commodities that could not be produced without its co-operation, the employment of capital occasions a saving of labour in the production of many others; and, by lowering their cost, brings them within reach of a far greater number of consumers. We have been so long accustomed to command the services of the most powerful machines, that it requires a considerable effort of abstraction to become fully aware of the advantages they confer on us. But if we compare the arts practised by highly civilized societies and those in a less advanced state, we can hardly fail of being convinced that we are indebted to the employment of machinery for a very large proportion of our superior comforts and enjoyments. Suppose, that, like the Peruvians, and many other people of the New as well as of the Old World, we were destitute of iron,' and unacquainted with the method of domesticating and employing oxen and horses, how prodigious a change for the worse would be made in our condition! It was customary, in some countries, to make cloth by taking up thread after thread of the warp, and passing the woof between them by the unassisted agency of the hand; so that years were consumed in the manufacture of a piece which, with the aid of the loom, be produced in as many days. Nothing, perhaps,

may

1 Mr. Locke has the following striking observations on the use of iron:"Of what consequence the discovery of one natural body, and its properties, may be to human life, the whole great continent of America is a convincing instance; whose ignorance in useful arts, and want of the greatest part of the conveniencies of life, in a country that abounded with all sorts of natural plenty, I think may be attributed to their ignorance of what was to be found in a very ordinary, despicable stone, I mean the mineral of iron. And whatever we think of our parts, or improvements, in this part of the world, where knowledge and plenty seem to vie with each other; yet, to any one that will seriously reflect upon it, I suppose it will appear past doubt, that, were the use of iron lost among us, we should in a few ages be unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage Americans, whose natural endowments and provisions came no way short of those of the most flourishing and polite nations; so that he who first made use of that one contemptible mineral, may be truly styled the father of arts and author of plenty."-Essay on the Understanding, book iv. cap. 12.

Ulloa, "Voyage de l'Amérique," tom. i. p. 336. Ed. Amst. 1752.

has contributed so much to accelerate the progress and diffuse the blessings of civilization, as the establishment of a commercial intercourse between different and distant nations. But how could this be effected without the construction of vessels and the discovery of the art of navigation? And if we compare the early navigators, creeping timidly along the shore in canoes, formed out of trees partly hollowed by fire, and partly by the aid of a stone hatchet, or the bone of some animal, with those who now boldly traverse the trackless ocean in noble ships laden with the produce of every climate, we shall have a faint idea of the advance of the arts, and of what we owe to machinery and science. Those who have distinguished themselves in this career, though they have rarely met with that gratitude and applause to which they had a just claim, have been the great benefactors of the human race. By pressing the powers of nature into our service, and subjecting them to our control, they have given man almost omnipotent power, and rendered him equal to the most gigantic undertakings. Without their assistance we should be poor indeed! Such as we now find the naked and half- famished savage of New Holland, such would the Athenian, the Roman, and the Englishman have been, but for the invention of tools and machines, and the employment of natural agents in the great work of production.

The third advantage derived from the employment of capital consists in its enabling work to be done better, as well as more expeditiously. Cotton, for example, may be spun by the hand; but while the admirable machines invented by Hargreaves, Arkwright, and others, spin a hundred or a thousand times as much yarn as could be spun by means of a common spindle, they have, at the same time, improved its quality, and given it a degree of fineness and of evenness, or equality, which was not previously attainable. A painter would require months, or it might be years, to paint with a brush the cottons, or printed cloths, used in the hanging of a single room; and it would

be very difficult, if not impossible, for the best artist to give that perfect identity to his figures, which is given to them by the machinery now made use of for that purpose. Not to mention the other and more important advantages resulting from the invention of movable types and printing, the most perfect manuscript - one on which years of patient and irksome labour have been expended—is unable, in point of delicacy and correctness, to match a well-printed work, executed in the hundredth part of the time, and at a hundredth part of the expense. The great foreign demand for English manufactured goods results no less from the superiority of their manufacture than from their greater cheapness; and for both these advantages we are principally indebted to the excellence of our machinery.

