278 ADAM SMITH. 



adding the capital to land ; whereas the whole meaning of 

 the expression is, that capital of one kind or other is given 

 in exchange for land, or that our property has become land, 

 instead of some other valuable commodity or, according 

 to what has just now been defined, that one kind of capital 

 has been exchanged for another. If it is said, that capital 

 is that in which labour has been fixed and realized, either 

 by accumulation or by change of form ; then, it is very 

 obvious, that land, in the most extensive sense of the word, 

 must become capital in order to be useful ; and that many 

 things, usually reckoned capital, as the wild produce which 

 is raised by nature without human assistance, belongs to 

 the class of land, and not to that of stock. But a difference 

 is established by some, especially by Dr. Smith, between 

 capital and the other parts of stock ; capital being, accord- 

 ing to them, that part which brings in a revenue. This 

 idea clearly appears, by the whole of the illustrations given 

 of it, to have arisen from the fundamental error of consider- 

 ing nothing as productive which does not yield a tangible 

 return, and of confounding use with exchange. For, may 

 not a man live upon his stock, that is, enjoy his capital, 

 without either diminishing or exchanging any part of it ? 

 In what does the value, and the real nature of stock reserved 

 for immediate consumption, differ from stock that yields 

 what Dr. Smith calls a revenue or profit ? Merely in this 

 that the former is wanted and used itself by the owner ; 

 the latter is not wanted by him, and therefore is exchanged 

 for something which he does want. There is surely no 

 other meaning in the idea of profit or revenue, but this : 

 and as the profit of that part of stock which is exchanged, 

 and which the adherents of this opinion denominate capital, 

 consists merely in the use of those things obtained in return 

 so, the profit of the other part of stock, the portion 

 reserved for consumption, is the use to which it is immedi- 

 ately subservient. According to Dr. Smith, there is some 

 difference between revenue and enjoyment ; and that part 

 of a man's property yields him no profit, which is most 

 useful and necessary to him, by which he can support and 

 enjoy life without the necessity of any operation of barter. 

 Labour, on the other hand, is so far different in the mode 

 of its subserviency to our enjoyments, that it can in no 



