dities, by setting labourers to work in any of those departments; in which case, as the corn, cloth, &c., the subsistence of the labourer, disappears, other wealth, corn, cloth, &c., will arise under their hands, and if their labour has been directed and applied with ordinary skill and judgment, and with ordinary good fortune, the quantity of wealth produced will exceed the original quantity which has been consumed, and replace the capital expended, with the addition of the ordinary profit of stock in such employments;—that is, the ordinary remuneration or reward to the proprietor for the trouble and risk he subjects himself to in that particular application and employment of his labour and stock. Secondly, the person having possession of such stock or capital may use it in keeping hounds and hunting-horses, and grooms, and menial servants, or other unproductive labourers; or he may give it away for nothing to persons who do not labour at all; in which case, as the corn, cloth, &c., the subsistence of the hounds and horses, and of the unproductive labourers, or of the non-labourers, disappears, no new wealth will arise therefrom, nor will the original capital be replaced by such expenditure and consumption, which must be supplied, if repeated, from some other source altogether independent of such application of stock, whereby the whole is spent and annihilated as wealth, without any return or reproduction of property equivalent thereto.

In the first of these two cases, goods of equal or greater value arise from the consumption of goods already in existence; in the second, such consumption is not followed by any return of equivalent goods; and as in both cases wealth or vendible commodities are equally consumed, viz. the subsistence of the labourer, or non-labourer, and are reproduced in the one case and not in the other, it is apparent that this sort of wealth becomes productive or unproductive according to the way in which it is employed; in other words, according as it is expended in maintaining persons who are occu

pied in the one or in the other of the different ways described.

It depends, therefore, entirely and exclusively on the way in which this sort of wealth is employed whether it be pro-. ductive or unproductive, and whether an equal, or a greater, or a less quantity of wealth, or no wealth at all, arise from its consumption. And hence it follows, that wealth in general cannot be distinctly classed and confined to the two simple sorts or species of productive and unproductive; so very considerable a portion of it,-namely, almost all that is immediately consumable,-being applicable both ways, and taking the character of productive or unproductive, not from any modifications under which it exists, or from any qualities inherent in or constantly attending it, but simply from the way in which it is employed;-that character depending entirely on the employment of the persons or labourers which this species of wealth is expended in maintaining.

And this conclusion leads directly to the consideration of the much-controverted question of productive or unproductive labour,—a subject which I shall endeavour fully to discuss in the two next chapters.

It has been already noticed (pp. 26, 27,) that among those items of wealth which belong generally to the class of productive, there are some which may, to a limited extent, be applied to unproductive purposes;-as a canal and a steamboat may be employed to convey a pleasure-party, and a walk for pleasure may be taken in the fields (which are the land) or upon a road.—It has been shown, in like manner, (pp. 27, 28,) that there are items of wealth which generally belong to the class of unproductive, which may also, in a limited degree, be turned to productive uses;-as a dwelling-house may be converted into a work-shop, granary, or the like; and we have explained the causes which control and restrain the application of those items to any consider

able extent, the one way or the other, contrary to their original and proper destination. But it may not be wholly useless or unnecessary to add, that, in a certain constrained sense, all wealth may be applied, at the pleasure of the possessor or proprietor, either to productive or unproductive purposes; as, for instance, a canal, which is chiefly used in a productive way, may not only, as already mentioned, be applied to the unproductive purpose of transporting a pleasure-party, but it may be applied productively in a way quite distinct from that of its ordinary and proper use, should the decay of a country or of trade render it useless for the purpose of navigation ;-as the stones which confine its banks, or those of its locks or aqueducts, might be taken to build a house or a bridge; and, under similar circumstances, a road might be turned to tillage; and this might be called applying the canal and road to productive purposes. On the other hand, sideboards and tables, paintings, maps, books, &c., which are strictly unproductive wealth, might be employed to keep up the fire of a steamengine, or other furnace used in a productive way, as the numerous volumes of the Alexandrian library actually were employed to heat the baths; and this might be called applying those articles productively. But I believe every reader will readily allow that such a construction or strained application of terms as to call such a use of those articles a productive one, would be altogether extravagant and inadmissible. Nor could any cavil or objection founded on such a forced construction and use of language be considered as an obstacle, or be allowed to stand in the way of a more perfect classification of the different kinds of wealth than we have been able, consistently with truth, to exhibit. And this much, at least, the reader must have seen, that it is not on account of such obstacles that we cannot divide the whole mass of wealth into the two simple kinds of productive and unproductive. It is because so great a proportion of it

can be applied as we have shown, either the one way or the other, that this distinction holds not universally, and cannot be so laid down. It is sufficient for us to have endeavoured to found our analysis upon the different properties and distinguishing characteristics which really belong to the different sorts of wealth, without pretending or attempting a more exact or more perfect and simple classification of them than the things themselves will really allow.

But although we cannot lay down an unqualified and universal distinction on this subject, still the analysis we have attempted is not to be considered as useless or unprofitable. Nor will our attention be found to have been use lessly or unprofitably employed upon it. A very great proportion of the general mass of wealth falls distinctly to be classed under the two simple heads of productive and unproductive; and we have learned, at least, in the course of our investigations, what portions or items can and what cannot be so classed. We have, besides, it is to be hoped, gotten to the bottom of our subject, and gained a more perfect knowledge of the different uses and employments of wealth than we could have acquired otherwise, as well as a more perfect view of the distinguishing characters of its different items, and a cue to refer every distinct sort to its proper place in our conception of the whole.

We may observe, then, as the result of our inquiries here, that there are five different circumstances attending wealth, or accidents affecting it, relatively to its different uses and employments, which belong to and characterize its various parts and items, with a greater or less degree of distinctness.

First, we have seen (p. 25) that among the various items of wealth there are some which must be applied altogether and invariably to productive purposes, so long as they retain the character of wealth themselves,-as ploughs, wine

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presses, water-wheels, steam-engines, weaving-looms, and the like.

Secondly, we have seen (p. 28) that there are other items which can only be applied to unproductive purposes,—as instruments of music, paintings, maps, books, and things of the like nature.

Thirdly, there is another sort of wealth or items which approach to the character of the first, but which may, in a certain degree and to a limited extent, be applied as the second, as the buildings of cotton-mills, cornmills, &c., which might be partially converted into dwelling-houses. (See pp. 27, 28.)

Fourthly, there is a sort approaching to the character of the second, but which may be partially converted to the purposes of the first,-as pots, and pans, and pokers, which might be manufactured into nails, &c. (See p. 29.)

Fifthly and lastly, there is a sort of wealth or items which may be applied indifferently either as the first or second; that is, equally to productive and to unproductive purposes, and to an indefinite extent in either way,-as corn, cloth, &c., (see p. 29,)—there being no impediment to the application or employment of the whole of this sort of wealth in pure unproductive consumption or enjoyment, except that which arises from the private interests of the possessors of capital, which teaches them to reflect, that if those items, or their individual portions of them, should be so consumed, they must be reduced to the condition of labourers, or, if incapable of labour, to that of a total dependence or destitution.

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