10 
What factor Could have played this role in the case of the 
decline of accumulation in America? My answer was: The 
development of the capital market. The rise of the corporate 
system was bound up with a development of capital market, 
a broadening of this market which led to a cheapening of 
t he sources of outside finance. The yield of the shares 
declined in the course of time and reached a very low level 
in the 20s*Simulanously the issues reached a peak. The effect 
must have been equivalent to a large reduction in the long 
term rate of interest. It constituted a force counteracting 
the secular declineand explains especially the prosperity 
of the 2O5 and also the suddeness of the collapse in 1929.