schoolmen,” gives us his doctrine of Political Economy, in a work on
Dogmatic Theology, in the chapter on Penance, his starting point
being the inquiry, how the economic damage caused by the sinner may
be repaired. _Roscher_, Geschichte der Nationalökonomik in
Deutchland, 1074, I, 23. The Melittotheologia, Arachnotheologia of
later times! A recent attempt in this direction has been made by
_Ad. Müller_, Nothwendigkeit einer theologischen Grundage der
gesammten Staatswissenschaften und der Staatswirthschaft
insbesondere (1819), i.e., “necessity of a theological basis for all
political science, and especially for Political Economy.” He divides
political science into two parts: the science of law, and the
science of wisdom, embracing under the latter denomination,
politics, Political Economy, etc. Law emanates from God, as supreme
judge; the science of wisdom from God, as our Supreme Father.
161 Abstraction is indulged in on a large scale, when a number of
elements which are always found combined in life, are here separated
and examined apart. It is precisely thus that anatomy proceeds,
dissecting each member of the human frame, separating the bones,
ligaments and muscles from one another, thus becoming the necessary
preparatory school to physiology.
162 Thus, for instance, _Canard_, Principes d’Economie politique (1801).
Also _Kröncke_, in several of his works, and _Count Buquoy_, in his
Theorie der Nationalwirthschaft (1816), p. 333 ff.; _Lang_,
Grundlinien einer politischen Arithmetik, Charkow, 1811, and more
especially _v. Thünen_, Der isolirte Staat, vol. I (1842), vol. II,
1850. See my criticism of his method in _Birnbaum’s_ Georgika, 1869,
77 ff. _Voa Thünen’s_ first volume is an essay towards a geometrical
exposition of the science. See also _Rau_, Lehrbuch I, § 154,
appendix; _von Mangoldt_, Grundriss der Volkswirthschaftslehre
(1862); _Cazaux_, Elements d’Economie privée et Principes
mathématiques de la Théorie des Richesses (1838); _F. Fuoco_, Saggi
economici (1827) II, 61 ff. _Walras_, Eléments d’Econ. politique
pure (1874). _Jevons_ has recently endeavored to give Political
Economy a mathematical basis by reducing the objects of which it
treats to the calculable feelings of pleasure (+) and pain (-). The
duration of a feeling is treated as an abscissa, its intensity as
the ordinate of a curve, and its quantity as the area. Future
feelings are reduced to present ones, by allowing for their
distance, and the uncertainty of their occurrence. All this,
however, is rather curious than scientifically useful.
_ 163 Herbart_, Ueber die Möglichkeit und Nothwendigkeit, Mathematik auf
Psychologie anzuwenden; Kleinere Schriften, II, 417.
164 How detrimental it is to ignore the psychological nature of
Political Economy is evident from the errors of _Karl Marx_, who
personifies things in a manner almost mythological. Thus, according
to him, modesty should be ascribed to a coat which exchanges for a
piece of linen, and purpose to the linen, etc. (Das Kapital, 1867,
I, 19, 22, seq.) The greatest fault of this intelligent but not very
acute man, his inability to reduce complicated phenomena to their
constituent elements, is greatly increased by his way of thus
looking at things.
165 Compare _J. B. Say_, Traité I, introd. Thus, it would be certainly
possible to describe every individual’s physiognomy by means of a
very complicated mathematical formula, and yet there is no one who
would not prefer the usual mode of taking pictures. The simple
motions of the heavenly bodies, on the contrary, are always treated
mathematically. (_Lotze_, Allgemeine Physiologie, 322 ff.)
166 When _Fawcett_ says that all “principles of Political Economy are
describing tendencies instead of actual results” (Manual of
Political Economy, 1863, p. 90), our method, the historical, would
give also the theory of the latter.
167 This was lost sight of by most writers during the second half of the
eighteenth century, because they looked upon that equality as the
really oldest condition, and its restoration the ideal to be striven
for. How much of this still clings to the present free-trade school;
see in _Roscher_, Gesch. der N. Œk. in Deutschland, 10, 17 ff.
168 Thus, for instance, _Ricardo_ examines, almost exclusively, the
actual condition of things, while the socialists confine themselves,
still more exclusively, to the investigation of how things should
be. It has been very usual in Germany since _Rau_ wrote, to draw a
distinction between theoretical and practical Political Economy.
There are many who think that a good manual of practical Political
Economy, dropping the introduction, demonstrations etc., would be
also a good code of law, of universal application. _Mercier de la
Rivière_ has said that he wished to propose an organization which
should be necessarily productive of all the happiness which can be
enjoyed on earth. (Ordre essentiel et naturel (1767), Disc. prélim.)
Compare, also, _Sismondi_, N. Principes, I, ch. 2.
