152 CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv 



a good deal, if only in mere locomotion) is un 

 productive. 



Let us now suppose the child come to man s 

 estate in the condition of a wandering savage, 

 dependent for his food upon what he can pick 

 up or catch, after the fashion of the Australian 

 aborigines. It is plain that the place of mother, 

 as the supplier of vital capital, is now taken by 

 the fruits, seeds, and roots of plants and by various 

 kinds of animals. It is they alone which contain 

 stocks of those substances which can be converted 

 within the man s organism into work-stuff; and of 

 the other matters, except air and water, required 

 to supply the constant consumption of his capital 

 and to keep his organic machinery going. In no 

 way does the savage contribute to the production 

 of these substances. Whatever labour he bestows 

 upon such vegetable and animal bodies, on the 

 contrary, is devoted to their destruction ; and it is 

 a mere matter of accident whether a little labour 

 yields him a great deal as in the case, for 

 example, of a stranded whale ; or whether much 

 labour yields next to nothing as in times of 

 long-continued drought. The savage, like the 

 child, borrows the capital he needs, and, at any 

 rate, intentionally, does nothing towards repay 

 ment ; it would plainly be an improper use of the 

 word &quot; produce &quot; to say that his labour in hunting 

 for the roots, or the fruits, or the eggs, or the 

 grubs and snakes, which he finds and eats, &quot; pro- 



