THE THEORY OF INTEREST

the nature of man tend to make interest high or low. Itwas there stated that foresight, self-control, and regardfor posterity tend to reduce impatience for income and sotend to make interest low. We may expect to find there-fore in a community possessing these qualities some orall of the four interrelated phenomena already mentioned—low interest, lending to other communities, accumula-tion of capital and construction of substantial capitalinstruments. In a community lacking these qualities wemay expect to find some or all of the four opposite con-ditions.

§2. Examples of Influence of Personal Characteristics

The nations and peoples which have been most notedin the past for foresight, self-control, and regard forposterity are probably the Dutch, Scotch, English ,French, Germans and Jews , and the interest rate has beenrelatively lower in general in the communities dominatedby these peoples than in communities dominated byless thrifty peoples. They have been money lenders; theyhave had the habit of thrift and accumulation, and theirinstruments of wealth have been in general substantial.The durability of their instruments of wealth is especiallyseen in their buildings, both public and private, andin their ways of transportation—roads, tramways, andrailroads.

John Rae observed of Holland :

“Hitherto the Dutch, of all European nations, seem to have beeninclined to carry instruments to the most slowly returning orders.The durability given to all the instruments constructed by them,the care with which they are finished, and the attention paid topreserving and repairing them, have been often noticed by travelers.In the days when their industry and frugality were most remarkable,

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