169 The word method is used in an essentially different sense, when the
inquiry is, whether the inductive or deductive method is followed in
Political Economy. _J. S. Mill_ calls Political Economy, and,
indeed, all “sociology,” a concrete deductive science, whose _a
priori_ conclusions, based on the laws of human nature, must be
tested by experience, either by comparing them with the concrete
phenomena themselves, or with their emperical laws. It, in this,
resembles astronomy and physics. (System of Logic VI, ch. 9. Essays
on some unsettled questions of Political E., No. 5.) According to
this, an economic fact can be said to have received a scientific
explanation only when its deductive and inductive explanations have
met and agreed. “Only those principles which, after they have been
obtained by the one, are confirmed by the other method, can be said
to have a scientific basis.” (_von Mangoldt_, Grundriss, 8.) While I
agree to this view, it seems necessary to me to mention points
wherein caution is necessary: A. Even the deductive explanation of
economic facts is based on observation, namely, on the
self-observation of the person accounting for them, who, consciously
or unconsciously, must always inquire: If I had experienced or
accomplished the same fact, what should I have thought, willed and
felt? The man who cannot translate himself into the souls of others,
will give a wrong explanation of most economic facts. In the
question, for instance, of the determination of the price of an
article, the person who can look into the mind of one of the
contracting parties only, will give a one-sided explanation of the
facts. B. Moreover, every explanation, that is, satisfactory
connection of the fact seeking explanation with other facts which
are already clear, can be only provisional. The wider our horizon
grows, the deeper should our solution of all questions become. A
hundred years hence, should science increase in the mean time, the
solutions which are satisfactory to us will be looked down upon by
our posterity, as the speculations of our fathers antecedent to Adam
Smith’s time are looked down upon by us.
_ 170 Tanquam e vinculis sermocinantur_, says _Bacon_ (De Dignit. et
Augm. Scient., III, 3), of those who have written in a not
non-practical way on the laws. _Hugo_, also (Naturrecht, 1819, p.
9), calls attention to the resemblance of the so-called laws of
nature, to the positive law in force at the time. As to political
idealism, see _Roscher_: De historicæ doctrinæ apud sophistas
majores vestigiis (Gött. 1838, 26 ff.). The only exceptions to this
rule are the eclectics, who form their own system from the blossoms
of all foreign ones, a system, indeed, without root, and which
therefore must soon wither.
171 In this place, naturally, such an assertion can be made only as a
programme to be carried out, the proof whereof is to be sought in
the rest of the work. By “the people,” we do not mean the governed,
to the exclusion of the governing classes, but both classes
together. We attach to the expression the most extensive meaning
possible. We do not limit it to the present generation, but intend
it to cover all the generations from the beginning of a people’s
history to its end.
172 The custom, which has become general, of calling all democratic
movements, and them only, revolutions (thus _Stahl_: Was ist
Revolution? 1852, and many other writers of an entirely opposite
tendency, especially in France), is not warranted. It is true that
democratic (and imperial) revolutions are more frequent than others
in our times, just as aristocratic revolutions were in the middle
ages, and monarchical at the beginning of modern history. The
essence of revolution, however, is in the operation of change
contrary to positive law, acknowledged as such by the consciousness
of the people.
173 Compare, especially, the first pages of _Sir J. Stewart_, Principles
of Polit. Economy.
174 See _Colton_, Public Economy of the United States, p. 28, who,
indeed, unwarrantedly, refers to the whole of Political Economy,
what properly belongs to its precepts.
_ 175 Je n’impose rien, je ne propose même rien: j’expose._ (_Ch.
Dunoyer_). _Cherbuliez_, Précis de la Science économique, 1862, p. 7
ff., has exaggerated this idea in a strangely non-practical manner.
That the historical method does not differ essentially from the
statistical as recently recommended, see _Roscher_, Gesch. der Nat.
Œk., 1035 seq.
_ 176 Storch_, Handbuch, II, 222.
_ 177 Ad. Müller_, an essentially mediæval mind, is guilty of this same
braggadocio in an opposite direction, when he calls the “present
with its political disorders simply an intermediate state,—the
transmission of the natural or unconscious wisdom of the fathers,
through the inquisitiveness of their children to the rational
acknowledgment of that wisdom by their grandsons.” (Theorie des
Geldes, 1816, pref.)
178 Thus, for instance, it can not be said that a model university is
better than a model public school; and yet the former is higher,
because the age to which it is adapted is doubtless intellectually
higher.
_ 179 Knies_ (Polit. Œk., 256 seq.) remarks, that it would be a great
mistake, and it is the mistake of the majority, to consider what has
been achieved or striven for in the present, as the absolute _non
plus ultra_, and thus to look upon all future generations as called
upon to play the parts of apes and ruminators; a remark worthy to be
taken to heart.
