184: CAPITAL-THE MOTHER OF LABOUR. iv 



There is no doubt that, under certain limita- 

 tions, this proposition is correct. It is not true 

 that " labour always adds to capital by its exer- 

 tion before it takes from capital its wages " (p. 

 44), but it is true that it may, and often does, pro- 

 duce that effect. 



To take one of the examples given, the con- 

 struction of a ship. The shaping of the timbers 

 undoubtedly gives them a value (for a shipbuilder) 

 which they did not possess before. When they 

 are put together to constitute the framework of 

 the ship, there is a still further addition of value 

 (for a shipbuilder); and when the outside plank- 

 ing is added, there is another addition (for a ship- 

 builder). Suppose everything else about the hull 

 is finished, except the one little item of caulking 

 the seams, there is no doubt that it has still more 

 value for a shipbuilder. But for whom else has 

 it any value, except perhaps for a fire-wood mer- 

 chant? What price will any one who wants a 

 ship — that is to say, something that will carry a 

 cargo from one port to another — give for the un- 

 finished vessel which would take water in at every 

 seam and go down in half an hour, if she were 

 launched? Suppose the shipbuilder's capital to 

 fail before the vessel is caulked, and that he can- 

 not find another shipbuilder who cares to buy and 

 finish it, what sort of proportion does the value 

 created by the labour, for which he has paid 

 out of his capital, stand to that of his advances? 