There are other considerations which equally illustrate the extreme importance of the accumulation and employment of capital. The food and other accommodations enjoyed by a nation cannot be increased except by an increase in the number of its labourers, or in their productive powers; but without an increase of capital, it is in most cases. impossible to employ more workmen with advantage. If the articles applicable to the support of the labourers, and the tools and machines with which they are to operate, be required for the maintenance and efficient employment of those already in existence, there can be no demand for others. Under such circumstances the rate of wages cannot rise; and if the number of inhabitants be increased, they must be worse provided for. Neither is it at all probable that the powers of the labourer should be augmented, unless capital have been previously increased. Without the better education and training of workmen, the greater subdivision of their employments, or the improvement of machinery, their productive energies can never be materially augmented; and in almost all these cases, additional capital is required. It is seldom, unless by its means, that workmen can be better trained, or that the undertaker of any work can either provide them with better machinery, or make a more proper

distribution of labour among them. Should the work to be done consist of a number of parts, to keep a workman constantly employed in one only requires a much larger stock than when he is occasionally employed in every different part. "When," says Dr. Smith, "we compare the state of a nation at two different periods, and find that the annual produce of its land and labour is evidently greater at the latter than at the former, that its lands are better cultivated, its manufactures more numerous and more flourishing, and its trade more extensive, we may be assured that its capital must have increased during the interval between these two periods, and that more must have been added to it, by the good conduct of some, than had been taken from it, either by the private misconduct of others, or by the public extravagance of government." It is therefore apparent, that no country can ever reach the stationary state, so long as she continues to add to her capital. While she does this, she will have an increasing demand for labour, and will be uniformly augmenting the mass of necessaries and conveniencies, and consequently, also, the numbers of her people. But when no additions are made to capital, no more labour will be, or, at least, can be advantageously employed. And should the national capital diminish, the condition of the great body of the people will deteriorate: the wages of labour will be reduced; and pauperism, with its attendant train of vice, misery, and crime, will spread its ravages throughout society.

Having thus endeavoured to show what capital is, the importance of its employment, and the manner in which it assists in facilitating production, we proceed to explain its origin, and the circumstances most favourable for its accumulation.

Had it been a law of nature that the quantity of produce obtained from industrious undertakings should merely suffice

"Wealth of Nations," p. 152.

to replace that which had been expended in carrying them on, society would have made no progress, and man would have continued in the state in which he was originally placed. But the established order of things is widely dif ferent. It is constituted so that, in the vast majority of cases, more wealth or produce is obtained through the agency of a given quantity of labour, than is required to carry on that labour. This surplus, or excess of produce, has been denominated profit; and it is from it that capital is wholly derived. It is not enough that a man's immediate wants are supplied, he looks forward to the future. Even the savage who kills more game in a day than he can consume, does not throw the surplus away; experience has taught him that he may be less fortunate on another occasion; and he, therefore, either stores it up as a reserve against any future emergency, or barters it with his fellows for something else. Experience, too, would speedily show, that without a stock of provisions no one could engage in any undertaking, however productive in the end, that required any considerable time before it made a return. No doubt, therefore, the principle which prompts to save and amass, which leads man to sacrifice an immediate gratification for the sake of increased security, or of greater enjoyment at some future period, manifested itself in the earliest ages. At first, indeed, its operation must have been comparatively feeble. But it gathered fresh strength and consistency, according as the many advantages of which it is productive gradually disclosed themselves. The dried fish, canoes, and spears of the wretched inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego exhibit the first fruits of that powerful passion, to which we owe all the riches of the world.

Seeing, therefore, that capital is formed out of the excess of the produce realized by those who engage in industrious undertakings, over and above the produce necessarily expended in carrying them on, it plainly follows, that the means of amassing capital will be greatest where this excess is greatest; or, in other words, that they will be greatest