180 I have, myself, no doubt, that up to the present time, mankind, as a
whole, has, from the beginning of historical knowledge, always
advanced. In individual cases, their movement has been interrupted
by so many pauses, and even by so many occasional retrogressions,
that great care must be taken not to infer superior excellence from
mere subsequency.
_ 181 Buckle_ writes of people whose knowledge is about limited to that
which they see going on under their eyes, and who are called
practical, only because of their ignorance; and he adds that,
although they assume to despise theory, they are in fact slaves of
theory, of others’ theories.
182 Compare this whole chapter with _Roscher_, Leben Werk und Zeitalter
des Thukydides, 1842, pp. 25, 239-275; _Roscher_, Grundries zu
Vorlesungen über die Staatswirthschaft nach geschichtlicher Methode,
1843, preface; _Roscher_ Geschichte der Nat. Œk. in Deutchland
(1874), 882 f., 1017 seq., and D. Vierteljahrsschrift, ff. See also
_J. Kautz’s_ learned and accurate Theorie und Geschichte der N.
Œkonomik, vol. I, 1858, II, 1860. I find no real contradiction
between the views here expressed and those of _Kautz_, when he (I,
pp. 313 ff.) introduces history and ethico-practical reason with
their ideals as sources of Political Economy, to the end that the
science may be something more than simply a picture, namely, a model
of economic life. Apart from the fact that it is only the
ethico-practical reason that can understand history at all, the
ideals of a period constitute one of the most important elements of
its history. The aspirations of an age find in them their best
expression. The historical political, economist as such, is
certainly not disinclined to form plans of reform, nor can it be
said that he is not adapted to the performance of such a task. Only,
he will scarcely recommend his reforms as absolutely better than
what they are intended to supplant. He will confine himself to
showing that there is a want which may, probably, be best satisfied
by what he proposes. See _Sartorius_, Einladungsblätter zu
Vorlesungen über die Politik, 1793.
183 “There is a book which youth may use to grow old, and the old to
remain young—History.” (_K. S. Zaccharia_).
184 Especially when natural science begins to be “a practical science.”
(_L. Stein_).
185 The difference between the broader and narrower sense of production,
corresponds essentially with that of gross and net income (§ 145).
Compare also §§ 206, 211 ff.
_ 186 Von Mangoldt_ distinguishes the coming into existence of free
values of the production undertaken for an economic purpose.
(Grundriss, 9.)
_ 187 Gioja_, Nuovo Prospetto delle Scienze economiche (1815), I, 49 ff.
Besides positive production, there is a latent production, which
prevents the decay of goods. It is not possible to make as exact an
estimate of the latter as of the former; and much more depends in
the latter case than in the former on continuity and proper
extension. Hence, latent production is especially a state concern.
(_Knies_, Telegraph als Verkehrsmittel, 1857, 232.)
188 See _Schäffle_, in the Tübinger Univ. Programm, September 27, 1862,
on the disastrous effect on the community of idleness. The leading
of a happy life the Greeks called very appropriately, εὐπράττειν
(_Garve_).
189 We use the expression “external nature” through the whole of this
work in contradistinction not only to the soul, but also to man’s
body, designating his entire physico-intellectual activity by the
term “labor-force” (_Arbeits kraft_).
190 By the expression “natural forces,” we designate the economically
useful changes of matter, changes of place as well as of
composition, which are made without man’s cooperation; for instance,
the gigantic machinery which supplies the greater part of mankind
with water to drink, for domestic and other purposes—the evaporation
of the sea, the formation of clouds, rain, springs, rivers etc. See
_Bastiat_, Harmonies, 277. Thus the sun’s rays are indirectly the
cause, not only of vegetation, but also of all wind and steam
forces.
191 Spite of this “freedom,” it may well happen that these gifts of
nature can be utilized, in many cases, only on condition of some
expenditure. The photographer can compel the sunlight to work for
him only by means of a camera obscura, and the smithy the
atmosphere, only by means of a bellows. But neither will ever
successfully make an item, in their accounts with their customers,
of the services of the sun or air.
192 The most important ocean currents may be explained by two causes:
the flowing of the water from the polar seas to the equator (polar
current), and the revolution of the earth about its axis
(equinoctial current); besides which, there are the reflex currents
produced by the horizontal form of the coast-lands. Thanks to these
natural ocean highways, England is nearer to almost all the
important mercantile coasts of the world by 300 geographical miles
than the Eastern States of the American Union. The only exception is
the Atlantic coast of America north of the Equator. North Americans
to pass the line, or to double one of the two great capes, are
obliged first to traverse the ocean as far as the Azores. On the
other hand, the western coast of South America is very widely
separated from Mexico, for instance, by its ocean currents. The
colonization of America by Europe, instead of by China, is a
consequence of the direction of ocean currents, as is also the fact
that America has now the fairest prospect of influencing the
civilization of China and Japan. What an influence the warm gulf
stream has on the mild climate of north-western Europe!
