the circumstances attending the operation of particular principles, he discovers the effects of which they are really productive, and how far they are liable to be modified by the operation of other principles. It is thus that the various general laws which regulate and connect the apparently conflicting, but really harmonious interests of every different order in society, may be discovered, and established with all the certainty that belongs to conclusions derived from experience and observation.

PRINCIPLES

OF

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

PART I.

PRODUCTION AND ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH.

CHAPTER I.

Definition of Production-Labour the only Source of Wealth.

ALL the operations of nature and art are reducible to, and really consist of, transmutations, that is, of changes of form and of place. By production, in this science, is not meant the production of matter, that being the exclusive attribute of Omnipotence, but the production of utility, and consequently of value, by appropriating and modifying matter already in existence, so as to fit it to satisfy our wants, and contribute to our enjoyments. The labour which is thus

This point has been forcibly stated by M. Destutt Tracy. "Non-seulement," says he, "nous ne créons jamais rien, mais il nous est même impossible de concevoir ce que c'est que créer ou anéantir, si nous entendons rigoureusement par ces mots, faire quelque chose de rien, ou reduire quelque chose à rien; car nous n'avons jamais vu un être quelconque sortir du néant ni y rentrer. De-là cet axiome admis par toute l'antiquité, rien ne vient de rien, et ne peut redevenir rien. Que faisons-nous donc par notre travail, par notre action sur touts les êtres qui nous entourent? Jamais rien, qu'opérer dans ces êtres des changemens de forme ou de lieu qui les approprient à notre usage, qui les rendent utiles à la satisfaction de nos besoins. Voilà ce que nous devons entendre par produire ; c'est donner aux choses une utilité qu'elles n'avoient pas. Quel que soit notre travail, s'il n'en résulte point d'utilité, il est infructueux; s'il en résulte, il est productif."--Traité d' Economie Politique, p. 82.

employed is the only source of wealth. Nature spoutaneously furnishes the matter of which all commodities are made; but until labour has been applied to appropriate that matter, or to adapt it to our use, it is wholly destitute of value, and is not, nor ever has been, considered as forming wealth. Place us on the banks of a river, or in an orchard, and we shall infallibly perish, of thirst or hunger, if we do not, by an effort of industry, raise the water to our lips, or pluck the fruit from its parent tree. It is seldom, however, that the mere appropriation of matter is sufficient. In the vast majority of cases, labour is required not only to appropriate it, but also to convey it from place to place, and to give it that peculiar shape, without which it may be totally useless and incapable of ministering either to our necessities or our comforts. The coal used as fuel is buried deep in the bowels of the earth, and is absolutely worthless until the miner has extracted it from the mine, and brought it into a situation where it may be made use of. The stones and mortar used in building houses, and the rugged and shapeless materials that have been fashioned into the various articles of convenience and ornament with which they are furnished, were, in their original state, destitute alike of value and utility. And of the innumerable variety of animal, vegetable, and mineral products, which form the materials of food and clothes, none was originally serviceable, while many were extremely noxious to man. It is his labour that has given them utility, that has subdued their bad qualities, and made them satisfy his wants, and minister to his comforts and enjoyments.

The writer of an article in "The Quarterly Review," (No. 60, Art. I.,) contends, that the earth is a source of wealth, because it supplies us with the matter of commodities. But this, it is obvious, is the old error of the economists reproduced in a somewhat modified shape. It would, in truth, be quite as correct to say that the earth is a source of pictures and statues, because it supplies the materials made use of by painters and statuaries, as to say that it is a source of wealth, because it supplies the matter of commodities.

"Labour was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased."1

Those who observe the progress and trace the history of the human race, in different countries and states of society, will find that their comfort and happiness have, in all cases, been principally dependent on their ability to appropriate the raw products of nature, and to adapt them to their use. The savage, whose labour is confined to the gathering of wild fruits, or the picking up of shell-fish on the sea-coast, is placed at the very bottom of the scale of civilization, and is, in point of comfort, decidedly inferior to many of the lower animals. The first step in the progress of society is made when man learns to hunt wild animals, to feed himself with their flesh, and clothe himself with their skins. But labour, when confined to the chase, is extremely barren and unproductive. Tribes of hunters, like beasts of prey, whom they closely resemble in their habits and modes of subsistence, are but thinly scattered over the surface of the countries which they occupy; and notwithstanding the fewness of their numbers, any unusual deficiency of game never fails to reduce them to the extremity of want. The second step in the progress of society is made when the tribes of hunters and fishers apply themselves, like the ancient Scythians and modern Tartars, to the domestication of wild animals and the rearing of flocks. The subsistence of herdsmen and shepherds is much less precarious than that of hunters, but they are almost entirely destitute of those comforts and elegancies which give to civilized life its chief value. The third and most decisive step in the progress of civilization in the great art of producing the necessaries and conveniencies of life-is made when the wandering tribes of hunters and shepherds renounce their migratory habits, and become agriculturists and manufacturers. It is then that

"Wealth of Nations," p. 14. My edition, in one vol., is uniformly quoted.

man begins fully to avail himself of his productive powers. He then becomes laborious, and, by a necessary consequence, his wants are then, for the first time, fully supplied, and he acquires an extensive command over the articles necessary for his comfort as well as his subsistence.'

The importance of labour in the production of wealth was very clearly perceived by Hobbes and Locke. At the commencement of the 24th chapter of the "Leviathan,” published in 1651, Hobbes says, "The nutrition of a commonwealth consisteth in the plenty and distribution of materials conducing to life.

"As for the plenty of matter, it is a thing limited by nature to those commodities which (from the two breasts of our common mother) land and sea, God usually either freely giveth, or for labour selleth to mankind.

"For the matter of this nutriment, consisting in animals, vegetables, minerals, God hath freely laid them before us, in or near to the face of the earth; so as there needeth no more but the labour and industry of receiving them. Insomuch that plenty dependeth (next to God's favour) on the labour and industry of man."

But Mr. Locke had a much clearer apprehension of this doctrine. In his "Essay on Civil Government," published in 1689, he has entered into a lengthened, discriminating, and able analysis, to show that it is from labour that the products of the earth derive almost all their value. "Let any one consider," says he, "what the difference is between

This progress has been pointed out by Varro :-" Gradum fuisse naturalem, cùm homines viverunt ex iis rebus quæ inviolata ultrò ferret terra. Ex hac vita in secundam descendisse pastoritiam, cùm, propter utilitatem, ex animalibus quæ possent sylvestria, deprehenderent, ac concluderent, et mansuescerent. In queis primùm, non sine causâ, putant oves assumptas, et propter, utilitatem et propter placiditatem. Tertio denique gradu, à vità pastorali ad agriculturam descenderunt; in quâ ex duobus gradibus superioribus retinuerunt multa, et quò descenderunt ibi processerunt longè, dum ad nos perveniret."-De Re Rusticá, lib. ii. cap. 1.

2" Of the Nutrition and Procreation of a Commonwealth."