CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



desire to increase the scale of their consumption, 

 rather than diminish it, or remain at their original 

 level. As life advances, they aspire to new com- 

 forts, and they train their children to tastes more 

 luxurious than their own. The prudent curb this 

 craving, and especially guard against implanting 

 it in their families. 



It will be observed that consumption includes 

 not merely the use of food and other such com- 

 modities, but the use of everything possessing 

 exchangeable value, from the products of muscu- 

 lar labour, to the highest products of art and 

 intelligence. 



In the middle ranks, the measure of consump- 

 tion is much larger than among the working 

 orders, and in the higher ranks it is sometimes 

 enormous. The personal service afforded by the 

 retinue of domestics in a rich man's establishment 

 is no small item of that consumption the labour 

 being entirely spent on the comfort or gratification 

 of the master and those dependent on him in 

 technical language, the product of their labour is 

 thus consumed. 



There is a very rich class, whose means of 

 living so far exceed their wants, and even their 

 desires, that in no period of scarcity are they ever 

 called on to economise ; but between these and 

 the hard-working operative there are few that, 

 like the latter, do not feel the pinch of bad times. 

 The middle classes do not live from hand to 

 mouth ; they have a moderate measure of capital, 

 and they can also more readily get the loan of 

 spare capital from their neighbours. During a 

 backward season, therefore, the middle-class man 

 may continue his former consumption by drawing 

 on his own or his neighbour's capital While 

 this very much promotes his comfort, it is at- 

 tended with its own dangers. It is justifiable, as 

 a means of tiding over a short period of depression ; 

 but is too often made the means of maintaining a 

 large measure of consumption not of one's own 

 but of one's neighbour's wealth, till bankruptcy dis- 

 closes its real source. In general, however, while 

 the need of food, clothing, and shelter is as im- 

 perative in the middle as with the working classes, 

 and even more so, since, with their up-bringing, 

 they can less bear want, and require a supply of a 

 more costly sort, there is nevertheless a large 

 margin of the consumption of a family in the 

 middle classes that varies with the means at 

 command for the time or within prospect; and 

 in no class is economy or the moderation of 

 consumption practised so much. 



We have spoken of consumption for one's own 

 wants cr gratification ; but all consumption is not 

 of that description ; wealth may be destroyed by 

 accident, as by fire, or flood, or shipwreck ; or by 

 war, or in mischief; or people may from some cause 

 or other cease to desire the use of the species of 

 wealth held in store, as when a machine or a 

 fashion becomes obsolete all which fluctuations 

 involve the loss or consumption of the specific 

 wealth owned by the individual or the community 

 at the time. 



But the owner of wealth, instead of consuming it 

 himself, may give it away for use or consumption 

 by others ; and here arises a host of distinctions 

 according to the conditions on which it is given 

 to be used or consumed, and the objects in view to 

 effect by means of its consumption. For, whilr 

 wealth is being consumed, it is most importan 



468 



to inquire in what manner the consumer is him- 

 self employed, and in particular whether during 

 this period he spends his time in idleness or 



n labour ; and if in labour, whether that labour is 

 applied toward the production of the necessaries, 



ir of the luxuries of life ; and with what degree of 



uccess. 

 There is a very important branch of consump- 



ion which is of another sort namely, the use 



if tools, machinery, shipping, or other indirect 

 appliances for accomplishing work. The ma- 

 chinery or vessels, in being used, are said to be 

 consumed, more or less rapidly, according to the 



cngth of time during which they serve their 



>urposc. 



III. PRODUCTION 

 Is the name given to the economy of labour as 

 ipplied to the preparation of commodities useful 

 ,o man, either in combination with the forces of 

 nature, or independently of these forces. The 

 motive of the producer or labourer we have seen 

 to be the desire to gain a livelihood for himself, to 

 obtain a share of the necessaries and luxuries of 

 _ife. If his wants are satisfied without the need 

 of labour, he has no motive to produce ; but with 

 most people it is necessary to labour in order to 

 supply their wants and gratify their desires. 



In a primitive condition of life, each individual 

 is dependent mainly on his own exertions to raise 

 and prepare for use the several commodities he 

 requires to hunt for his own food, build his own 

 hut, make his own dress, manufacture his own 

 tools ; but by-and-by, the strong compel slaves 

 and women to do the hardest of the work ; and 

 the community come to see it for the general 

 advantage to combine their labour in order to 

 obtain a larger result ; population increases, and 

 drives men to endeavour to increase the produce 

 of nature by artificial means, and to aid the 

 operations of men's hands by tools and machinery. 

 Under such arrangements, the food, clothing, and 

 housing consumed by the several individuals of a 

 community are seldom produced or manufactured 

 by themselves each takes a branch only upon 

 him in the general thrift : some make shoes, 

 others bake bread, others weave, others till the 

 ground ; and from time to time the shoemaker, in 

 exchange for his shoes, receives a proportion of 

 the bread, of the cloth, of the butcher-meat, on 

 which his neighbours expended their labour ; and 

 so with the others in their turn. The principles 

 that govern this system of exchanging one com- 

 modity for another will come to be further ex- 

 plained by and by. 



Productiveness of Labour. 



In order that labour may be productive, it is in 

 the first place necessary that it be directed to some 

 useful end : it must be intended to serve the 

 person who labours, or other persons. Rolling 

 stones up a hill, that they may roll back again, or 

 turning a wheel which sets no machinery in 

 motion, is not productive labour, however disagree- 

 able, and however much it may exhaust the person 

 occupied. For the same reason, any exertion 

 undergone to produce what already exists without 

 effort, is thrown away. No artificial light can 

 excel the light of the sun. Were we to shut this 

 out, and light our houses with gas while the sun 

 is shining outside, there would be exertion thrown 



