BOEHM VON BAWERK. 224 BOEB. ment service, in the department of finance, and was Minister of Finance from June 18 to October 2, 1895. He was then appointed professor in the University of Vienna and liecame president of one of the superior courts of administration. In 1897-98 he was again Minister of Finance; in 1899 he was called to the House of Peers, and since January, 1900, he has again been in charge of the Ministry of Finance. Boehm von Bawerk is one of the leading economists of the so-called Austrian school. With Karl Menger and others, he has contributed to the development of a the- ory of value which has received wide acceptance, and has been the cause of still wider discussion, in the economic world. This theory, as ehiborat- ed by Boehni von Bawerk, is based largely upon psychological principles. Its chief feature con- sists in a searching analysis of 'subjective value.' Jnhis Kapitalnnd Kapitahins (1884-89), translated by Smart in 1890 under the title of Capital and Interest, the author makes a bril- liant and original study of these two subjects. He does not accept the connuon classification of land, labor, and capital as the three sources of production, but regards the two former only as real sources, while capital is only a means of production. 'Interest' is employed as a general term for interest in the common sense, and for profits, and its cause and justification are found in the gi-eat principle of the difference in value between present 'goods' and future 'goods.' The term 'positive theory of capital' has been applied to the teachings of which Boehni von Bawerk on the Continent is the chief exponent, and which were discussed at gieat length in contributions to the Quarterly Journal of Economics from 1890 to 1895. Valuable articles on the subject are those by Bonar in the same publication on the "Austrian Economists" and on the "Positive Theory of Capital," Vol. III. (1889). Boehm von Bawerk also wrote Jlinige strittige Fragen der Kapitnlstluorie (Vienna, 1900). BCEO'TIA {Gk.BoiuTla,Boi6iia). In ancient geography, next to Attica, the most important political division of Central Greece, bounded on the north by Locris and the Eubiiean Gulf, on the east by the narrow strait of the Euripus, on the south by Attica, Megaris, and the Corinthian Gulf, and on the west by Phocis. Bceotia had a surface estimated at 1000 square miles. The plains inclosed on the .south by Mounts Cithae- rcn and Parnes, on the west by ilount Helicon, on the north by the slopes of Mount Parnassus and the Opuntian Mountains, fall naturally into two divisions — the basin of Lake Coi)ais, now called Tojiolias, and that of the Asopus, together with the coast district on the Corinthian Gulf, The principal stream was anciently called the Ccphissus, It entered the countrj- from Phocis at Cha-ronea ; and in the spring, when it was swollen by innumerable torrents, converted the Copaic plain into a shallow lake. There were un- derground channels for the outlet of the waters that congregated in this plain, but only four were active at the time the French engineers began work. To recover tliis valuable region to agiicul- ture and remove the malarial marshes, extensive drainage operations were begim by a French com- pany in 1883 and carried to a successful comple- tion. The draining of the bed showed that similar works had been carried out by the Minyae of Orchonienus in the Mycenaean period; a large dike ran along the north shore, collecting the waters of the Cephissus and Melas, and emptying them through a great natural subter- ranean passage. Another dike kept back the waters from the south shore, and brought them to the same outlet. A dike near the centre seems to have been connected with a system of irrigation. Forts secured the outlets against hostile attack. With the fall of the Mycena-an kingdom at Orchonienus, the works seem to have been neglected, and a change in the sea-level seems to have rendered the outlets useless, so that the region became again flooded. An at- tempt to clear out the old passages and open new ones was made during the reign of Alex- ander the Great, and there are traces of similar attempts later, but none with success. Bieotia in ancient times was a productive region, abound- ing in corn and fruits : marble, potters' clay, and iron were obtained, and it was also celebrated for fiute-reeds. The inhabitants in the legendary age were the ilinya; of Orchonienus and the Cad- means of Thebes, both Greek races and hostile to one another. Later, the country was occupied by the Bceotians, an .Eolian people, who were driven from Thessaly. The Boeotians excelled as cultivators of the soil, and were gallant soldiers, both on foot and on horseback, but they were rude and unsociable, and took little part in the gradual refinement of manners and intellectual development of the rest of Greece, so that the name became proverbial for illiterate dullness. This was usually ascribed to their thick damp atmosphere. Yet there were not wanting among them eminent generals, as Epaminondas andPelo- pidas; and poets and historians, as Hesiod, Pin- dar, Corinna, and Plutarch. The greater cities, of which the number was about fourteen, Thebes, Ilaliartus, Thespia-, etc., with their territories, formed the Ba?otian League. At the head of this were seven Ba'otarchs. who held office for one year, commanded the army of the league and con- ducted its diplomacy, though the final decision in matters of policy seems to have rested with the four councils, concerning whose composition we are not informed. The internal history of Bd'otia is largely concerned with the efforts of Thebes to maintain her leadership through this league against the efforts of Thespiie, Orchonienus, and other cities for autonomy. The power of Thebes and the league was at its height in the years suc- ceeding the battle of Leuetra (B.C. 371), when Epaminondas (q.v. ) placed Thebes at the head of Greece. After the battle of Cha-ronea, in which Philip establislied the Macedonian throne (m the ruins of Grecian liberty, the political importance of the country declined so ra])i(lly that about li.c. 30 only two cities, Tanagra and Thespia;, had any prominence. Bteotia now forms one of the nonies of the Kingdom of Greece. The capital is Livadia. Area, about 1550 square miles. Population, in 189G, 57,091. Consult: W. Rhys Roberts, The Ancient Hivotians (Cam- bridge, 1895) ; for (he works in Lake Copai's. E, Curtius, Die Dciehbanten der Minyer (Berlin, 1892) ; and for tojiography, Ulrichs, Reisen und Forschungen in (Jriechenland (Bremen, 1840). BOEB, boor (Dutch hner. farmer, Ger. Bauer, peasant, Eng. 6oor, husbandman, rustic). The name given to the Dutch inhabitants of South Africa who are descended from the original set- tlers of Cape Colony. Separated for centuries from the rest of the world, these people, in their rude pioneer life, preserved their belief in the
