thing that in any shape co-operates in the production of wealth, or in satisfying the wants of man in every phase of his condition, from the extreme of barbarism to the acme of civilization. These elements of production we now proceed to consider separately, in the order in which they have been mentioned, namely, Labour, Land, and Capital.

9

CHAPTER IV.

Labour-Exchanges of its Produce-Right to Free Exchange-Division of Labour-Its advantages-Co-operation and mutual dependence of all Labourers-BarterMoney-Its use— -Coin-Credit-General use of.

THE first essential towards production is labour. To play its part efficiently in this great business, the labour of individuals must be combined, or, in other words, the labour required for producing certain results must be divided among several individuals.

If a man were to attempt to raise from the earth's surface all the food required by himself and his family, and all the materials for their clothing, furniture, and shelter, and likewise to prepare them for use, it is clear, that the food, clothing, furniture, and lodging he could obtain in this way would only be of the very poorest and scantiest description; not, under the most favorable circumstances, equal to those which Robinson Crusoe is described as having provided for himself in his island solitude; for Crusoe had attained a knowledge of many of the arts of civilized life, by education in a society where exchanges of labour had long been practised. Had all men persisted in labouring on a system of isolation, each for himself only, all must have remained in a state of barbarism. None of the useful arts could have

existed. The metals would have slept untouched in the rock; the timber would have rotted unhewn in the forest; the soil would never have been turned up by the plough or spade. A few raw fruits stripped from the wild bushes, and the precarious produce of the chase for food-clothing of skins, and the rude shelter of the cave or branch-hut, would have made up the sum total of human possessions. Under this system, the members of mankind must have been kept within very narrow limits by disease and a continual dearth of subsistence. Countries which now contain millions of civilized men, enjoying for the most part an abundance of comforts, could scarcely have supported as many hundreds of half-starved savages.

But it is contrary to the inherent tendencies of human nature that such a state of things should long continue. Man is formed to live in society; and, as we have seen, necessity suggests to every society the general recognition of the right of each individual to freedom in the direction of his industry and a private property in its produce. Now, wherever, and so soon as these two fundamental principles of society are acknowledged, exchanges of the produce of labour immediately must commence among individuals. One, for instance, has gathered more fruits than he can consume, and meets with another who has a larger stock of skins fit for clothing than he can himself make use of. The first is in want of clothing, the latter of fruit, and each finds his advantage in exchanging the excess of the article he possesses for that of the other. The exchange being wholly voluntary

on both sides, the advantage is mutual, and equal to both parties, or it would not be agreed to by both; and the same is true even in the most artificial state of society. So long as exchanges are free and voluntary, so long it is evident that the benefit to the exchanging parties is mutual and equal, or each would not agree to them.

The right to freedom of exchange is included in the right to a free disposal of the produce of labour, and rests on the same ground of expediency; since it is evident that in whatever degree the labourer is at any time prevented from exchanging the produce of his industry with others, for whatever he can obtain for it most desirable to himself to that extent are his exertions damped and discouraged, their productiveness diminished, and their reward lessened; at the same time that his personal freedom of action is needlessly, and therefore wrongfully, interfered with.

The adoption of this system of exchanging the products of labour makes it exceedingly convenient and advantageous for each labourer to confine himself to the production of one, or at most, only a few commodities, and to exchange all that he produces beyond his consumption with others who in their turn do the same. Each is thus enabled to avail himself of any peculiar natural advantages he may possess, whether of personal powers or of position, for the production. of a particular commodity; and, likewise, to acquire by the force of habit and undivided attention a high degree of skill in the performance of his peculiar task. By help of these natural and

acquired advantages, he is enabled to produce far more, and, consequently, to obtain in exchange for the produce of his labour, a far greater quantity of the things he desires to consume, than he could by any possible efforts directly produce of himself.

It is by this division of labour among a variety of classes of labourers, each of which takes a different branch of industry, that the gross amount of production is infinitely augmented. Under the sanction of just and well-administered laws enforcing the fulfilment of contracts for the exchange of labour or of goods, and giving security to private property, this division is carried in some countries to an extraordinary extent; and its effect in augmenting the general production, and consequently the wealth and comforts of all classes, is almost incalculable.

Dr. Smith was the first writer who called attention to the extraordinary increase in the productive powers of industry caused by the division of employments, and his mode of treating and illus. trating the subject has been but little improved upon by any succeeding writer. He classes the advantages gained as,

First, increased skill and manual dexterity in workmen. A nail-maker, for example, by confining himself exclusively to the manufacture of that article, will make two or three thousand nails in a day; where an ordinary smith, who only turned his hand occasionally to this process, could make but as many hundreds. A man who wanted such a common thing as a few pins, might, if he attempted to fabricate them for himself, spend a