POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



to his own advantage, and becomes more and 

 more disposed to labour gratuitously for the benefit 

 of his fellow-men. 



9. That the necessaries of life, its luxuries, &c., 

 vary with the rank, race, country, civilisation, and 

 individual character of man. 



Among these principles of labour, it is apparent 

 that those are of most importance, and are most 

 urgent in their action, that have reference to the 

 necessaries of life, and to the luxuries that are 

 ordinarily enjoyed by the several ranks, and have 

 become in a secondary sense necessaries of their 

 condition. The condition of three-fourths of the 

 mass of mankind consists essentially in this, that 

 almost their whole active strength is given towards 

 obtaining a moderate supply of the necessaries of 

 life only. The remainder live a more luxurious or 

 less laborious existence ; but even of these, the 

 larger portion the middle classes give about 

 three-fourths of their energies to the same essential 

 object ; and the class who are entirely relieved 

 from the need of labour is comparatively limited. 



Labour may be applied either individually or 

 collectively ; each individual may raise and manu- 

 facture his own food, clothing, housing ; or these 

 may be prepared by the community through com- 

 bined action, and distributed among individuals 

 according to bargain or usage. Labour, too, may 

 be skilled or unskilled ; may be aided by ma- 

 chinery, or by the moving powers of nature ; 

 may be self-subsistent, or may be maintained by 

 capital ; may be productive or unproductive. 

 These differences in the modes of applying labour 

 will be considered below. 



Of Capital 



Capital is the sum of wealth at any given time, 

 and the term is applicable to the wealth of indi- 

 viduals as of nations. In the widest sense of the 

 term, capital includes all kinds of wealth ; but, 

 as before, our special attention must be drawn to 

 those kinds the supply of which is limited either 

 by nature or by dependence on labour and 

 which alone, therefore, possess exchangeable value. 

 In this restricted sense, capital is the sum of those 

 species of wealth the supply of which is limited 

 either by nature or by their dependence on 

 labour. And capital, as so defined, possesses 

 exchangeable value. For convenience, it is usual 

 to express that value in money ; but money is 

 only a small portion, though it is a portion, of 

 capital or wealth : all the precious metals pos- 

 sessed by man would not equal, in exchange- 

 able value, a tithe of the capital of the world. 

 Nevertheless, for reasons to be afterwards given, 

 it is convenient to express value in money, since 

 though the latter is never equal to the rest of the 

 world's capital taken together transactions are 

 continually occurring by which a limited portion 

 of each commodity is being exchanged for money, 

 and hence we have a common standard by which 

 to judge the exchangeable values of all 



It is no easy task to accumulate wealth. Man 

 is indisposed to labour more than he finds abso- 

 lutely necessary ; he seeks to obtain as much en- 

 joyment as possible with as little trouble as pos- 

 sible the chief trouble being labour. Hence the 

 aversion to produce a supply beyond immediate 

 wants ; the difficulty of saving of setting apart 

 something for future use. It bridles present en- 

 joyment, and entails labour beyond immediate 



needs. A main object in education, industrial 

 training, and civilisation, is to implant habits of 

 labour ; but it is a struggle with pleasure-loving 

 and ease-loving nature, and the disposition to 

 spend is constantly dissipating the stores laid 

 up by the more prudent. Above all, there is 

 the natural tendency of a population to increase 

 its expenditure by multiplying its numbers. 



From these causes, accumulated wealth is by no 

 means a common possession, and is, for the most 

 part, found in the hands of a small, though con- 

 stantly increasing number, with whom it descends 

 from generation to generation giving rise, in 

 certain forms, to hereditary rank. In the landed 

 aristocracy, and among our most successful mer- 

 chants, hereditary fortunes assume enormous pro- 

 portions ; in the middle ranks, the patrimony is 

 more moderate, but, on the whole, there is a large 

 amount of accumulated wealth in such a country 

 as ours, so remarkable for its industry and enter- 

 prise. 



In truth, there is a double motive to save. Not 

 only is the wealth saved available for future use, 

 exactly in the same way as it is available, if 

 wanted for present use, but it admits of being 

 applied to important purposes in the interim, and 

 in such way as to return itself to the owner with 

 a profit. 



Accumulated wealth may be applied for the use 

 of people living in idleness ; or for the use of 

 people employed in new labour ; and in the latter 

 case, the labourers maintained by capital may be 

 engaged either in producing the necessaries of 

 life, or in producing the luxuries of life. 



II. CONSUMPTION. 



Consumption is the name given to the applica- 

 tion of wealth to its uses, which vary with the 

 wants or desires fulfilled. There are wants the 

 fulfilment of which is a condition of life ; the 

 demand for food, clothing, and shelter, being of 

 all the most imperative. People in starvation will 

 give anything they possess in exchange for food ; 

 and the need of clothing and shelter is only a 

 degree less pressing. But however imperative the 

 demand for food, clothing, and shelter, the means 

 of satisfying these wants are not always at com- 

 mand ; there sometimes is not enough corn to 

 satisfy all ; and even when there is enough for all, 

 to many it may not be accessible. In this and 

 other civilised countries, an effort is made, by 

 means of poor-laws and otherwise, to provide 

 against a calamity so extreme ; but in uncivilised 

 countries, millions sometimes perish of famine. 



If few, however, directly die of starvation 

 among civilised people, the same end more fre- 

 quently comes about from ills engendered by 

 poverty. A pittance of food may be earned to 

 tide over the passing day; but the strength and 

 health may be undermined by innutritious diet, 

 cold, or the bad air of an overcrowded lodging. 

 In penury such as this, a large mass of our popu- 

 lation constantly struggles, especially in times of 

 scarcity or slack trade. 



Above this extreme of straitened living, every 

 variety is to be found in the measure of consump- 

 tion. That is most to be desired which main- 

 tains health in body and mind, and the comfort 

 and culture to which the individual has been born. 

 As a matter of fact, however, people commonly 



