94. The lender of money belongs, as to his persons, to the
disposing class.
We have seen that every rich man is necessarily possessor
either of a capital in moveable riches, or funds equivalent to a
capital. Any estate in land is of equal value with a capital;
consequently every proprietor is a capitalist, but not every
capitalist a proprietor of a real estate; and the possessor of a
moveable capital may chuse to confer it on acquiring funds, or to
improve it in enterprizes of the cultivating class, or of the
industrious class. The capitalist, turned an undertaker in
culture or industry, is no more of the disposing class, than the
simple workmen in those two lines; they are both taken up in the
continuation of their enterprises. The capitalist who keeps to
the lending money, lends it either to a proprietor or to an
undertaker. If he lends it to a proprietor, he seems to belong to
the class of proprietors, and he becomes co-partitioner in the
property; the income of the land is destined to the payment of
the interest of his trust; the value of the funds is equal to the
security of his capital.
If the money-lender has lent to an undertaker, it is certain
that his person belongs to the disposing class; but his capital
continues destined to the advances of the enterpriser, and cannot
be withdrawn without hurting the enterprise, or without being
replaced by a capital of equal value.
