30 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
past services done to the community. The money owner has a very 
peculiar duty, as he has only to see that he keeps no more of it on hand 
than is required. Ifa banker keeps a larger reserve than he needs, he will 
not get the average banker’s interest. He gets no interest, directly, on his 
gold reserve, but the profit on his other transactions is larger on account 
of it. If it is unnecessarily large, he, of course, loses the interest on all the 
money he needlessly keeps. This is also true of the merchant and manu- 
facturer. The consumer who keeps money in hand to meet current 
expenditure gets no interest for it. 
A capitalist who uses his capital unskilfully benefits all other capitalists 
and injures the community at large, except in the case of a money owner, 
who injures no one, except himself, by mismanagement. If he keeps more - 
on hand than the nature of his business requires, the stock in the hands of 
others becomes more valuable, by the exact amount of his excess, and the 
smaller amount in circulation is quite as efficient as the larger would be. 
Cost of Production. 
The cost of production of any commodity is simply the labour required 
to produce it; it does not matter whether the labourer be a Millais or a 
coal-heaver. Wealth being required, there is only one way of getting it, 
and that is by labour, and the labour of all is equally necessary to the 
production of the common stock. The problem to assess the utility 
of each man’s production would be quite insoluble. There would even be 
a difficulty in deciding whether a day’s labour of Turner or West, or 
of Browning or Tupper, were worth most. It would be easier to assess the 
relative value of two nayvies’ work, one of whom could dig ten and the 
other only five yards of earth in a day. Even in this latter case the labour 
of both men would be equally requisite to the production of the total stock, 
if it were necessary to dig fifteen yards a day. A capitalist must take into 
account not only the labour which was required to produce his wares, but 
also the rate of wages he was obliged to pay his workmen, and the interest 
he would be obliged to pay to other capitalists; from his point of view, 
therefore, both interest and wages form part of the cost of production. 
It would be well to keep distinet what is essential under all cir- 
cumstances from what is due to the accidental conditions under which 
society may happen to regulate its labour; and as a medium of exchange, 
like money, is necessary in 2 community divided into capitalists and 
labourers, I think the capitalists' costs of production should be called the 
** price of production." 
The exchange value of wealth tends to be in proportion to its price of 
production and not to its cost. 
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