193 While the Mississippi has no ebb or flow whatever, the influence of
the ocean is felt in the Hudson, which is 60 geographical miles
long, a distance of 29 miles from its mouth.
194 Thus, _A. Young_, Travels in France I, 293 ff., has defined, with
approximate accuracy, the limits within which the vine, maize and
the olive grow. And so _von Cancrin_, Dorpater Jahrbuch IV, 1,
distinguishes the ice zone, the reindeer-moss (a lichen on which the
reindeer live in winter) zone, the forest zone, the zone within the
limits of which cattle are raised; that in which the culture of rye
begins, that in which it becomes permanent; the wheat, fruit-tree,
vine, maize, olive, sugar cane and silk-worm zones. The United
States are divided into cattle-raising, wheat-raising,
cotton-raising, rice-raising and sugar-raising zones. Even in
Europe, beyond the 60th parallel of north latitude, wheat can
scarcely be cultivated; the polar limits of rye raising extend, at
most, six or seven degrees farther. Towards the north, barley
extends sometimes as far as the 70th degree. Here agriculture almost
ceases, and the inhabitants are compelled to confine themselves to
animal substances for food. On the other hand, these three cereals
are not adapted to a tropical climate, while the bread-fruit tree,
for instance, does not thrive at more than 22 degrees from the
Equator, nor the banana at more than 35. Compare _Grisebach_, Die
Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung. II, 1871.
195 Thus rye and wheat thrive in many parts of Siberia (Iakutzk) at an
annual temperature of - 7.50, while in Iceland no cereals ripen at
an annual temperature of + 4°. But in the former place the summer
heat is + 16.2°; the winter cold, - 39.2°; in Iceland, + 12° and -
1.6°. In England, the myrtle, laurel, camelia and fuchsia stand the
winter well; while the vine no where ripens. On the other hand,
Astrakan and Hungary are vine growing countries, although the former
is as cold in winter as North Cape, and although the cold is more
intense in Hungary than in the Faroe Islands, where neither the oak
nor the beech grow any longer. No good wine is produced on the
western coast of France, north of 47° 20’ north latitude; in
Champagne, north of 49°, or in the Rheingau, north of 51°. In
Norway, the average heat is greater on the coast than in the heart
of the country where, however, grain ripens, while it does not on
the coast; for the mildness of the winter, no matter how great, can
make no compensation for the want of heat. On the other hand, the
cattle on the coast can remain much longer out of doors, and the sea
seldom freezes in such a way as to interfere with the fisheries.
_Blom_, Norwegen I, 39. _Boussingnault_ (Economie rurale considérée
dans ses Rapports avec la Chimie, II) has made some interesting
attempts to calculate by a mathematical process the amount of heat
necessary to vegetable, during the period of vegetation. Thus, for
instance, wheat requires about 12° (Réaumur) of heat during 140
days; that is, nearly 140 x 12° = 1680° Réaumur. In Venezuela, the
sugar cane requires a longer time to grow in a higher and therefore
cooler position than in a lower and warmer, and the length of time
required is in proportion to the height.
196 Hence it is that the isothermal lines are not parallel with the
equator or with one another. The greater number of these have two
northern and two southern summits; the former on the western coasts
of Europe and America, and the latter in eastern North America, and
in the interior of Asia.
197 The quantity of rain which falls every year is, at St. Petersburg
and Pesth, from 16 to 17 inches; at Berlin 19, Mannheim 21, Tübingen
26: in the interior of France 16-24; on the French coast 25, on the
eastern coast of England 24, on the western coast 35, in Milan 36,
Genoa 44, on the coast of most tropical lands 70-120. On the
political-economical influences of most climates, see _Gobbi_, Ueber
die Abhängikeit der Populationskräfte von den einfachen
Grundfstoffen, 1842.
198 The snow limit at Mageröe in Norway is 2,200, in Iceland 2,900, in
the northern Ural 4,500, in the Alps 8,200, in the Caucasus 10,400,
and Quito 14,850 feet high. Hence it is that mountainous countries
which produce nothing in the north, make magnificent vineyards in
warmer countries.
199 In central Germany, even a second crop can be produced after the
corn harvest. In Arabia, the same seed produces three harvests,
because the grain which falls at the time of harvesting to the
ground, germinates immediately and suffices for new seed.
(_Niebuhr_, Beschreibung, 154.)
200 Thus in the northern states of the American union, wheat yields a
return of only from four to five times the amount sown; in France,
5-6 times (_Lavoisier_): in Chili, 12 times; in northern Mexico, 17
times; in Peru, 18 and 20 times; in southern Mexico, 25 and even 35
times; in Germany, maize seed yields at best one hundred fold, while
in the torrid zone there is a return of from three hundred to four
hundred fold, generally.
