Jean-Baptiste Say - Capital Quotes

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In times of political confusion, and under an arbitrary government, many will prefer to keep their capital inactive, concealed, and unproductive, either of profit or gratification, rather than run the risk of its display. This latter evil is never felt under a good government.

Jean-Baptiste Say
Capital can seldom be made productive, without undergoing several changes both of form and of place, the risk of which is always more or less alarming to persons unaccustomed to the operations of industry; whereas, on the contrary, landed property produces without any change of either quality or position.

Jean-Baptiste Say
Capital cannot be more beneficially employed, then in strengthening and aiding the productive powers of nature.

Jean-Baptiste Say
Capital must work, as it were, in concert with industry; and this concurrence is what I call the productive agency of capital.

Jean-Baptiste Say
A man who applies his labour to the investing of objects with value by the creation of utility of some sort, can not expect such a value to be appreciated and paid for, unless where other men have the means of purchasing it. Now, of what do these means consist? Of other values of other products, likewise the fruits of industry, capital, and land. Which leads us to a conclusion that may at first appear paradoxical, namely, that it is production which opens a demand for products.

Jean-Baptiste Say
Capital in the hands of a national government forms a part of the gross national capital.

Jean-Baptiste Say