102 
On the Source of Wealth. 
[Apftit, 
been accumulated into masses, and has become a peculiar possession, that its 
effects on the evolution and distribution of income, can distinctly be per- 
ceived. 
Suppose man, in his original endeavours at obtaining food, to employ pointed 
sticks, or stones, in the preparation of the soil ; the rude instruments he then 
employs are unquestionably capital ; some Jittle labour must have been bestowed 
in obtaining these ; and the net produce subsequently obtained is the joint result of 
the vital principle in the seed, of labour, and of capital. But as each individual has 
then the power of picking up, and using similar sticks or stones, the whole income 
of the society may be said to be composed of the recompense of labour alone ; it 
being impossible to determine what has been the result of the labour, and what 
of the capital employed. 
But suppose an individual to discover a new, and better mode of clearing and 
dressing the soil ; by the employment of spades for instance : he is enabled to 
effect the same extent of work in a much less time ; and to effect besides, a more 
complete clearing and dressing of the soil ; thus fitting it in a better manner 
than before to become exclusively, and peculiarly, the matrix for that particular 
developement, and subsequent increase, on which his subsistence and enrichment 
depend. He could not, however, have obtained his spade for nothing : he either 
devoted his own time and labour to its preparation ; or gave some other person a 
recompense for the time and labour bestowed on it. This recompense, whatever 
its amount, or the food he might have been aiding in producing, had he not 
been busied with the spade, is a regular investment of capital stock in productive 
employment ; and the whole difference between his net produce at the end of the 
season, and the net produce of those cultivating similar tracts with sticks, or 
stones, constitutes the profits of the capital thus invested. 
Again, it is highly probable, that the joint co-operation of many labourers, at 
particular seasons of the year, would be more effectual towards securing a return 
•than an equal quantity of labour bestowed day by day, and in such manner as a 
few unaided individuals could apply it. But the occasional and seasonable employ- 
ment of the greater number of men, could only be effected by one, having by him, 
a store of food equal to their consumption during the term of employment. Such 
an appropriation of food would be an investment of capital in production ; and 
the difference between the produce of a tract so treated, and of any other similar 
tract, which had not been thus cultivated, would form the profits of the stock so 
invested. 
These examples will be sufficient to shew the nature of the influence exercised 
by capital over production ; and to exhibit the evolution of profits, and their 
dependence, in agriculture, on the cooperation of the reproductive principle. 
They' will be sufficient also to point out, how very differently capital acts in 
production, fi om any conceivable accumulation of labour j and how great the mis- 
conception, on this subject, must be, which is involved in the mode, now in com- 
mon use, of treating capital, as being merely the accumulated labour, directly 
and indirectly applied, of which products are the result. 
In the first case given, for instance, could we with any show of truth maintain, 
that the increased produce coming to the use of the man first employing a spade in 
cultivation, would ever have been obtained by the labour, directly employed in 
making the spade, and the labour directly employed in tilling the ground, if 
both of these quantities of labour had been appropriated "directly to the 
tilling of the ground ? Or could we, with any shew of reason, maintain, that 
the greater income, falling to that smaller portion of labour which constructed 
