164 CAPITAL-THE MOTHER OF LABOUR, iv 



ited by grain-raisers, Teneriffe by cattle-breeders; 

 while the population of Lanzerote (which we may 

 suppose to be utterly barren) consists of carpen- 

 ters, woollen manufacturers, and shoemakers. 

 Then the facts of daily experience teach us that 

 the people of Lanzerote could never have existed 

 unless they came to the island provided with a 

 stock of food-stuffs; and that they could not 

 continue to exist, unless that stock, as it was con- 

 sumed, was made up by contributions from the 

 vital capital of either Gran Canaria, or Teneriffe, 

 or both. Moreover, the carpenters of Lanzerote 

 could do nothing, unless they were provided with 

 wood from the other islands; nor could the wool 

 spinners and weavers or the shoemakers work 

 without wool and skins from the same sources. 

 The wood and the wool and the skins are, in fact, 

 the capital without which their work as manu- 

 facturers in their respective trades is impossible 

 — so that the vital and other capital supplied by 

 Gran Canaria and Teneriffe is most indubitably 

 the necessary antecedent of the industrial labour 

 of Lanzerote. It is perfectly true that by the 

 time the wood, the wool, and the skins reached 

 Lanzerote a good deal of labour in cutting, shear- 

 ing, skinning, transport, and so on, would have 

 been spent upon them. But this does not alter 

 the fact that the only " production " which is es- 

 sential to the existence of the population of Tene- 

 riffe and Gran Canaria is that effected by the 



