of exchange are also "objects of human desire," but they do not constitute, they only represent, wealth. They are desired, not for the sake of the worthless bits of paper of which they consist, but because they are tickets entitling the holders to a certain defined share in the world's wealth. The destruction of these bits of paper might perhaps disturb the relative ownership, but would by no means annihilate the existence, of the wealth which they represented. We therefore arrive at this general theorem. Metallic money is not wealth, except to the extent of what the metal it consists of would be worth if it ceased to be used as money; and paper money is not wealth at all, but merely represents a legal claim to it. (b) The three factors of all wealth are land, labour, and capital. All three are represented in every commodity " obtained or produced by human exertions." No such commodity ever existed, or could exist, without all these three elements, in varying proportions, concurring in its production. The surface of the globe which we inhabit—that is, the land, water, and atmosphere, all of which we shall, throughout this work, include in the generic term "land"-furnishes to scanty bands of savages a precarious supply of fruit, game, and fish, obtainable by a minimum amount of labour and capital; the labour being the acts of hunting or fishing, the capital being the rude implements and weapons which those acts require. In such cases. labour and capital have contributed a very small, the land a very large, share. Let us take quite LAND, LABOUR, AND CAPITAL. 13 an opposite instance. In the case of a picture by Mr. Millais, the few materials furnished by the land for canvas, easel, pigments, &c., contribute the merest fraction to the value of the picture, while the skilled labour of the artist, and the capital expended on his education and studies, form, beyond comparison, the most influential elements. But in each of these extreme cases, all the three factors, though in different proportions, are present. They are, indeed, indispensable to each other, and no two of them can produce wealth without the aid of the third. That without land labour and capital would have nothing to work upon, and could not even exist, is self-evident. That land and capital would be useless without labour is almost as obvious. That land and labour without capital would be totally unproductive is equally true, since absence of capital implies the absence of all tools and implements, and also of food or other stores set apart beyond the consumption of the day. Whatever is produced by labour in excess of immediate requirements, and laid by for future use, is capital. The weapons and canoes of the savage quite as much constitute fixed capital as our foundries or steam-ships. Without such capital the miserable biped would have to exist on the berries he might chance to find and pick up during the day, and would contribute no element of wealth. On the other hand, the English labourer, earning three shillings a day and saving one out of them, becomes a capitalist to the extent of that saving, and may, by Mr. Fawcett's admirable provisions, out of a single day's economy, twelve penny postage stamps, become a creditor of the State to that amount. Inference:-Since wealth cannot exist without the combination of every one of these three factors ―viz., land, labour, and capital-it follows that they are each of equal indispensability, and that all disquisitions as to their comparative importance in the production of wealth are idle and aimless, since their relative potency is indefinable. CHAPTER II. Classification of Obstacles and Aids to Wealth-Creation-Division of Labour-Free Commercial Intercourse-Loss Inflicted by the Opposite Policy. We now come to the 4th proposition laid down at page 2, and we contend that ALL OBSTACLES AND AIDS TO WEALTH-CREATION SHOULD BE IDENTIFIED, CLASSED, AND DISCUSSED, WITH A VIEW TO THEIR RESPECTIVE REMOVAL OR ADOPTION. We fancy that this proposition will meet with ready assent. If it be true that the more of wealth there is created, the greater is the benefit to the human race, it necessarily follows that it is essential to trace the causes that either promote or impede wealth-creation. We shall first proceed to consider the chief aids to the creation of wealth, which we may classify as follows: A 1. Division of labour, A 2. Free commercial intercourse, DIVISION OF LABOUR. A 3. Capital intelligently employed, A 4. Machinery and labour-saving processes, A 6. Scientific discoveries, A 7. Education and morality. 15 We shall then proceed to consider the chief impediments to wealth-creation, which may be classified as follows: BI. Insecurity of person or property, B 2. Superfluity of unproductive consumers, B 4. Commercial isolation, B 5. Ignorance and immorality. On the peculiar position of land in regard to its limitation of extent and its immovability, as compared with the unlimitable growth and universal adaptation of labour and capital, we shall remark farther on. A 1. DIVISION OF LABOUR.-It is curious as well as instructive to compare the fecundity of a man's labour, when he is working in intelligent combination with others, with the sterility of the same man's labour when he is working isolatedly. A hive of men, harmoniously co-operating, can, without overstrain, produce indefinitely more than their joint requirements; whereas, all the efforts of a solitary individual can scarcely supply his most pressing wants. To say that in the one case man is a giant, in the other case a child, is a feeble expression of the relative power which the two positions confer on him of producing wealth. It would be nearer the mark to say that in the one case man can do everything, and in the other nothing. What is the source of this enormous increase of the wealth-creating powers of men when acting in concert? If this co-operation of man with man to effect a common purpose were confined to the mere combination of their physical forces, but little would be gained. A heavier weight might be lifted, or a more bulky obstacle might be removed, or the ferocity of wild animals might be more easily subdued—results of no great importance. It is a far more subtle and potent influence that comes into play-the reasoning faculty. Through its promptings, the work to be done is distributed into a variety of parts, each of which is assigned to a distinct set of labourers, whose labour is confined to that part. It is this distribution of certain work among certain workers-this division of labourthat renders human exertions a thousand-fold more productive than they otherwise would be. It operates in a multiplicity of ways: by perfecting, through early education and constant practice in one direction, the manual dexterity of each worker; by training the worker to deftness in the rapid and effective handling of tools; by stimulating the inventive faculty to devise special labour-saving machines; by ensuring continuity of effort on one object, thus avoiding waste of time in passing from one task to another; by concentrating the maximum of attention and energy on each separate and subordinate process; by affording the freest scope for the development of natural aptitudes; and, generally, by making the efforts of each individual harmoniously subservient to the common benefit of all; so that Nature's peculiar gifts to each part |