626 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



1. To extra exertion : that is, a man having satisfied his 



immediate wants, proceeds to produce something 

 else which he does not want now, but expects to 

 want hereafter. 



2. To the natural durability of most of the articles we 



produce, in consequence of which they are pro- 

 duced faster than they are worn out, and so 

 accumulate. 



3. To the exercise of ingenuity and advance of know- 



ledge, whereby with the same labour that we 

 formerly produced a mere sufficiency we can now 

 produce a surplus. 



There are other causes, no doubt, but these will suffice for 

 our purpose. 



We shall begin our illustrations with the stock example 

 usually given by economists, that of a tribe that lives by 

 fishing. The idea of the economist is that the Indian, having 

 caught his supply of fish, self-denyingly abstains from con- 

 suming as much as he would like in order to put some by, 

 and so accumulation originates. 



My idea is that no self-denying abstinence comes in any- 

 where. The Indian when he goes out fishing catches one or 

 another of three given quantities of fish. Either he catches 

 less than he can comfortably consume, or exactly as much as 

 he can comfortably consume, or more than he can comfortably 

 consume. If less, he can hardly save even if he wants to : 

 he must eat all he has caught and still go hungry. If he 

 catches exactly as much as he can consume, then indeed he 

 might save by putting himself on short commons, but he 

 certainly won't, because it is not in his nature to do so, and 

 because it is not necessary. 



The Red Indian, when he has killed his game, eats as 

 much as he can, then if there is any left over he saves it, 

 but not otherwise. His supplies of food are laid up at great 

 harvests of special exertion, at the bufialo hunt or the 

 spawning season of the salmon, on which occasions he does 

 not practice any abstinence but quite the contrary, but under- 

 goes unusual and prolonged exertion. 



There is one occasion on which the savage may be expected 

 to use prudential abstinence, and that is in presence of some 

 great impending crisis. In Kamstchatka and other sub- 

 polar regions the ground in winter is covered many feet deep 

 with snow, the wild animals have either migrated or are 

 hibernating, and there are no wild fruits to be got. In such 



