IV CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 167 



offers his heap of boards to the advancer of a + b as 

 an equivalent for the wood + ten days' supply of 

 vital capital ? The latter will surely say : " No. 

 I did not ask for a heap of boards. I asked for a 

 chest of drawers. Up to this time, so far as I am 

 concerned, you have done nothing and are as 

 much in my debt as ever." And if the carpenter 

 maintained that he had " virtually " created two- 

 thirds of a chest of drawers, inasmuch as it would 

 take only five days more to put together the pieces 

 of wood, and that the heap, of boards ought to 

 be accepted as the equivalent of two-thirds of his 

 debt, I am afraid the creditor would regard him 

 as little better than an impudent swindler. It 

 obviously makes no sort of difference whether the 

 Canariote or Teneriffian buyer advanced the wood 

 and the food-stuffs, on which the carpenter had to 

 maintain himself; or whether the carpenter had a 

 stock of both, the consumption of which must be 

 recouped by the exchange of a chest of drawers for 

 a fresh supply. In the latter case, it is even less 

 doubtful that, if the carpenter offered his boards 

 to the man who wanted a chest of drawers, the 

 latter would laugh in his face. And if he took 

 the chest of drawers for himself, then so much of 

 his vital capital would be sunk in it past recovery. 

 Again, the payment of goods in a lump, for the 

 chest of drawers, comes to the same thing as the 

 payment of daily wages for the fifteen days that 



