18
processes. During the eighteenth century, lack of
capital was a very vital concern for development, as
it still is; capital has always been scarce. The
development of Great Britain made use of capital
furnished by merchants and used resources first from
home and then from abroad. The later development of
the United States received at least some help from the
British in terms of finance capital and was facilitated
22
by the utilization of vast amounts of resource wealth.
Capital was scarce, resources were abundant. Small wonder
that the gaze of theorists has remained focused upon
capital accumulation and technology, impressive as the
changes have been in those fields^ or that resources
have not gained much attention until relatively
recently; nobody bothers with things that are abundant.
But of late, capital has accumulated very rapidly in
some places, at least partly as a result of the very
23
22
Not all money transfers represent transfers
of physical capital, of course. Cf. A. K. Cairncross,
"Investment in Canada, 1900-1913," in The Export of
Capital from Britain 1870-1914, ed. by A. R. Hall,
Debates in Economic History, gen. ed. Peter Mathias
(London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1968).
23
On the other hand, things which are scarce may
receive almost reverential consideration such as that
given to water by Arabs. Until they invaded areas more
plentifully supplied, life had been a struggle to find
water. When they did, they left their mark with the
fountains of Andalusia.
"This fountain is like a believer in ecstacy,
rapt in prayer; and when the fountain shifts, it is the
worshipper who stoops to genuflect and resumes his prayer."
--Unknown poet of Andalusia
"Andalusia," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1971, 1, 887.