201 Andalusian corn produces in the mill only one-half as much
bran-waste as Baltic wheat produces. _Bourgoing_, Tableau de
l’Espagne, II, 155. Baltic wheat contains 6-7 per cent, of azote,
and Algerian, 20-25 Per cent. (_Kabsch_, Pflanzenleben der Erde,
1865.)
202 In Europe the blossoming season is retarded four days for each
degree of northern latitude. (_Schübler_.) As we advance towards the
north, the difference becomes less noticeable, but more so as we go
towards the south. In mountainous countries a similar difference is
observable, produced by a like climatic influence. It is from about
10 to 12 days, for a height of from 500 to 600 feet. (_Wolff_,
Naturgesetzliche Grundlagen des Ackerbaues I, p. 332 ff.) In the
cantons, in which the Swiss confederation had its origin, the
pasturage of the Alps lasts generally thirteen weeks, but in the
higher Alps it lasts only from six to seven weeks. (_Businger_, C.
Unterwalden., p. 52.)
203 In central Italy, winter wheat may be sown in October, November or
December; summer wheat, in February or March. (_Sismondi_, Tableau
de l’Agriculture Toscane, p. 35.) In Judæa, it was possible to
harvest figs ten months in the year. (_Joseph_, Bell. Jud., Ill, p.
10.) On the other hand, there is Jemtland, where the peasant in many
places surrounds the northern portion of his cornfield with fagots,
and lights them in August when the north wind blows, to protect his
land from the frost; and where the expression “green years” is used
to designate those in which the harvest has to be reaped before it
is ripe. (_Forsell_, Statistik von Schweden, 24.) In the valuation
made of the lands of the kingdom of Saxony, for assessment purposes,
the cost of supporting a yoke of oxen in the lowest country is
estimated at only three-fourths of what it is in the highest
localities, because in the former, 200 work days can be calculated
upon in the year, in the latter only 159. In central Russia, the
greater part of the labor of agriculture, sowing and harvesting, has
to be finished within the space of four months. In central Germany,
they are spread over seven months. Other things being equal, seven
horses and ploughmen are needed in Russia where only four are called
for in central Germany, (_von Haxthausen_, Studien I, 174.) On the
impediments put in the way of agriculture by the climate of eastern
Prussia, see _Meitzen_, Boden und landwirthsch. Verhältnisse des
preussichen Staats, 1868, I, Abschn., 6.
204 “In both hemispheres, the zone in which the temperature decreases
most rapidly lies between the 40th and 50th degrees of north
latitude. This circumstance must have a happy influence on the
culture and industry of the nation inhabiting the neighborhood of
that zone. Here is the point where the regions of the vine touch
upon those of the olive. Nowhere in the world, do the products of
the vegetable kingdom, and the most varied wonders of agriculture,
follow with such rapidity on one another. The great variety of
products enlivens the commerce and increases the industrial activity
of agricultural nations.” (_Humboldt_.) It is true, however, that
tropical countries possess, also, in their mountainous parts, the
_tierra fria_, _templada_ and _caliente_, superimposed the one on
the other.
205 The aggregate coal supply of Great Britain (1869) was 2,180 millions
cwt.; of Belgium (1862), 207 millions; of France (1868) 256
millions; of Prussia (1870), 600 millions, of Austria (1870),
including brown lignite coal, 158 millions; of Russia (1868), only a
little over 9 millions. The great English coal field, in the
counties of Durham and Northumberland, embraces 732 English square
miles; that of South Wales, 1,200, with a depth of 95 feet, so that
the geographical square mile contains here 679 millions of tons,
each of twenty cwt. To obtain the same quantity of combustible
material as was furnished to Prussia, in 1865, by its coal, it would
be necessary to use up 6,331 square miles of forest, (_von Dèchen_,
in _Engel’s_ Zeitschrift, 1867, 258.) The supply of coal is, of
course, exhaustible while, for instance, turf-fields replace
themselves by slow degrees. Compare _Griesbach_, über die Bildung
des Torfs, in the Göttinger Studien, 1845, vol. I. The importance of
the coal-fields of the United States, which are twenty-two times as
large as those of Great Britain, in the distant future, cannot be
over-estimated.
206 I need only call attention to the earth-fire (_Erdbrand_) for the
purpose of forcing the growth of garden plants in the neighborhood
of Zwickau, which is said to have existed since 1505.
207 Thus, in Watt’s steam engines of the larger kind, an hourly
consumption of ten pounds of coal is needed to produce a force
equivalent to that of one horse, while in the smallest machines of
only one horse power, twenty-two pounds are needed. See _Prechtl_,
Technolo. Encyklopädie, III, 669.
