effect of capital altogether, and to involve ourselves in contradiction and absurdity, when we come to treat of distribution and the different grounds of right to wealth; for then we must allow a share to be due to the capitalist, while we deny the efficacy of his contribution to the process of production; and while, at the same time, nothing can be more absurd in itself or more false than such denial.

Accumulated wealth, then, we say, is not accumulated labour, but the effects of labour sometimes alone, but more generally of labour and capital together, fixed and realized or impressed upon matter; and the process of production consists of certain effects, or changes of form, combination, or position, made upon material objects, by means either of labour* singly, or of labour and capital united, which endure for some time after the labour itself is past, and which make some addition to the exchangeable value of those objects. But labour itself, which is simply a movement or exertion of the human body and faculties, cannot be accumulated or retained in existence one moment beyond that in which the exertion is made. All labour perishes in the very instant of its performance; but the objects on which labour is bestowed may be preserved, and its effects be made to endure for a longer or shorter period in the forms and modifications which it impresses upon them.

Thus, when a house is built, the labour employed passes into non-existence as the work proceeds, and when the building is completed the labour exists no more; but its effects continue to exist in the fabric it has raised, fixed and realized in the new form it has given to the stones and other materials of which the structure is composed, and which

• When we use the word labour, we always of course mean human labour; for the labour of other animals belongs to the head of capital, —as do likewise the animals themselves, however employed by man for his purposes.

may endure for many years, and sometimes for many generations.

When labour is employed in sowing and tilling the ground, its effects appear in due time in the crop which follows; but the labour itself remains not in existence one moment beyond that in which it was performed.

When labour is employed in fabricating a web, or in fashioning a coat or a shirt, it still becomes extinct the very moment succeeding to that which gave it birth; but it also still leaves behind it effects which are more or less permanent and perceptible, in the new forms and properties with which it invests the cotton, or wool, or flax, or other materials on which it is bestowed. Those materials have all themselves been procured by means of labour, or of labour and capital, either immediately from the earth, or from the animals the earth sustains; and these and all other materials are formed and prepared in the same manner into commodities fit for use, by means of many capitals (necessarily accumulated by saving and privation) as well as by many efforts and operations of labour and painful industry,—every one of which, while it gives a new form or modification to the material substance, increases its value, and brings it still nearer, through every step of the process, to the end and object aimed at, until it issues at length in a perfect production fit for human use,—and thus it is that wealth is produced.

It is perfectly true, as has been remarked by M. Say and others, that in this process of production there is no creation of matter. But there is a modification of it; and always either a change and new arrangement of particles and of parts, or a new form, or new position, given to the mass; and there is generally an augmentation or diminution of the quantity under operation, though not certainly of matter in the universe. But there is a creation of modes and forms, though not of matter. Nothing indeed can be more certain

or undoubted, than that matter can neither be created nor annihilated by man; but its forms may be varied by him, and portions of it under his hands may be varied in quantity, -increased or diminished.

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Still in every variation of quantity which any portion of matter under the hands of the workman is made to undergo, whatever is added to it or abstracted from it, is all taken from or given back to the ultimate receptacle of all organized and all factitious forms-the boundless and all-containing ocean of matter." The parings of a shoe, or refuse materials of a manufactory, are thrown all back to augment the source whence they were at first derived; and even the perfect products themselves, after being used and worn till they are no longer serviceable for their temporary purpose, are returned to the dunghill, and equally consigned to the same common destiny. By decomposition, the different particles of which they consist are set free, and either enter immediately into new combinations fit for human use, or fly to augment the vast and illimitable reservoirs of their homogeneous and kindred substances.

The particles which compose the present crop existed all, it is probable, in the earth, and in the atmosphere or heavens, before they took the present form of wheat, oats, &c. It is merely a change of combination or position they have undergone; to the effecting of which (if we consider narrowly) the industry of man has been but in a small degree subservient. He threw the seed into the ground perhaps, and prepared its bed, but nature did all the mysterious work of causing it to grow and to produce, "some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold." In the gathering of the fruits of the earth, and in the preparing and disposing of them for use, the effects of human labour are more distinctly seen; still, however, it does nothing but move, form, new-model, and arrange, those material products which nature bestows, Labour creates them not; although it must be confessed,

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that in producing wealth it varies and determines their modes of existence. Yet still labour is an indispensable ingredient in the production or procuration even of the fruits of the earth, and of the matter of wealth, or what is called rude or raw produce generally; which cannot be obtained without it, at least in any considerable quantity, or in such abundance as to supply liberally the wants and necessities of human existence,-scarcely even those of a single savage or family in the state of nature, and far less of a numerous people in the civilized state.

SECTION II.

THE MATTER AND FORMS OF WEALTH REVIEWED.

HAVING thus briefly explained the meaning of the term production, and unfolded the nature of wealth in its elements, I shall now proceed to consider the whole wealth of a country in the mass, as it is found to exist in an extensive civilized and opulent community, by a summary statement or review of the principal objects or items of which it con

sists.

This, it is hoped, will serve to confirm our foregoing reasonings, as well as to elucidate those which are to follow. It will also serve to assist the student in endeavouring to acquire a distinct and definite conception of the aggregate quantity of vendible property at any time existing within a country; what that aggregate entirely and exclusively consists of; and the comparative amount of its different parts.

It is not our object, it may be observed here, to inquire into the actual state of wealth at any particular time or in any one country, but to present the reader with a general sketch or outline of its principal features, or of those objects it will always be found to consist of at all times and in all

countries, wherever it has increased to any considerable magnitude.

In this statement, also, it is to be observed, that we pay no attention to classification as regards the employment of wealth, but endeavour to take a general and comprehensive view of it in the most natural order. Having done this, we shall in the following chapter apply ourselves to classify and analyze it in reference to its various uses and employments. The following then I would set down as a general

SUMMARY OF WEALTH.

THE wealth of a country, or of any separate portion of mankind or community, consists, in the first place, of the country itself, that is, of the land or territory possessed by them, and all that is naturally borne upon its surface, or contained in its bowels within the reach of man; or in the waters and other elements bordering upon it, or enclosed within its boundaries; which form and comprise the first great division, or items of wealth, and the subject upon which the art and industry and labour of mankind fall to be exerted, in order to produce every other article of wealth besides. This head includes mines, the natural productions of the land and of the waters, fisheries, corn, and cattle, except in so far as any of these inferior items are improved or augmented by human industry, art, or labour.

Secondly, in connexion with the land must be stated as a part of wealth, those improvements made upon it, which either facilitate and abridge, or render more effective the operations of agriculture, as enclosures, drains, and all meliorations of the soil, the effect of culture and human labour, which make its produce permanently more abundant, or more easily obtained.

Thirdly, I enumerate, as having an inseparable connex

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