THE LABOURER'S FOOD NOT CAPITAL 85 



civilization which are equally indispensable to the 

 production of elaborate forms of wealth, such as in- 

 telligence, education, power of realizing the future, 

 and security of life and property, yet no one would 

 dream of classing these among capital. I therefore 

 contend that the food of the labourer cannot be called 

 capital; his food, his house, and his clothing are the 

 objects for which he labours ; they constitute the 

 material life of the man, and according as they are 

 good and sufficient is he capable of attaining the full 

 development of his nature. To look upon them as 

 fuel to the human machine is to mistake accidental 

 and secondary attributes for essentials. In the study 

 of economics we should never forget that wealth was 

 made for man, and not man for wealth. 



It is obvious that the loans which the peasant con- 

 tracts to celebrate his son's marriage or to conduct a 

 lawsuit are not capital ; and if to these two frequent 

 sources of debt is added, as I contend should be, the 

 advance which the money-lender makes to the peasant 

 for food, it will be seen that there is a large class of 

 loans which ought not to be considered under the 

 head of capital. The Indian money-lender is therefore 

 at the same time a capitalist and a usurer, and his 

 services must be balanced against his dis-services, 

 when we consider the part he plays in the rural com- 

 munity. 



It appears to be thought, because the Indian money- 

 lender takes a high rate of interest (or usury) and 

 turns the miseries of his poor neighbours to his own 

 advantage, that he must be an exceptionally rapacious 

 person, and the chronic indebtedness of the cultivator 

 is held to indicate an abnormally morbid condition of 

 the rural economy of India. This is not the case ; the 

 rapacity of the money-lender and the indebtedness of 

 the peasantry of India are neither exceptional nor 

 abnormal. They are characteristics of agricultural 

 life everywhere. They are characteristics which it 



