174 CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv 



being exchanged " against labour or anything else. 

 That, in fact, is the equivalent of the second 

 definition, that capital is "that part of wealth 

 which is devoted to the aid of production." 

 Obviously, if you possess that for which men will 

 give labour, you can aid production by means of 

 that labour. And, again, it agrees with the first 

 definition (borrowed from Adam Smith) that 

 capital is " that part of a man's stock which he 

 expects to yield him a revenue." For a revenue 

 is both etymologically and in sense a "return." 

 A man gives his labour in sowing grain, or in 

 tending cattle, because he expects a " return " a 

 "revenue" in the shape of the increase of the 

 grain or of the herd ; and also, in the latter case, 

 in the shape of their labour and manure which 

 " aid the production " of such increase. The grain 

 and cattle of which he is possessed immediately 

 after harvest is his capital ; and his revenue for the 

 twelvemonth, until the next harvest, is the surplus 

 of grain and cattle over and above the amount 

 with which he started. This is disposable for 

 any purpose for which he may desire to use it, 

 leaving him just as well off as he was at the 

 beginning of the year. Whether the man keeps 

 the surplus grain for sowing more land, and the 

 surplus cattle for occupying more pasture ; whether 

 he exchanges them for other commodities, such 

 as the use of the land (as rent); or labour (as 

 wages); of whether he feeds himself and his 



