Revenue

The revenue as an income for the shareholder

A revenue can be obtained " with title onéreux" (when it was necessary to pay an amount of money, for example by subscribing a Government bond emitted by a state) or " with title gratuit".

The retirement (that it is by Capitalisation or distribution), the Life annuity, the Pension S of disability or the alimony are thus forms particular of revenue or comparable to revenues.

The term of shareholder is in general reserved for an individual who " its rentes" saw; , i.e. which does not have d'" emploi" (even if in addition the management of its inheritance can represent an important work) and who has relatively fixed incomes and without risks (placement bond containing loans of state or guaranteed out of gold, land incomes, contracts of insurances or sale for life, allowances obtained by judicial proceedings, etc) and sufficient for a way of life average or higher. That excludes the craftsmen or professional liberal, whose incomes are related to their work even when their activity represents an important capital, thus possibly that the " Capitalist s" whose investment is related to an activity relatively risky.

The strong periods of Inflation related to both world wars caused the " died of the rentiers" , while Keynes was pleased with " the euthanasia of the rentiers" (way of putting at work a fringe population).

The revenue in the classical economics

The revenue, in particular the agricultural revenue, is in the middle of the economic analysis throughout 18th and the 19th century. Inter alia, Ricardo (in particular in Of the principles of the political economy and the tax, Ch.II) or Karl Marx lengthily describes the bonds between the level of the revenue and the level of the production. In bond with the Theory of value the revenue is with the sources of the debates on the relation between productivity, price and profit.

The revenue in the neo-classic economy

In the neo-classic approach, the revenue is not a Prix but a Profit: in pure and perfect competition, the profits are null but any distortion results in the appearance of “revenues” (see also Secure income.

Most traditional is the revenue of Monopole; in situation of monopoly a company practices a price higher than the contract price and, in spite of a lower production, benefits from higher margins.

In this logic, and in a more specific way, the revenue is related to the idea of niche on a market. Since they exist, the search for niches safe from the competition (which they are differences in the products, of distance between the places of marketing, agreement between producers, etc) can become a motive fluid for certain actors. The economic theory on the dynamics of the technological Innovation S rests besides much on this concept of revenue: according to whether protection related to a Brevet is extensive or not, the inventor will profit or not from a niche (absence of competition) more or less important. An important protection opens the door with secure incomes which strongly encourage with the innovation. A weak protection makes this one gravitational because the copiers will be able very quickly to come to compete with the inventor without supporting the same initial costs of research and development. On the other hand, a very strong protection can slow down the innovation by discouraging any possible competitor. This balance between protection of the innovations and dissemination of the information is in the middle of the economy of the innovation.

The ground rent

The " Rente" : the perpetual loan of state

In France, the revenue appeared under the old mode starting from the first issue of loan in this form by François Ier, then reappeared starting from financial stabilization after the French revolution and lasted until the Third Republic. Identical instruments existed in the other country. Very early, there was a market of the revenues, since it was possible to sell its government bond in exchange of a capital, or conversely to constitute a revenue by buying a title.

The revenue has a political advantage, that to oblige the shareholder to support the government against the alternatives which threaten to remove the revenues, and it is one of the most powerful reasons to the introduction of the retirement pensions in Germany by Bismark. But if the shareholder lost confidence, it sold its revenue rather than to be likely to lose it in a political soubressut, and the price dropped. It was worrying for controlling and they supervised that like milk on fire: representative of the confidence granted to the government, with the liking of the economic, political or military events, this price of the revenue had an direct impact on public finances. Indeed, a low price obliged the states, perpetually needy and consequently perpetually transmitting debts, to give more revenue to collect the same quantity of money, therefore to guarantee more theirs future receipts (tax).

Finance modern, with its instruments much more sophisticated, and evolutions of economic thinking, have led states to replace revenue by loans with very long run (30 or 50 years for example) which is practically equivalent, and allow the borrowers of constitute revenues. The essential difference, it is that for reasons of maintenance of confidence, the states avoid repurchasing their own debt (they have too many means of handling the courses, therefore to despoil their creditors: they is undoubtedly profitable with course term, but disastrous in the long run since that will make flee the backers), and that an eternal debt cannot be very satisfactory, whereas a debt long in the long term but fixed in time is acceptable.

Internal bonds

External bonds

the Capital, Delivers III, §6 - Chapter 36 (and following)

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