production (§ 106), and which may therefore be consumed without diminishing the original resources. Only the new values incorporated in the new commodities make up the net income. Evidently, a great portion of what is considered in one business the cost of production is net income in a great many others; as for instance, what the person engaged in one enterprise in production has paid out in wages and interest on capital. By means of this outlay, a portion of his circulating capital is drawn by others as income, and, on the other hand, a portion of their original income is turned into a portion of his circulating capital.[145-3] Free income, I call that portion of net income which remains available to the producer after his indispensable wants have been satisfied.

An accurate kind of book-keeping which keeps these three elements of income separate is more generally practicable[TN 1] as civilization advances. We might call it the economic balance. Where commerce is very thriving it is even customary to provide by law that those classes who need it especially should have this species of book-keeping. People in a lower stage of cultivation, with their poetical nature, are unfriendly to such calculations.[145-4] [145-5] And where natural-economy (Naturalwirtschaft) or barter prevails, a book-keeping of this kind of any accuracy is scarcely practicable. The ratio which net income bears to gross income is a very important element to enable us to judge of the advantageousness of any method of production. If every producer should succeed in consequence of keeping his books in this manner, in determining exactly the cost to him of each of his products, this would be an economic progress similar to that of general spread of good chemical knowledge in the arts. On the amount of free income, on the other hand, depends all the higher enjoyment of life, all rational beneficence, and the progressive enrichment of mankind.[145-6]

[145-1] Similarly in Sismondi, N. P., II, 330, and Rau, Lehrbuch, I, § 71, a.

[145-2] Called by Hermann, loc. cit., simply income.

[145-3] This truth J. B. Say has exaggerated to the extent of claiming that gross and net income are one and the same so far as entire nations are concerned. (Traité, II, ch. 5; Cours pratique, III, 14; IV, 74.) But the gross profit of the entire production of any one year is much greater than the simultaneous net income of all the individuals engaged in it. This is accounted for by the fact that in such production an amount of circulating capital is invested which was saved from the net profit of previous economic times. Compare Storch, Nationaleinkommen, 90 ff. Kermann, loc. cit., 323 ff.

[145-4] In the East, a valuation by one's self of his property is considered a guilty kind of pride, usually punished by the loss of one's possessions. (Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, I, 72 ff.) See Samuel, 24, on the census made by David. The Egyptians, however, as may be inferred from their monuments, must have very early and very extensively felt the want of some kind of book-keeping such as we have mentioned. A very accurate sort of book-keeping among the more highly[TN 2] cultured Romans, with a daily memorandum and a monthly book with entries from the former (adversaria-tabula expensi et accepti). Compare Cicero, pro Roscio, com. 2, 3; pro Cluent, 30; Verr., II, 1, 23, 36. The Latin putare, from putus, pure, means: to make an account clear, and therefore corresponds to the American provincialism, "I reckon," i. e., I believe; and is a remarkable proof of a rigid method of keeping accounts. The Italian, or so-called double-entry method of book-keeping, which gives the most accurate information on the profit from every separate branch of business, became usual among the nations of modern Europe whose civilization was the first to ripen, about the end of the fifteenth century. Its invention is ascribed to the monk Luca Paciolo di Borgo S. Sepolcro.

In England, this kind of book-keeping is very gradually coming into use even among farmers, while Simond, Voyage en Angleterre, 2 ed., II, 64, Dunoyer, Liberté du Travail, VIII, 5, say, "it would in France be considered as ridiculous as the book-keeping of an apple vendor." In Germany, there have been for some time past, manufactories of commercial books. Besides, the remarkable difference brought out by the income tax in England between the exact statements made by large manufacturers, etc., and by those engaged in industry on a medium or small scale, bears evidence of the better way in which the former keep their accounts, the cause and effect of their better business in general. Compare Knies, in the Tübing. Zeitschr., 1854, 513. On the best mode of determining income, see Cazaux, Eléments d'Économie publique et privée, Livre, II. It is especially necessary to keep an account of the increase or diminution, even when accidental, of the value of the fixed capital employed.

[145-5] The Code de Commerce, I, art. 8, requires that every merchant should keep a journal, paged and approved by the authorities, showing the receipts and disbursements of each day, on whatever account, and also the monthly expenditures of his family. Besides, he is required to make a yearly inventory of his debits and credits, subscribe to it and preserve it. That such books were excellent judicial evidence may be