152 POLITICAL ECONOMY 



one class, as by the farmers, may benefit some classes and impo- 

 verish others, and that on the other hand the introduction of a 

 new industry may, by supplying a new want, restore wealth, 

 making every one richer all round. On the other hand it might 

 be the bread out of the mouths of one or more classes. There 

 is no general rule. 



In this primitive community with no capital, no wages, no 

 money in circulation, consisting wholly of producers and con- 

 sumers, we nevertheless see that many of the difficulties arise 

 which we meet with in our complex body commercial. There 

 were rich and poor ; the rich were those who could produce 

 much that was wanted by others, who in their turn produced 

 what the rich desired. The poor were those who could produce 

 little for any one able to repay them with what they considered 

 necessary. It is not enough to say that in our imaginary 

 island the rich are those who produce most. It is not enough 

 even to say that the rich are those who produce most of those 

 commodities that are wanted. We have to go farther and 

 remember that want felt by a man who can not pay is useless to 

 the producer, and that the only real payment is the return of 

 something which he can consume. Nevertheless, when we so 

 arrange the conditions as to make the bartering obvious, we 

 still find that a change in taste or in the method of production 

 may result in a completely new distribution of wealth. More- 

 over, it can not be affirmed as an absolute truth that an improve- 

 ment in manufacture must benefit the whole community. When 

 the farmers improved their agriculture they ruined the hunters. 

 They took no goods from them, but they deprived them of that 

 demand which gave their goods value. This truth is extremely 

 unpalatable to the political economist, who dearly loves to think 

 that every increase in output must be an increase of wealth 

 benefiting all. The elementary case chosen shows how an in- 

 creased output of an absolutely necessary production may never- 

 theless ruin another class of producers. 



This result followed the improvement because the two classes 

 really supplied the same want, that of food. The increased 

 wealth of the farmers and of the other producers was therefore 

 gained to some extent at the expense of the hunters. These 

 were thrown out of work and could only get their living by 



