44 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



Political lishments, calculated to increase the productive power 

 Economy. o f future labour. Such establishments themselves 

 """"Y"* 11 " grow old, decay, and are slowly consumed in their 

 turn, after having long contributed to augment the an- 

 nual production. 



As the former required seed, which, after being com- 

 mitted to the earth, was returned fivefold in harvest; 

 so likewise, every undertaker of useful labour requires 

 raw materials to work upon, and wages for his work- 

 men, equivalent to the necessaries of life consumed by 

 them in their labour. His operations thus begin with a 

 consumption ; and this is followed by a reproduction 

 which should be more abundant, since itmust be equiva- 

 lent to the raw materials worked upon, to the necessaries 

 of life consumed by his workmen in their labour, to the 

 sum by which his machinery and all his fixed capitals 

 have been deteriorated during the production, and last- 

 ly to the profit of all concerned in the labour, who have 

 supported its fatigues solely in the hope of gaining by 

 it. The farmer sowed twenty bags of corn to reap a 

 hundred ; the manufacturer will make a calculation 

 nearly similar. And as the farmer at harvest must re- 

 cover not only a compensation for his seed, but like- 

 wise for all his labours, so the manufacturer must find 

 in his production, not the raw materials only, but all 

 the wages of his workmen, all the interests and profits 

 of his fixed capital, with all the interests and profits of 

 his circulating capital. 



In the last place, the farmer may augment his seed 

 every year ; but he will not fail to recollect that, since 

 his crops increase in the same necessaries, he is not 

 sure of always finding men to eat them. The manu- 

 facturer, in like manner, devoting the savings of each 

 year to increase his reproduction, must recollect the 

 necessity of finding purchasers and consumers for the 

 increasing products of his establishment. 



Since the fund destined for consumption no longer 

 produces any thing, and since each man strives inces- 

 santly to preserve and augment his fortune ; each will 

 also restrict his consumable fund, and instead of accu- 

 mulating in his house a quantity of necessaries greatly 

 superior to what he can consume, he will augment his 

 fixed or circulating capital by all that he does not 

 expend. In the present condition of society, a part of 

 the fund destined for consumption remains in the 

 retail-dealer's hand, awaiting the buyer's convenience ; 

 another part destined to be consumed very slowly, as 

 houses, furniture, carriages, horses, continues in the 

 hands of persons whose business it is to sell the use of 

 it, without abandoning the property. A considerable 

 portion of the wealth of opulent nations is constantly 

 thrown back into the funds destined for consumption ; 

 but although it still gives profit to its holders, it has 

 ceased to augment the national reproduction. 



The annual distribution of the wealth, annually re- 

 produced, among all the citizens composing the nation, 

 constitutes the national revenue. It consists of all the 

 value, by which the reproduction surpasses the con- 

 sumption that produced it. Thus the farmer, after 

 deducting from his crop a quantity equal to the seed 

 of the foregoing year, finds remaining the part which 

 is to support his family, a revenue to which they 

 have acquired right by means of their annual labour ; 

 the part which is to support his workmen, who have 

 acquired right to it by the same title ; the part with 

 which he is to satisfy the landlord, who has acquired 

 right to this revenue by the original improvement of 

 the soil, now no longer repeated ; and lastly, the part 

 with which he is to pay the interest of his debts, or in- 



5 



demnify himself for the employment of his own capital, Political 

 a revenue to which he has acquired right by the Economy. 

 primitive labours which produced his capital. > * - ""Y"" 1 '' 



So likewise the manufacturer finds, in the annua* 

 produce of his manufactory, first the raw material em- 

 ployed ; secondly, the equivalent of his own wages, 

 and those of his workmen, to which their labour alone 

 gives them right ; thirdly, an equivalent for the an- 

 nual detriment and interest of his fixed capital, to 

 which revenue he or the proprietor has acquired right 

 by a primitive labour ; and lastly, an equivalent for 

 the interest of his circulating capital, which has been 

 produced by another primitive labour. 



It is to be observed that, among those who share the 

 national revenue, some acquire a new right in it every 

 year by a new labour, others have previously acquired 

 a permanent right by a primitive labour, which has 

 rendered the annual labour more advantageous. No 

 one obtains a share of the national revenue, except iu 

 virtue of what he himself or his representatives have 

 accomplished to produce it ; unless, as we shall soon 

 see, he receives it at second hand, from its primitive 

 proprietors, by way of compensation for services done 

 to them. Now, whoever consumes without fulfilling 

 the condition which alone gives him right to the reve- 

 nue ; whoever consumes without having a revenue, or 

 beyond what he has ; whoever consumes ^his capital in 

 place of revenue, is advancing to ruin ; and a nation 

 composed of such consumers is advancing to ruin like- 

 wise. Revenue, indeed, is that quantity by which the 

 national wealth is increased every year, and which ac- 

 cordingly may be destroyed, without the nation's be- 

 coming poorer ; but the nation which, without repro- 

 duction, destroys a quantity of wealth, superior to this 

 annual increase, destroys the very means by which 

 it would have acquired an equal reproduction in sub- 

 sequent years. 



By a circular concatenation, in which every effect 

 becomes a cause in its turn, production gives revenue, 

 revenue furnishes and regulates a consumable fund, 

 which fund again causes production and measures it. 

 The national wealth continues to augment, and the 

 state to prosper, so long as these three quantities, which 

 are proportional to each other, continue to augment in 

 a gradual manner; but whenever the proportion 

 among them is broken, the state decays. A derange- 

 ment of the mutual proportion subsisting among pro- 

 duction, revenue, and consumption, becomes equally 

 prejudicial to the nation, whether the production give 

 a revenue smaller than usual, in which case a part of 

 the capital must pass to the fund of consumption ; or 

 whether, on the contrary, this consumption diminish, 

 and no longer call for a fresh production. To cause 

 distress in the state, it is enough that the equilibrium 

 be broken. Production may diminish, when habits of 

 idleness gain footing among the labouring classes ; ca- 

 pital may diminish, when prodigality and luxury 

 become fashionable ; and lastly, consumption may di- 

 minish from causes of poverty unconnected with the 

 diminution of labour, and yet, as it will not offer em- 

 ployment for future reproduction, it must diminish 

 labour in its turn. 



Thus nations incur dangers that seem incompatible : 

 they fall into ruin equally by spending too much, and 

 by spending too little. A nation spends too much 

 whenever it exceeds its revenue, because it cannot do 

 so except by encroaching on its capital, and thus di- 

 minishing future production ; it then does what the 

 solitary cultivator would do if he should eat the corn 



