From Resources to Capital: Evolution of the Natural Goods Economic Substance Doctrine

The article investigates the evolution in understanding the natural goods concept within the econom-ic theory, starting from perception thereof as the natural gifts and ending with conceiving their role in ensuring the sustainability of socio-economic development. The paper focuses on studying the transformation of attitudes to nature and its goods from being a passive background for human activity to being an active factor, which value is determined by its use in the economy. The historical relationship between the changes in understanding the natural goods and socio-economic conditions has been emphasised, including awareness of their exhaustibility, as well as the impact their unsus-tainable use has on the environment. In this context, the progressive transfer from the dominating utilitarian approach to the concept of long-term benefits of nature for the society has been analysed. It has been highlighted that the present day attitude to the natural goods as a source of exhaustible resources and ecosystem services reflects, on the one hand, their capital-forming role, and, on the other – the need to preserve their fundamental properties in the long term.