Note 419 — Chapter I · : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL

Sismondi applies the same principles to a consideration of a fall in the rate of interest as he does to the growth of production or the increase of machinery. “An increase of capital is desirable only when its employment can be increased at the same time. But whenever the rate of interest is lowered it is a certain sign that the employment of capital has proportionally diminished as compared with the amount available; and this fall in the rate, which is always advantageous to some people, is disadvantageous to others—some will have to be content with smaller incomes and others with none at all.” (Nouveaux Principes, vol. i, p. 393.)