152 CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR. iv 



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 va- 

 rious 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 consump- 

 tion of his capital and to keep his organic machin- 

 ery 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 destruc- 

 tion; 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 " produce " to say that his labour in hunt- 

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

 grubs and snakes, which he finds and eats, " pro- 

 duces " or contributes to " produce " them. The 

 same thing is true of more advanced tribes, who 



