4:8 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



main been dissipated, yet some traces of them still lingerand often 

 crop out in discussions upon what is called the balance of trade. 

 Disputes about wealth still go on, hut they are mainly over dis- 

 tinctions of metaphysical nicety. Political economists are sub- 

 stantially agreed as to the nature of the thing itself, and only 

 quarrel about whether this or that shall be ada)itted to the cate- 

 gory. In the language of the logicians, they differ about the term 

 in extension, not in intension. 



Prof. Perry, however, holds that it is impossible to frame any 

 definiti'm of wealth which will render the word fit for scientific 

 use. He has written a book about wealth without stopping to de- 

 fine it. It is a work of much merit, but is marred, it seems to me, 

 by the author's persistent attempt to ignore this term. Nothing 

 is gamed by calling political econom}' the ' science of exchanges," 

 or the "science of value." The question What is wealth? must 

 still be met, for to wealth only do exchanges apply or does value 

 attach. Wealth is usually defined, and I have no new definition 

 to offer, as "anything which can be appropriated and exchanged." 

 The essential requirements are that it shall possess utility, or the 

 capacity to satisfy desire, and be the result or embodiment of labar. 

 Hence, as a generic term, it includes all objects of value and no 

 others. It is usual to include in wealth material things only — 

 such as may be accumulated, stored. Such limitation is more in 

 accordance with the popular notion of wealth, although strictly 

 and logically the term includes more. The question of wealth or 

 not wea'th does not absolutely turn upon the length of time a 

 thing may he enjoyed, nor upon whether it may be seen or tasted 

 or handled. The primary source of wealth is the free bounty of 

 nature. The secondary source is labor which also gives the right 

 of possession. Nature is libaral in her gifts, but she rarely offers 

 them in a condition just ready for man's consumption. Man be- 

 gins where other animals end. They use nature's gifts as they 

 find them. He, like them, partakes of her fruits, but is expected 

 to fit them for his use by rational effort. The accumulated wealth 

 of the world is but the result of the application of labor to the 

 materials furnished at free hand. Wealth and capital must not 

 be confounded. The former includes all objects which may be 



