CAPITAL AS ACCUMULATED FOOD 159 



accumulation of the necessaries and comforts of life, Book u 

 by the consumption and use of which men are able to 

 sustain themselves when engaged on works requir- Wage-capital 

 ing a long period for their completion, which will iadon^f neces 

 when completed be useful and produce much, but sanes of llfe> 

 which, until they are completed, will be of no use 

 at all, and will consequently supply nothing to the 

 workers when actually engaged on them. The 

 simplest example of work of this kind is agriculture. 

 The first man who saved sufficient food to support 

 himself, whilst tilling the soil and waiting for his 

 crops to ripen, was the first capitalist. But capital, 

 when it takes the form of accumulated necessaries 

 and comforts, though it now reaches the workers in 

 the form of wages usually, need not do so of neces- 

 sity. It need not do so when the work is extremely 

 simple and the methods employed are rude. Where- 

 ever agriculture, for example, is in its earliest stages, 

 every husbandman may be his own capitalist, and 

 start with an accumulation of food in his own cottage 

 which will keep him alive till his crops are ready for 

 sale or for consumption. In cases such as these we 

 have capital which, so far as its substance is con- 

 cerned, is identical with wage-capital, but is not 

 wage-capital nevertheless. In order to turn it into owned or con- 



, . . , , , trolled by a 



wage-capital it is necessary that these accumulations f ew persons, 

 of food shall pass out of the control of the workers 

 such as the husbandmen just referred to and be 

 brought under the control of some other person or 

 persons, who will dole them out to the workers on 

 certain conditions only. The wage-system, in short, 



