728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the joint share of the other two is determined. In current economic 

 doctrine there is no correlation between the laws determining the 

 shares of these factors, and the nomenclature does not clearly or cor- 

 rectly express the shares into which wealth is divided. It is common 

 for economists to speak of the division into rent, wages, and profits. 



Rent clearly expresses the return made to landholders for the use 

 of the land, and wages the return made for exertion of whatever kind ; 

 but profits does not express the return made for the use of capital. 

 It includes, as well, that return made for labor in guiding and direct- 

 ing a business, commonly sj^oken of as the "wages of sujDerinten- 

 dence," and also the return for risk of capital. Wages of superinten- 

 dence properly belong under wages, and, considering the entire field of 

 industry, risk is elfminated. There is then left interest, which expresses 

 all and no more that is properly the return made for the use of capital. 

 The division of the produce is, therefore, into rent, wages, and inter- 

 est. The laws of each of these will be found to correlate, and this 

 interdependence is presumptive of their truth. 



What, then, is the law of wages ? In a primitive state of society, 

 or in any of those simple occupations where a man works for himself, 

 without calling in the use of capital, the whole result of his labor con- 

 stitutes his return — his wages. The man who picks berries, hunts, or 

 fishes, evidently has the berries picked, the game obtained, and the 

 fish caught as the reward of his exertion. The wages of any number 

 of laborers would be the whole amount produced, and the share of 

 each would be proportional to the amount his labor contributed to the 

 general stock of produce. But labor can not proceed very far be- 

 fore tools become necessary. Instead of all the labor being devoted 

 to the things that are desired for consumption, part of the labor 

 must be devoted to making tools that will facilitate the production 

 of the things desired. These tools are capital, and the whole produce 

 now obtained by the joint action of labor and capital will not go to 

 labor alone, but will be divided between the two. Mr. George holds 

 that interest is due simply to the value that the vital or reproductive 

 forces of nature give to the element of time, the return for capital in 

 any form being averaged with the return to capital in those forms 

 in which these forces come into play. The constant tendency is to 

 an equation between interest and wages, so that the return to capital 

 and labor will be the same for the same work done. Labor and capi- 

 tal, therefore, would divide up between them the entire produce re- 

 sulting from their union, each having a share proportionate to its con- 

 tribution to the whole. But they are not permitted to make such 

 division. A third party claims a share — the landholder. 



If one man owned all the land that was open to capital and labor, 

 he would have absolute control over the produce of these agents. He 

 could take, if his authority were respected, any part of it, or all of it, 

 as he was inclined. In actual industrial society, however, land is in 