208 It is easy to see that it is the most important substances needed in
industry which are mentioned in this section. Many political
economists have considered the principal difference between
agriculture and the industries and economies of towns to lie in the
contrast here referred to. Thus, _A. Sena_, Sulle Cause che possono
far abbondare li Regni d’oro e d’argento, dove non sono miniere,
1613, I, 3. See the description of the difference between land and
machines in _Malthus_, Principles, III, 5; _Senior_, Outlines, 86.
But it is nothing more than a difference of gradation. Even in the
most active of businesses there is a limit which the accumulation of
means of production cannot pass without a relative diminution of the
income. This boundary is imposed by the limited nature of those
organic beings which must contribute to production either actively
or passively. Thus, for instance, a manufacturing establishment or
commercial business can be enlarged with advantage only so long as
it is still possible for one superintendent to conduct it. And so,
when cattle are furnished with very abundant and substantial food, a
pound of meat costs the producer a much higher price than when they
are more moderately supplied: sometimes in the ratio of 1.95:0.98.
_Boussingault_, Economie rurale, II. Where there is absolute
over-feeding, the producer must suffer loss. But, even inorganic
nature imposes its own limits here; as, for instance, when ships,
machines etc., on account of the insufficient strength of the
materials of which they are made, cannot be constructed beyond a
certain size. But all these limits are much narrower than those
imposed by the quality of immovability.
_ 209 Senior_, Outlines, 26, 81 ff. See _Stewart_, Principles, II, ch.
11; _Ortes_, E. N., I, 18, II, 18 ff. This most important principle
in Political Economy is thus illustrated by _John Stuart Mill_,
Principles, book I, ch. 12. “The limitation to production from the
properties of the soil is not like the obstacle opposed by a wall,
which stands immovable in one particular spot, and offers no
hindrance to motion short of stopping it entirely. We may rather
compare it to a highly elastic and extendible band, which is hardly
ever so violently stretched, that it could not possibly be stretched
any more, yet the pressure of which is felt long before the final
limit is reached, and felt more severely the nearer that limit is
approached.” This is, if possible, more obvious in building than in
agriculture, both as to the construction of new stories and the
excavation of deeper cellars.
_ 210 Ad. Mayer_, Das Düngerkapital und der Raubbau (Heidelberg, 1869),
sees the only conditions of production which man cannot increase at
will exclusively in the sun’s rays, the employment of which also
depends on the quantity of land. Thus would he explain _Senior’s_
law.
211 See the tables of increase in _Cotta_, Anweisung zum Waldbau, p.
228. _Count Buquoy_, Theorie der N. Wirthschaft, p. 54, ridicules
the absurd procedure of a great many farmers, as if by forcing the
ploughshare deeper into the soil, they could compel it to produce a
double return, and asks: if one should dig a square foot of land to
the center of the earth and manure it, who would take it off his
hands? As to the effect of manure, _Kuhlmann’s_ investigations have
shown that 300 kilogrammes of guano produced in three years an
increase per _hectare_ in the yield, of 2,469 kilogrammes of hay;
while 600 kilogrammes produced an increase of only 2,870
kilogrammes. _Schübler_, found that where salt had been used for
manuring purposes, 40 kilogrammes produced a maximum of fertility
from which point forward every increase in the amount of salt was
attended by diminished returns, and finally led to complete
barrenness. See _Wolff_, Naturgesetzliche Grundlagen, I, 408, 412,
502. Constantly increased irrigation would convert the land into a
swamp instead of indefinitely adding to its fertility. Nor can
abundant sowing be of any use when it reaches such a point that the
plants stand so closely together as to interfere with their proper
development.
212 These differences correspond with the differences in the kinds of
deterioration to which land is liable from rivers, floods, lava,
etc., soil-exhaustion, and the growing wild of the land.
213 From a technic point of view, it would, perhaps, be practicable, in
most instances, to obtain the phosphoric acid immediately from the
land and transfer it to other land; but the relation of the cost to
the result makes it impossible from an economical point of view.
214 It most certainly is always an uncommon advantage that certain kinds
of soil, rich in kali and decayed vegetable matter, yield a long
series of harvests without the addition of manure, provided, always,
that a short interval is allowed to the process of decay to replace
the exhausted plant-food. Thus in many volcanic regions. Compare on
similar districts in the Deccan: _Rilter_, Erdkunde, V, 714.
215 According to _Schübler_, the absorption of water by 100 parts of
earth is, in the case of quartz-sand, 25 per cent. of its weight;
for clay, 70 per cent.; for calcareous earth, 85 per cent.; humus,
190 per cent.; and for 100 parts of their value, respectively, 37.9,
66.2, and 69.2 per cent. The consistency of the four kinds of earth,
in a dry state, is in the proportion of 0.100, 5, 8.7; their
adhesion in a moist state, to iron agricultural implements, is in
that of 0.17, 1.12, 0.65, 0.40. Of 100 parts of water mixed with
these kinds of earth, the evaporation in four hours, at a
temperature of 18° 75’ (centigrade) is 88.4, 31.3, 28 and 20.5 per
cent, respectively. The diminution of volume when the moist earth
dries, under the same degree of temperature, is, 0, 18.3, 5 and 20.
