166 CAPITAL—THE MOTHER OF LABOUR, iv 



ginning, but at the end of his operations. How- 

 ever great the expenditure of his labour and of his 

 skill, the result, for the purpose of maintaining 

 his existence, is just the same as if he had done 

 nothing, unless there is a customer able and will- 

 ing to exchange food-stuffs for that which his la- 

 bour and skill have achieved. 



There is another point concerning which it is 

 very necessary to have clear ideas. Suppose a 

 carpenter in Lanzerote to be engaged in making 

 chests of drawers. Let us suppose that a, the 

 timber, and 6, the grain and meat needful for the 

 man's sustenance until he can finish a chest of 

 drawers, have to be paid for by that chest. Then 

 the capital with which he starts is represented 

 by a -\-b. He could not start at all unless he 

 had it; day by day, he must destroy more or less 

 of the substance and of the general adaptability 

 of a in order to work it up into the special forms 

 needed to constitute the chest of drawers; and, 

 day by day, he must use up at least so much of 

 h as will replace his loss of vital capital by the 

 work of that day. Suppose it takes the carpen- 

 ter and his workmen ten days to saw up the tim- 

 ber, to plane the boards, and to give them the 

 shape and size proper for the various parts of the 

 chest of drawers. And suppose that he then offers 

 his heap of boards to the advancer of a + 6 as an 

 equivalent for the wood + ten days' supply of 

 vital capital? The latter will surely say: "No. 



