LABOUR AND WEALTH. 599 



The immense value of the two Australian branch Mints 

 may be easily seen from the fact that during the year 1881 

 the British Mint struck no gold coins whatever, whilst the 

 local branches raised no less a sura than £3,736,800. 



14._N0TES ON THE VALUE OF LABOR IN RELA- 

 TION TO THE PRODUCTION OF WEALTH: 

 REGARDED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A 

 PHYSICIST. 



By ALFRED J. TAYLOR, F.L.S., F.R.G.S.E. 

 \^Abstract.'\ 

 It may be well, at the outset, if I define the senses in which 

 the terms wealth and labor will be used in this paper. The 

 term wealth will be used to mean that which is profitable to 

 man in satisfying his desires. In using the term labor, while 

 not excluding mental effort, I shall refer principally to what 

 is popularly spoken of as the labor of the hands (the class of 

 effort put forth by those who are said to earn their living by 

 the sweat of their brow). 



The diflference in the relative value of the two classes of 

 wealth that satisfy human desire is very great, and it needs 

 no argument to demonstrate the fact that the wealth that is 

 necessary to the sustenance of life must be of infinitely larger 

 importance than the wealth that merely affords satisfaction 

 on contemplation — or in the idea of possession. Wealth, in 

 the shape of food, for example, would be of far more value to 

 a man on a raft in mid-ocean than the possession of kegs 

 filled with diamonds or gems of literature and art. 



Wealth, essential to the sustenance of life, may be broadly 

 classed under the term Necessaries : the other form of wealth 

 referred to, under the term Luxuries. 



What produces wealth ? 



It has been truly said that " No theory of labor or work, no 

 philosophy of the production of those things which sustain 

 and gratify human hfe, can rest uj)on any accurate and 

 scientific basis unless it be founded upon the clear and accurate 

 comprehension of certain fundamental physical truths." 



The fundamental physical truths referred to are these : — 

 1. That the only real things in the physical universe are 

 matter and energy. 2. That matter is indestructible and 

 invariable in quantity. 3. That matter cannot be transmuted 