Their relative absorption of atmospheric moisture for 48 hours is as
0, 24, 17.5 and 55; their absorption of oxygen in 30 days is
respectively 1.6, 15.3, 10.8 and 2.03 per cent.; and, lastly, their
heat-holding power is in the ratio of 95.6, 66.7, 61.8, 49.
216 In Austria, below the Enns, only 3.8 per cent. of the soil is
barren; in the Tyrol, 29 per cent.; in Dalmatia, 48.1 per cent.
(_Springer_). In the French Pyrenees, 43 per cent. is considered
incapable of cultivation; in the Alps, in Landes and Morbihan, 42
per cent.; in the departments of Nord and Somme, 1.3 per cent.
(_Schnitzler_). _Franscini_ considers 36 per cent. of Switzerland
unfit for tillage. The idea “barren” is a very vague one, and hence
a comparison of different countries on this point should not be made
without great caution.
_ 217 Wolff_, loc. cit., 353 ff. As to the manner in which soil and
climate mutually improve or injure one another, see _Schwerz_,
Prackt. Ackerbau I, 12.
218 In this respect, also, the fundamental difference between
agriculture and industry is very important, inasmuch as the products
of the former, equal in value to those of the latter, require a very
large supporting or bearing surface; those of industry, a very small
one. If _Nobbe’s_ “water-cultivation” should ever come to assume any
great practical importance, agriculture would approach to industry
in this respect.
_ 219 Wolkoff_ has called special attention to mere _emplacement_:
Lectures d’Economie polítique rationelle (1861), pp. 90 seq., 157
seq. _Bastiat’s_ rather broad and enthusiastic assertion, that no
mere product of nature possesses value (in contradistinction to
utility), an exaggeration of his very honorable contest with the
socialists (1848!), is refuted by daily experience, as when, for
instance, discoveries are made accidentally of metallic veins,
coal-fields etc., which immediately acquire great exchange value.
_ 220 Aristotle_ distinguishes between ἀπολαυστικὰ and κάρπιμα. (Rhet.,
I, 5.)
_ 221 Humboldt_, Essai politique, súr la N. Espagne, IV, 9, in which he
estimates the relation of the culture of the banana to that of
wheat, in respect of mere quantity, to be as 4,000 to 30,—“probably
the best gift of nature to awakening man, and the object of the most
ancient cultivation.”
222 It was said that in Easter Island, three days’ labor sufficed for a
man’s maintenance through the whole year. A similar gift of nature
to tropical lands is the date tree. It is turned to so many
different uses that the Arabs of the coast of the Persian Gulf say
that it is possible to construct a ship, rig it, supply and freight
it, from date trees. Houses are built of palm wood, covered with
palm leaves, furnished with palm mats, lighted with palm chips, and
heated with palm coals. The whole architecture of these countries is
fashioned by the date tree. Date wine is the favorite intoxicating
beverage. There is a proverb current there that a good housewife can
vary the preparation of the date for her guests every day in the
month. Even the pulp is eaten. Each tree yields an average of 50-250
lbs. of dates; and a tree may last over 200 years. An acre may
contain more than 200 trees. The labor of cultivation is very
slight, although it demands more care than the banana. Compare
_Ritter_, Erdkunde, XII, 763. An acre planted with the sago-palm
yields as much nourishment as 163 acres of wheat land. (Reise der
Frigatte Novara, II, 113.)
223 See _D. Hume_, Discourses No. I (On Commerce). While in hot
countries “the sun does more work for man, it diminishes human
strength itself.” (_M. Wirth_.) That, however, such people, to their
surplus of the natural means of enjoyment and the consequent
laziness and absence of care, add the bright side of a joyous
disposition, is well shown by _Goethe_, Werke (16 mo., 1840), XXIII,
246.
224 Noticed even by _Thucyd._, I, 2. See also _Euripides’_ comparison of
Sparta and Messina, in _Strabo_, VIII, 366.
225 We find, in a great many countries, that their northern portions are
endowed more sparingly by nature with means of enjoyment
(_Genussmitteln_) than southern portions, but more abundantly with
means of acquisition. (_Erwerbsmitteln_.) Hence, the former are
latest to develop; but once developed, they assume a much higher
place in civilization than the latter. This is true of Italy, Spain,
Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and the United States, and of
North America in general, as compared with South America. Something
similar may be seen in the contrast between Austria and Prussia. The
latter is colder and less fertile, but far superior to the former in
extent of coast, in rivers, and fossilized combustible matter.
