ADAM SMITH. 205 



the service which Government renders to the owner of the 

 property by defence and police; it is the service for which 

 their wages are paid to soldiers, and magistrates, and police 

 officers. Can we then, on Dr. Smith's own view, deny the 

 additions made to the stock of the community by these 

 labourers, or refuse to their labour the name of productive ? 



In every point of view, therefore, it appears that the 

 opinion of Dr. Smith is untenable. He has drawn his line 

 of distinction between productive and unproductive labour in 

 too low a part of the scale. The labour which he denomi- 

 nates unproductive, has the very same qualities with a great 

 part of the labour which he allows to be productive. Accord- 

 ing to his own principles, the line should have been drawn^ 

 so as to cut off, on the one hand, the labour which appa- 

 rently increases the quantity of stock, and to leave, on the 

 other hand, all that labour which only modifies, or in some 

 manner induces a beneficial change upon stock already in 

 existence. In a word, his principles clearly carry him to the 

 theory of the Economists; and, in order to be consistent, he 

 ought unquestionably to have reckoned agriculture the only 

 productive employment of capital or labour. That there is 

 only this one doctrine tenable, in consistency with itself, has 

 been, we conceive, sufficiently proved. We shall now con- 

 sider whether there is in reality any foundation even for this 

 distinction, which forms the basis of the theory supported by 

 the Economists. 



Whoever has honoured the foregoing observations with 

 his attention, will speedily be satisfied that the reasonings 

 applied to Dr. Smith's classification of labour are applicable 

 also to the more precise and constituent doctrine of the fol- 

 lowers of Quesnay. It is the opinion of these ingenious 

 metaphysicians, that the labour bestowed upon the earth can 

 alone be considered as really productive; that all other labour 

 only varies the position or the form of capital, but that agri- 

 culture increases its net amount. That the merchant who 

 transports goods from the spot of their abundance to the 

 quarter where they are wanted, adds nothing to the whole 

 stock, or to the value of the portions which he circulates, 

 these reasoners deem almost a self-evident proposition. That 



