the cause of the change. The originating cause may be operating upon gold, or upon the goods; or there may be causes working at once upon both sides, opposing or co-operating. It is, therefore, unsafe to dogmatize upon the causes of a change in prices without an investigation into all the facts touching both gold and goods. * * * Every owner of capital in its various forms must always take the risk that invention may devise something cheaper in operation than his existing machine.
Professor Taussig states:[1] "The independent conduct of industry is the salient characteristic of the business man's work. He assumes the risks of the outcome of industrial operations. * * * This position as residual claimant explains one striking characteristic of business profits—the irregularity of the income. In one year the business man may earn nothing, may even lose. Another year he may gain great sums. The variations from year to year of the same individual's profits arise from the business man's assumptions of individual risks. * * * The business man more especially feels first the effects of changes in prices. When prices rise, he gains for a while; when they fall, he loses for a while * * * So great are the risks of business that many people, again, look upon it all as a game of chance. * * * Courage and some degree of venturesomeness are obviously essential to the successful business man: so much follows from that assumption of risks, which is of the essence of his doings. * * * Success in business is highly uncertain. Prediction as to any individual who enters it is extremely difficult. * * * In view of the risks and the obvious possibilities of failure, must there not be some prizes to maintain the resort to the occupation?"
- ↑ F. W. Taussig's "Principles of Economics," Vol. II, Chap. 49, pages 158, 159, 160 and 164; also Chap. 50, page 173.
