It has been pointed out, as a reason why the theory of credit cannot be regarded as final or absolute, that this "short-term credit" is not capable of exact definition and that what is short term in some countries may be long term in others, and vice versa. It has also been noted that the time element as a test of the character of credit is unsatisfactory, and that the better way of discriminating between types of credit is that of relating them not to time as a standard, but to the use that is made of the proceeds. Looking at the subject from that standpoint, another branch of the analysis of credit must be devoted to what is termed investment or long-term credit, by which, as already seen, is meant the conversion of consumption goods or circulatory funds into capital goods - that is to say, the establishment of income-producing properties. The essential distinction between this type of credit and the kind of banking which provides it (ordinarily known as "investment banking") may be made evident by a simple illustration. A is a farmer who wishes to drain his land and fence it. He applies to a trust company or investment institution for a loan to enable him to perform the work. This institution has received from a number of persons - X, Y, and Z - funds which have grown out of their savings. X, Y, and Z, we may suppose, are salaried men each of whom had at the end of the year found himself possessed of, say, $1,000. Each has deposited this sum in the trust company. This means that the trust company has given them a claim upon it which may be exercised in the purchase of actually existing goods. X, Y, and Z, for instance, might take their funds and with them buy clothing, automobiles, or consumable goods of any kind. They have not done so, but instead they wish to transfer this consuming power to some one else who will pay them a return on their ownership. The trust company decides to lend the $3,000 to Farmer A, and does so, charging remuneration for its service in investigating and making the loan. X, Y, and Z have now become creditors of the farmer upon, let us say, a five-year mortgage. The farmer with his $3,000 in hand uses the funds in employing labor - that is to say, he gives the "money" to laborers, who use it in supporting themselves. Viewed from another standpoint this merely means that the laborers have received the money and have used it in buying clothing, food, etc., so that they, and not X, Y, and Z, have enjoyed and used up these consumable goods. Their labor has resulted in improving the farm,, and as a result the farmer is able to produce a larger crop yield. A part of this crop yield he pays to X, Y, and Z as "interest." In effect, then, the long-term credit function is a process of converting immediate titles to goods into productive machinery or income-yielding opportunities.