CAPITAL AS A WEALTH-PRODUCER 311 



possessions which have been neither made by the Book iv 

 possessors nor yet stolen by them. That is to say, 

 it consists of flocks and herds. Mr. George pointed 

 out also that whole classes of possessions besides 

 are, for by far the larger part of their value, equally 

 independent of either work or theft. Such posses- This is utterly 



, ... ... untrue, as the 



sions are wines, whose quality improves with time, case of flocks 

 and whose value, consequently, whether in exchange shcwTus 3 - 

 or use, is increased from year to year by the secret 

 operations of nature. But Mr. George, though his 

 arguments were true so far as they went, did little 

 more than touch the hem of the question ; for 

 flocks and herds, and commodities that grow valu- 

 able as they mature themselves, form but a small, 

 though they do form a typical, portion of wealth that 

 may come to a man without his having produced it 

 himself, and without his stealing it from any other 

 human producer. And this is the wealth which is 

 actually produced by capital. 



I n order to show the reader that capital is an but the chief 



i j It.* producer of 



actual producer, in as true a sense as labour is, or w ealth that is 

 the ability by which labour is directed, let us begin l^apS^ for 

 by considering fixed capital as distinct from wage which is P ast 



productive 



capital, and by considering it in its simplest forms, ability stored 

 By fixed capital is meant any tools, machines, or externalised. 

 materials by which man's efficiency as a producer 

 of wealth is increased ; and we will take as examples 

 of these the three following things a dart or missile 

 by which game may be killed ; a heap of manure 

 by which a peasant's field may be fertilised ; and 

 a horse which a peasant uses for ploughing and 



