Friedrich von Hayek - Pure Theory of Capital.pdf

(19386 KB) Pobierz
The Pure Theory of Capital
THE
PURE THEORY
OF
CAPITAL
BY
FRIEDRIGH A. HAYEK
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO · ILLINOIS
THE PURE THEORY OF CAPITAL
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON
Published 1941. Midway Reprint 1975
Printed in the United States of America
International Standard Book Number: 0-226-32081-2
PREFACE
THIS highly abstract study of a problem of pure economic
theory has grown out of the concern with one of the most
practical and pressing questions which economists have
to face, the problem of the causes of industrial fluctuations.
The attempt to elaborate a chain of reasoning which seems
to throw important light on this question had made it
painfully clear to me that some of the theoretical tools
with which we are at present equipped are quite in-
adequate for the task. The nature of the contribution
to the explanation of industrial fluctuation which I had
attempted involved an extensive use of concepts and
theorems which fall within the province of the theory of
capital and interest. This is, of course, a field which
almost above all others has been the centre of theoretical
interest since the beginning of our science. The reason
why, in spite of this, the results of past work on these
problems proved unsatisfactory tools in the analysis of
more complicated phenomena seems to be, as I try to
explain in the introductory chapters, that in the past
these phenomena have been studied for a different purpose
and on assumptions which deprive them of most of their
significance in a different context.
In this state of affairs it seemed imperative, before going
on with a further elaboration of the explanation of in-
dustrial fluctuations, to turn back to the revision of the
fundamentals and to work out a theory of capitalist pro-
duction which would prove adequate for the analysis of
dynamic changes. It was with great reluctance that I
convinced myself of this necessity, and I have much
sympathy with the prevailing attitude which shows an
increasing impatience with all attempts at further refine-
ment of the abstract groundwork and which is anxious to
v
vi The Pure Theory of Capital
proceed with the more concrete work on the processes
which we observe in the real world. Yet I have become
definitely convinced that nothing holds up real progress
so much as this very impatience which disregards the
necessity of first getting the foundations clearly laid out.
My reluctance to undertake this work would have been
even greater if from the beginning I had been aware of
the magnitude of the task that awaited me. As at first
contemplated, this study was intended as little more than
a systematic exposition of what I imagined to be a fairly
complete body of doctrine which, in the course of years,
had evolved from the foundations laid by Jevons, Böhm-
Bawerk, and Wicksell. I had little idea that this task
of systematisation would uncover serious gaps in the
reasoning which had yet to be bridged, and that some of
the simplifications employed by the earlier writers had
such far-reaching consequences as to make their con-
ceptual tools almost useless in the analysis of more com-
plicated situations. The most important of these inappro-
priate simplifications, of the dangers of which I became
aware at a comparatively early stage, was the attempt
to introduce the time factor into the theory of capital
in the form of one single relevant time interval — the
" average period of production ". But it gradually became
clear that this supposed simplification evaded so many
essential problems that the attempt to replace it by a
more adequate treatment of the time factor raised a host
of new questions which had never been really considered
and to which answers had to be found.
It was inevitable that in a first approach to an analysis
of the dynamic problems in this field I should have used
whatever tools were available, and I must not complain
of the manifold misunderstandings which the use of these
imperfect instruments caused and of the objections to
which it has given rise. And it would be idle to pretend
that I was myself always aware of all the limitations
and dangers of what I then still regarded as legitimate

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin