Excerpt from The Growth of Capital I must insist on this point all the more, because, Since my former paper was written, attention has, in fact, been withdrawn from the special object in view, and it has been thought, apparently, that such esti mates Of property can be used for miscellaneous purposes in a way which I believe most dangerous, and that they can be made with a degree of accuracy which I believe to be impossible. Country has been compared with country, and period with period, in the most reckless fashion, without any attention to the comparability of the data. Such figures have even been used Officially for the purpose of discussing the relative incidence of taxation on different kinds of property, real and personal being the kinds dis tinguished. I desire to record an emphatic protest against the employment of a method, which appears good enough for a Special purpose in the absence of anything better, for purposes of a totally different kind, where a different degree Of accuracy, which the figures are not susceptible of, may be necessary. Whether estimates of property, and the different kinds of it, can be made for such a purpose as dis cussing the incidence of taxation or the like practical objects, is a point at least on which I reserve my own Opinion. At any rate, those who make such estimates are bound in l'iminc to justify their method, and to prove that the necessary degree of accuracy for the purpose they have in View is obtainable. For any such purpose as that now in hand, comparatively rough estimates are all that are required, and com paratively rough estimates are all that it is proposed to make. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.