166 CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR IT 



troubling themselves about the existence of any 

 other people. But the manufacturer depends on 

 pre-existing capital, not only at the beginning, but 

 at the end of his operations. However great the 

 expenditure of his labour and of his skill, the 

 result, for the purpose of maintaining his exist 

 ence, is just the same as if he had done nothing, 

 unless there is a customer . able and willing to 

 exchange food-stuffs for that which his labour and 

 skill have achieved. 



There is another point concerning which it is 

 very necessary to have clear ideas. Suppose a 

 carpenter in Lanzerote to be engaged in making 

 chests of drawers. Let us suppose that a, the 

 timber, and ~b, the grain and meat needful for the 

 man's sustenance until he can finish a chest of 

 drawers, have to be paid for by that chest. 

 Then the capital with which he starts is repre 

 sented by a + "b. He could not start at all unless 

 he had it ; day by day, he must destroy more or 

 less of the substance and of the general adapta 

 bility of a in order to work it up into the special 

 forms needed to constitute the chest of drawers ; 

 and, day by day, he must use up at least so much 

 of I as will replace his loss of vital capital by the 

 work of that day. Suppose it takes the car 

 penter and his workmen ten days to saw up the 

 timber, to plane the boards, and to give them the 

 shape and size proper for the various parts of the 

 chest of drawers. And suppose that he then 



