IV CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 161 



stroyers. The labour of man neither does, nor 

 can, produce vital capital ; all that it can do is to 

 modify, favourably or unfavourably, the conditions 

 of its production. The most important of these 

 namely, sunshine, range of daily and nightly 

 temperature, wind are practically out of men's 

 reach. 1 On the other hand, the supply of water, 

 the physical and chemical qualities of the soil, 

 and the influences of competitors and destroyers, 

 can often, though by no means always, be largely 

 affected by labour and skill. And there is no 

 harm in calling the effect of such labour " pro 

 duction," if it is clearly understood that " produc 

 tion " in this sense is a very different thing from 

 the " production " of food-stuffs by a plant. 



We have been dealing hitherto with suppositions 

 the materials of which are furnished by everyday 

 experience, not with mere a priori assumptions. 

 Our hypothetical solitary shepherd with his flock, 

 or the solitary farmer with his grain field, are 

 mere bits of such experience, cut out, as it were, 

 for easy study. Still borrowing from daily ex 

 perience, let us suppose that either sheep-owner 

 or farmer, for any reason that may be imagined, 



1 I do not forget electric lighting, greenhouses and hothouses, 

 and the various modes of affording shelter against violent winds : 

 but in regard to production of food-stuffs on the large scale they 

 may be neglected. Even if synthetic chemistry should effect 

 the construction of proteids, the Laboratory will hardly enter 

 into competition with the Farm within any time which the 

 present generation need trouble itself about. 



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