shown by Italian statutes of the fourteenth century. (Martens, Ursprung des Wechschrechts, 23.) Those of Germany even in 1449. (Hirsch, Danziger Handelsgeschichte, 232.)

[145-6] Importance of the so-called "transferring to credit," where a business man considers his business as an independent entity and as distinct from himself.

SECTION CXLVI.

NATIONAL INCOME.—ITS STATISTICAL IMPORTANCE.

Among the most important[146-1] but also the most difficult objects of statistics, that book-keeping of nations, is national income. In estimating it, we may take our starting point from the goods which are elements of income, or from the persons who receive them as income.[146-2]

In the former case the gross national income consists:

A. Of the raw material newly obtained in the country.

B. Of imports from foreign countries, including that which is secured by piracy, as war-booty, contributions, etc.

C. The increase of values which industry[146-3] and commerce add to the first two classes up to the time of their final consumption.

D. Services in the narrower sense and the produce (Nutzungen) of capital in use.

All these several elements, estimated at their average price in money, which supposes that all purchases, especially those under the head D, are made voluntarily[146-4] and at their natural price.

To find the national net income, we must deduct the following items:

A. All the material employed in production which yields no immediate satisfaction to any personal want.[146-5]

B. The exports which pay for the imports.

C. The wear and tear of productive capital and capital in use.

In the second case the net national income is to be calculated from the following items:

A. From the net income of all independent private businesses etc.[146-6]

B. From the net income of the state, of municipalities, corporations and institutions, derived from their own resources.

C. Under the former heads must be taken into the account such parts of property as have been immediately consumed and enjoyed.[146-7]

D. Interest on debt must be added only on the side of the creditor, and deducted from the income of the debtor; otherwise, error dupli. This does not apply to taxes or church dues because the subjects of a good state and members of a good church purchase thereby things which are really new and of at least equal value to the outlay. Besides, in both instances, it is necessary to calculate the number of men who live from the national income, the average amount of their indispensable wants, and the average price in money of the same, in order to determine the free national income by deducting the sum total of these average wants, estimated at this average price.[146-8] [146-9]

[146-1] Not only to compare the happiness and power of different nations with one another, but also for purposes of taxation, the profitableness and innocuousness[TN 3] of which suppose the most perfect adaptation to the income of the whole people.

[146-2] The former, in Rau, Lehrbuch, I, § 247; the latter in Hermann, 308 ff. The former mode of calculation gives us a means of judging of the comfort of the people, their control of natural forces, etc.; the second, of the relation of classes among the people. (v. Mangoldt, Grundriss, 99. V. W. L., 316 ff.) Each member of the nation produces his income only in the whole of the nation's economy. Hence Held, Die Einkommensteuer, 1872, 70, 77, would, but indeed only under very abstract fictions, construct private income from the national, and not vice versa.

[146-3] On the average degree of this increase of values in different industries, see Chaptal, De l'Industrie française, II, passim. Bolz, Gewerbekalender für, 1833, 111. No such scale can be lastingly valid, because, for instance, almost all technic progress decreases the appreciation of values through industry, and every advance made by luxury raises the claims to refined quality etc. See Hildebrand, Jahrbücher für Nat-Oek., 1863, 248 ff.

[146-4] Many items in Class D evade all calculation. Thus, for instance, the numberless cases of personal services which are enjoyed only by the doer himself; also the greater number of products (Nutzungen=usufruct) of capital in use for the consumption of the owner himself. (Latent income.) Only, it may be, in the case of dwelling houses, equipages, etc., that the consumption by use can be estimated in accordance with the analogy of similarly rented goods.

[146-5] The principal materials consumed in manufactures are of course not to be deducted here, because the increase in their value was taken into account above.