326 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



The tabulation of the main points to be con- 

 sidered nowadays has led us to use terminology 

 which seems hardly suitable for exchange in all 

 times and places. At the same time, if we think 

 of the seller as the possessor of the article that 

 is more desired, we may say that the same ele- 

 ments are implied in the simplest case of barter. 

 The recognition of the right to private property 

 coupled with the right of judgment about one's 

 possessions, involved as they are in the very pos- 

 sibilities of exchange, are the clew with which we 

 must work in simple and in complicated cases 

 too. The clear connection of the two rights may 

 be most clearly seen when we remember that, 

 after all, it is just where the judgment of the pos- 

 sessor has not free scope in determining ex- 

 change that the right to private possession seems 

 imperfect. 



This brief account of the factors at work in 

 the satisfying of human wants would not be com- 

 plete without some consideration of those devel- 

 opments of human resources which are only found 

 in civilized communities, and by which the power 

 of energy arid capacity for patience may be in- 

 definitely increased. 



Skill. — That skill increases human powers of 

 production surely requires no remark. Skill in 

 organizing labor, and applying it with due divis- 

 ion and wise combination for the accomplishment 

 of ends, has had results which are familiar to all 

 readers of the " Wealth of Nations." Of the value 

 of personal intelligence and of the cultivation of 

 a knowledge of scientific principles, our genera- 

 tion are fully convinced, as the arguments of the 

 favorers and opponents of compulsory education 

 alike testify. We are told on all hands that, if 

 England is to retain her place in the first rank of 

 mechanical industry, her workmen must possess 

 more education, and thus be provided with greater 

 skill. And in so doing they do wisely; in these 

 days it is not mere bone and muscle which we 

 want; with mighty physical forces adapted to 

 every-day task we rely less than formerly on brute 

 force ; we merely want the adjustment of natural 

 forces to materials furnished by Nature, and it is 

 by the development of skill, not by the multipli- 

 cation of laborers, that the national energy is 

 increased. Those who talk as East Anglian la- 

 borers and Chelsea prophets have done about the 

 worth of a human being, forget how much more 

 worthy the skillful man is: they forget too that a 

 rapid increase of population in a country where a 

 poor-law exists has a tendency to lower the stand- 

 ard of skill and the national energy : parents can- 

 not afford the due training of their numerous 



progeny, and the nation if repleted with muscle is 

 not replenished with skill. 



Trust. — The increase of the power of waiting 

 by means of trust is another feature of modern in- 

 dustry ; great are the opportunities for borrowing 

 other people's capital, and using their powers of 

 patience for our own ends, on the faith that they 

 will share in our expected wealth. These facili- 

 ties render it possible for any manufacturer to ex- 

 tend his operations suddenly, and to take imme- 

 diate advantage of any new opportunities of gain 

 that may turn up. In this way the patience of 

 the country can be easily directed into new chan- 

 nels or transferred from one employment to anoth- 

 er. Just as by skill energy is economized through 

 being wisely applied and wisely organized, so by 

 trust the patience of the country is economized, 

 and men wait for results in those departments of 

 industry where the best returns are to be had for 

 the privation undergone. Its function in facili- 

 tating the exchange of goods — the way in which 

 this new factor affects the judgment of the sell- 

 er — would require a long discussion to elucidate 

 fully ; countless questions about credit and crises 

 are connected with it, and must be passed over 

 now. 



Such are the principal human powers which 

 are at work in satisfying human wants ; they have 

 been exhibited in a consistent shape in their mu- 

 tual relations, and hints have been dropped as to 

 the place which each leading doctrine might hold 

 when treated from this point of view. I would 

 claim that nothing of economical importance need 

 be omitted in working out the subject thus, and 

 that no assumption has been made which is in- 

 consistent with any condition of human develop- 

 ment, high or low. By avoiding the temptation 

 to unreal precision we may attain to a doctrine- 

 which, unlike the current abstractions, is widely 

 true, while at the same time it harmonizes with 

 our ordinary talk. This last is no small advan- 

 tage, and it was in the attempt to discuss eco- 

 nomical questions with practical men that I w r as 

 first led to see the convenience of treating politi- 

 cal economy as a moral science. We may now 

 test our representation by the means it affords for 

 treating special questions with a fresh light; in 

 so doing we shall encounter the difficult problems 

 of the distribution of wealth. 



Ill, TREATMENT OF SPECIAL QUESTIONS. 



Trades- Unions. — There are very many points 

 of interest connected with these associations 

 which we might discuss ; but we shall limit our- 

 selves to the question how far they can " better 



