POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



45 



i which ought to be secured fur seed. A nation spends 

 Keonomy. too little, whenever, bring destitute of foreign com- 

 **~~-C~* metre, it does not consume its own production ; or 

 when, enjoying foreign commerce, it does not consume 

 the excess of its production above its exportation ; for 

 if so, it soon comes into the condition of the solitary 

 cultivator, who having filled all his granaries far be- 

 yond the probability of consumption, would be obliged, 

 that he might not work in vain, partly to abandon his 

 cultivation of the ground. 



The nation does not indeed spend all that it con- 

 sumes ; the name expenditure in such a case can pro- 

 perly be given to that consumption only which pro- 

 duces nothing ; while that part of the consumption, 

 which represents the wages of productive workmen, is 

 an employment of funds, not an expenditure. Thus 

 the nation, when it forms manufacturing establishments, 

 does not diminish its consumption ; it consumes, in a 

 productive manner, what it formerly consumed unpro- 

 ductively. Still, however, this employment of the na- 

 tional produce in giving movement to new labour, 

 though it does not destroy the balance between pro- 

 duction and consumption, renders it much more com- 

 plex. The new produce thus obtained must at last find 

 a consumer ; and though it may be generally affirmed, 

 that to increase the labour is to increase the wealth, 

 and with it in a similar proportion the revenue and 

 the consumption ; still it is any thing but proved, that 

 by too rapid an increase of its labour, a nation may not 

 altogether deviate from the proper rate of consumption, 

 and thus ruin itself by economy as well as prodigality. 

 Happily, in most cases, the increase of capital, of re- 

 venue, and of consumption requires no superintendence; 

 they proceed of their own accord with an equal pace ; 

 and when one of them, at any time, happens to pass 

 the others for an instant, foreign commerce is almost 

 always ready to restore the equilibrium. 



We have designedly carried on our history of the for- 

 mation and progress of wealth thus far, without men- 

 tioning a circulating medium, to show that in fact such 

 an instrument is not necessary for its development. 

 A circulating medium did not create wealth ; but it 

 simplified all the relations, and facilitated all the trans- 

 actions of commerce : it gave to each the means of 

 finding sooner what suited him best ; and thus pre- 

 senting an advantage to every one, it still farther in- 

 creased the wealth, which was already increasing with- 

 out it. 



The precious metals are one of the numerous values 

 produced by the labour of man, and applicable to his 

 use. It was soon discovered that they, more than any 

 other species of riches, possessed the property of being 

 preserved without alteration for any length of time, and 

 the no less valuable one of uniting easily into a single 

 whole, after being divided almost infinitely. The two 

 halves of a piece of cloth, of a fleece, and still less of 

 an ox, though these are supposed to have once been 

 employed as money were not worth the whole ; but 

 the two halves, the four quarters of a pound of gold, 

 are always, and will be a pound of gold, however 

 long they may be kept. As the first exchange of 

 which men feel the need, is that which enables them 

 to preserve the fruit of their labour for a future season, 

 every one became eager to get precious metals in ex- 

 change for his commodity, whatever it might be; not 

 because he at all intended to use those metals himself, 

 but because he was sure of being able to exchange 

 them at any time afterwards, in the same manner, and 

 for the same reason, against whatever article he might 



then need. From that time, the precious metals began Political 



. Economy. 



to be sought after, not that they might be 

 eel in the use of man as ornaments or u lentils, but 

 that they might be accumulated, at first, as represent- 

 ing every species of wealth, and then that they might 

 be used in commerce as the means of facilitating all 

 kinds of exchange. 



Gold dust, in its primitive state, continues even now 

 to be the medium of exchange among the African nsr 

 tions. But when once the value of gold comes to be 

 universally admitted, there remains but a single step, 

 much easier and far less important, till it be converted 

 into coin, which warrants, by a legal stamp, the weight 

 and the fineness of every particle of the precious metals 

 employed in circulation. 



The invention of money gave quite a new activity 

 to exchange. Whoever happened to possess any su- 

 perfluity had no longer occasion to seek the article 

 likely to be needed in time to come. He no longer 

 delayed selling his corn till he should meet the oil- 

 merchant or the wool-dealer to offer them the thing 

 they wanted ; he reckoned it enough to find money, 

 being certain that for this he could always obtain any 

 required commodity. The buyer, too, on his side needed 

 not to study what would suit the seller ; money was 

 always sure to satisfy all his demands. Before the in- 

 vention of a circulating medium, a fortunate concur- 

 rence of conveniences was requisite for an exchange ; 

 whereas after this invention, there could scarcely be a 

 buyer who did not find a seller, or a seller who did not 

 find a buyer. 



As exchanges, and afterwards sales and purchases 

 were voluntary, it might be inferred that all values 

 were given for values completely equal. It is more 

 correct, however, to say that bargains were never made 

 without advantages to both parties. The seller found 

 a profit in selling, the buyer in buying. The one 

 drew more advantages from the money which he re- 

 ceived, than he would have done from his merchan- 

 dise ; the other more advantage from the merchandise 

 which he acquired, than he would have done from his 

 money. Both parties had gained, and hence the na- 

 tion gained doubly by their bargain. On the same 

 principle, when a master set any workman to labour, 

 and gave him in exchange for the work expected to 

 be done, a wage which corresponded to the workman's 

 maintenance during his labour ; both those contractor^ 

 gained; the workman, because he had received in ad- 

 vance the fruit of his labour, before it was accomplish- 

 ed ; the master, because this workman's labour was 

 worth more than his wages. The nation gained with 

 both ; for as the national wealth must at the long run be 

 realized in enjoyment, whatever augments the enjoy- 

 ment of individuals, must be considered as a gain for all. 



Thus the labour of man created wealth ; but wealth, 

 in its turn, created the labour of man. Wherever 

 wealth offered a profit, a wage, a subsistence, it pro- 

 duced a class of men eager to acquire them. The ac- 

 cumulation of primary labour had created the value of 

 land, by unfolding its productive power. This power, 

 as it seconded the labour of man, henceforth became a 

 species of wealth ; and a person possessed of land 

 might, without himself labouring, obtain payment for 

 surrendering the use of it to such as laboured. Hence 

 the origin of sales and leases of land. The farmer 

 again might hire workmen to labour, and thus might 

 acquire the advantages attached to exchanging present 

 subsistence against distant produce. He incurred all 

 the charges of cultivation, he drew all its profits, and left 



