which he pays now in full. Waiting is as inherent in the consumption
of durable things as it is in all production.

Now most industries are consumers of durable things of a very
expensive kind. Here we come back to the factories and machinery which
ordinarily spring to our mind at the mention of the word capital. Not
merely does the construction of these things involve waiting; their
consumption involves waiting on a vastly larger scale. Just as with a
house, many years must elapse before their derived utility can even
approximate to their purchase price. It is mainly to supply the
waiting involved in the consumption of such durable goods, that a
typical joint-stock company issues shares for public subscription. The
waiting required to cover the period of time, which its own productive
process requires, is largely supplied by means of bank overdrafts or
other forms of short-period borrowing. More strictly, fixed capital
represents the waiting involved in the consumption of durable things;
circulating capital the waiting involved in current production.

This distinction loses its sharpness when we consider not the affairs
of a particular business, but the industrial system as a whole. Then
the period of time involved in the consumption of durable instruments
falls into place as part of the time required for the production of
the ultimate consumers' goods. We can even, perhaps, conceive of an
"average period of production" for industry and commerce as a whole;
and this conception is not without its uses. For it serves to bring
out the fact that the period of consumption, and the period of
production in the narrower sense, are only two aspects of the same
fundamental thing, the interval of time which elapses between work and
the utility, which is its ultimate purpose. It serves, moreover, to
make clear that anything which lengthens this interval of time
increases the demand for waiting, or in other words, the demand for
capital; and, conversely, that anything which shortens this interval
diminishes the demand for capital.

Sec.4. _Capital not a Stock of Consumable Goods_. But the distinction
between the two forms of waiting, though not fundamental, is none the
less worth noting. It enables us to keep our theory in conformity
with fact, to look at the phenomenon of capital the right way up; and
it is easy, if we are not careful, to slip into the habit of looking
at it upside down. People sometimes speak as though the co