so THE EMPLOYMENT OF CAPITAL 



have such banks. The farmer, as has been 

 shown, increases capital by destroying capital. 

 The banks, by their timely advances, enable the 

 farmers to do this. Therefore, though they do 

 not follow the general rule directly, they enable 

 others to do so, and thus do so themselves 

 indirectly. 



A question might here be very fairly put. It 

 has been said that, by work done upon it, raw 

 material becomes the finished article of capital 

 value greater than that of the raw material ; but 

 that there may be this increase in value work 

 must be done. That work is an expenditure of 

 capital, the capital of the workman ; therefore to 

 produce the increased capital, represented by the 

 finished article, two capitals are used up, that of 

 the workman and that represented by the raw 

 material. Why then is there said to be a real 

 increase of capital ? This is quite a fair question, 

 and the answer is interesting. 



The capital of a workman has ten thousand 

 lives : it dies in the evening, but by morning it 

 is again in full vigour. Thus any profit arising 

 from the workman's daily outturn must be multi- 

 plied by at least ten thousand to get the total 

 profit on his work. There is that profit. The 

 workman does a great deal more than support 

 himself and his family. That more is represented 

 by the wear and tear of mill and machinery, the 

 cost of coal, gas, oil, and the general profits of 

 the trade, which go into several pockets. Thus 

 it is clear that the capital value of the finished 

 article represents a true increase, and that 



