180 CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR IT 



delusion of the first magnitude ; even though it 

 be supported by the dictum of Adam Smith which 

 is quoted in its favour (p. 34) 



The produce of labour constitutes the natural recompense or 

 wages of labour. In that original state of things which precedes 

 both the appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock, 

 the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer. He has 

 neither landlord nor master to share with him ("Wealth of 

 Nations," ch. viii). 



But the whole of this passage exhibits the in- 

 fluence of the French Physiocrats by whom Adam 

 Smith was inspired, at their worst ; that is to say, 

 when they most completely forsook the ground of 

 experience for a priori speculation. The confident 

 reference to "that original state of things" is 

 quite in the manner of the Essai sur I'ln6galit. 

 Now, the state of men before the " appropriation 

 of land " and the " accumulation of stock " must 

 surely have been that of purely savage hunters. 

 As, by the supposition, nobody would have 

 possessed land, certainly no man could have had 

 a landlord ; and, if there was no accumulation of 

 stock in a transferable form, as surely there could 

 be no master, in the sense of hirer. But hirer 

 and hire (that is, wages) are correlative terms, 

 like mother and child. As "child" implies 

 " mother," so does " hire " or " wages " imply a 

 " hirer " or " wage-giver." Therefore, when a man 

 in " the original state of things " gathered fruit or 

 killed game for his own sustenance, the fruit or 



