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if every labourer were to endeavour to fabricate for himself the tools he works with, and to raise from the soil the materials he employs and the food he consumes. At a very early period in the progress of improvement through the division of labour, it must have been discovered by experience to facilitate greatly the object of all labour, production, for some classes of labourers to occupy themselves exclusively in making tools and machinery of different sorts for the use of the remainder-others in the cultivation and preparation of the different kinds of raw material required for the several processes of industry, and others again in the growth and provision of the food, clothing, and various articles which are necessary for the subsistence of the whole.

The stock of these things which an individual has produced, not for his own use, but with a view to their employment or consumption by others, are of course as much his property, as if he had intended them for his own use, and he has the right to dispose of them to those who want them

'any sort of action or operation, whether performed by man, the lower animals, machinery, or natural agents, that tends to bring about a desirable result;' (Edition of Wealth of Nations,) thus making labour include both capital and land. Again, his definition of capital, as 'all that can be made to aid in production,' includes in it land, labour, revenue, and profit itself: while his astounding declaration, that bubbleblowing and turtle-eating are productive occupations, necessarily follows from these premises. If such definitions are adopted, Political Economy becomes at once an entire jumble of meaningless phrases: land, labour, and capital,— rent, wages, and profits, are all different words for the same thing;-production and consumption are undistinguishable; And nought is every thing, and every thing is nought,'

on the most advantageous terms he can make. He can either sell them out-right; or, if it be more convenient both to him and to those who wish to employ the things, lend them, on condition of receiving a stipulated remuneration for their loan, in addition to the repayment of the things themselves, or their equivalent. Or as a third alternative, he may retain some portion of his capital in his possession, such as machinery and implements, and with another portion, consisting perhaps of the necessaries of subsistence, or their equivalent, purchase the labour of such individuals as are willing to work for him, employing his capital.

If the entire capital a labourer works with belong to himself, whether by right of purchase or production, the whole produce of his labour will likewise properly belong to him. But if he works with the capital of another, it is evident that a part of the produce which results from the joint employment of his labour and the other's capital belongs of right to the owner of the capital. Thus if A supplies B with either food, or tools, or materials, upon which to work at making any article, it is clear that a proportionate part of the article or of its value rightfully belongs to A. What this part should be-what, in short, should be the several shares of the labourer and the capitalist in any case, must depend on the relative value of the capital supplied by one, and the labour furnished by the other, and this can only be equitably settled by previous agreement between the parties, voluntarily entered into by both for their mutual advantage.

The share of the labourer is the remuneration

RIGHT TO PROFIT.

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of his labour, and forms his wages. The share of the capitalist goes, for the most part, to replace that portion of his capital which has been consumed, damaged, or worn out, in its employment. But there must remain to the latter some surplus beyond this; for it would be worth no man's while to employ his capital productively, if he can gain nothing by so doing. The surplus which accrues to the capitalist after his capital has been replaced, is his only remuneration for its employment, and is called its profit. Profit is the inducement of the capitalist to employ his capital in production, just as wages form the inducement. of the labourer to exert his skill and strength in the same manner. The former has obviously as much right to be paid for the use of his capital, as the latter for the use of his labour. Both have combined to produce a joint result, which could not have existed in the absence of either. Without the capital, the labour would have been nearly unproductive; without the labour, the capital must have remained dormant and unincreased, even if secure from waste. The right to possess and freely dispose of capital, and to receive whatever return, or profit, is to be obtained by accommodating other parties with its loan, or by employing the hired labour of others in rendering it productive, stands evidently on precisely the same ground as the right to possess or dispose of any other thing, equally the produce of labour. The expediency of protecting the free use and employment of property as capital, that is to say, productively, and the free enjoyment of its returns, is evident from the

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simple consideration that in the absence of such protection no one would produce any of such things as are necessary for aiding production,-at all events, no more of them than he wanted for his own use. Every labourer must then make his own tools, and raise from the earth his raw materials and his food. There would be an end at once to all that vast increase of the general stock of the means of enjoyment which results from the division of labourers into the various classes of toolmakers, growers and preparers of raw material and of food, house-builders, furniture-makers, manufacturers of clothing, ornaments, &c. Society would be resolved into its first elements. Each man must betake himself to the cave or hollow tree for shelter, his nails for tools, berries and game his sole food, skins his only clothing; and famine and want must rapidly cut down the numbers of mankind to the meagre hordes of miserable savages that could alone support themselves on such terms.

The profit obtained by the owner of capital from its productive employment, whether in his own hands or those of another party, to whom it is lent, is to be viewed in the light of a compensation to him for abstaining for a time from the consumption of that portion of his property on his personal gratification; and the compensation is therefore proportioned to the time during which his capital is so engaged instead of being spent upon himself, as revenue. It has been said time is a mere word-a sound-can do nothing, is nothing;-and can therefore neither have nor give

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value*. This is a very great and extraordinary mistake. What gives value in exchange to labour? Only that no one will, under a free system, give his labour for nothing, and consequently those who require the labour of others must pay for it. But the same cause gives value to time. No one will sacrifice time by allowing it to operate on his property-will sow his wheat, for instance, and allow it to remain a twelvemonth in the ground, or leave his wine in a cellar for years, instead of consuming these things, or their equivalents, at onceunless he expects them to acquire additional value in proportion to the time during which they are so kept unconsumed. That they do thus acquire additional value, owing to certain natural laws-the sown wheat multiplying itself in its crop, the kept wine improving in flavour-is notorious. And if this additional value were not to be allowed to their owner in the price he obtains on parting with them, it is evident there would be no inducement to him to employ his property in this productive manner. Wheat would not be sown for a future crop-wine would not be placed in cellars to improve. Were it not for the certain prospect of the profit to be obtained at a distant time by the productive employment of capital, and that the profit too will be proportioned to the time which elapses before the production is completed, no one would employ any portion of his wealth productively, except for the relief of his own immediate wants-no one would accumulate wealth in a productive shape, except for his own *Macculloch, Political Economy, p. 314; Mill's Elements of Political Economy, p. 9.