226 The rule is not without its exceptions. Thus, for instance, Borneo
and New Guinea are physically very like each other, but zoölogically
two different worlds; the former belonging to India and the latter
to Australia.
227 Even language, which is the most general and most accurate
expression of the intellectual genius of a people, presents a
strikingly analogous contrast in mountainous and coast countries.
Thus, compare the Ionic, Latin, Low German, Danish and Portuguese,
with the Doric, Oscan, High German, Swedish and Spanish.
228 See _Strabo_, II, 126. seq.
229 The most striking instance, illustrative of the manner in which the
nature of a country influences the character of a people is afforded
by the difference in the development of the Aryans in India and
Persia, especially when their sojourn in the territory of the Indus
before that near the Ganges is looked upon as an intermediate stage.
230 French writers, especially, have exaggerated the influence of nature
over man. Thus, _Bodin_. de Repub. (1584), V, I; _Montesquieu_,
Esprit des Lois, XVII, 6. XVIII, 1, 18. _Cabanis_, Rapport du
Physique et du Moral de l’Homme (1805), IX, Mémoire, Influence des
Climats. _Comte_, also, Traité de Législation (1827), is of opinion
that “the degree of civilization which a people may attain does not
depend on the degree of development of which they are capable by
nature, but on that which their geographical situation permits them
to attain.” See, also, _Herodot_., III, 106; _Hippocr_., De Ære
etc., 71; _Euripid_., Medea, 820 ff.; _Plutarch_, De Exilio, 13. The
proper mean has been found by _E.M. Arndt_, in his Anleitung zu
historischen Characterschilderungen (1810), and by _Ritter_, and his
school. See, also, _K.S. Zachariæ_, Idee einer
volkswirthschaftlichen Geographic als Grundlage der praktischen N.
Œkonomie fur jedes einzelne Volk: Vierzig Bücher v. Staate, II, 79.
See, also, _Turgot_, Géographie politique, 1750, Œuvres (ed. Daire,
II, 611 ff.); _Lueder_, Nationalindustrie und Staatswirthschaft,
III, 1800 ff.
_ 231 Malte Brun_, Précis. de la Geographie universelle, VI. pr.
_ 232 Strabo_, IV, 178. On the climate of ancient Germany, see _Tacit_,
Germ, 2.
_ 233 Fraser_, Travels in Koordistan and Mesopotamia, II, 5. See, also,
the description of ancient Susiana in _Strabo_ XV, 731, with that of
the new one by _M’Kinneir_, Geogr. Memoir of Persia, 92.
234 Thus, _Galenus_, De Usu Partium Corporis humani, L. I. The animal
nearest to man mentally, the elephant, is also possessed of a member
more like the human hand than any other animal. Its trunk was called
_manus_ by the Romans. Hence the Indians call the elephant, the
animal gifted with a hand. _Buffon’s_ view is exaggerated by
Helvetius in the interests of materialism. _Aristotle_, (De partt.
anim. IV, 10), opposes the saying of Anaxagoras: διὰ τὸ χεῖρας ἔχειν
φρονιμώτατον εἶναι τῶν ζώων ἄνθρωπον. Compare _Bell_, On the human
Hand, 1836.
235 As to the imperfection of the ordinary division into agricultural,
industrial and commercial labor, see _John Stuart Mill_, I, ch. 2,
9. The division of all labor into mental and physical, is not more
satisfactory; for even the basest labor is not wholly physical. See
_Buckle_, History of Civilization, vol. II.
_ 236 Dioscorides_ and _Galen_ were acquainted with, at most, 600 plants;
_Linnæus_, with 8,000. About 1812, about 30,000 had been described;
in 1837, about 60,000; in 1849, about 100,000. _Buckle_, History of
Civilization etc., II, p. 359.
_ 237 Industrie extractives_, according to _Dunoyer_. When nature’s
spontaneous gifts are exhausted, this _occupation_ readily becomes
_production_.
_ 238 Industrie voituriére_, according to _Dunoyer_; _industria
traslocatrice_ in opposition to _trasformatrice_, according to
_Scialoja_. _Ortes_ distinguishes only four classes: _agricoltori_,
_artefici_, _dispensatori_ and _administratori_, or _raccoglitori_,
_manifattori_, and _difensori di bene_ (E. N. I, 2; III, 14). _A.
Walker_, Science of Wealth (1867), p. 34, knows only three classes:
transmutation, transformation, transportation.
239 This is not to be understood in the sense, that there ever was a
period in which these sciences were unknown. We need only mention
the position occupied by the priest and knight in the middle ages.
But, looked upon as economic labor, intended only for purposes of
free commerce, they have become very important only within a
relatively recent period of time. Thus, for instance, there was in
Lower Austria, in 1866, one lawyer or notary to every 6,569
inhabitants; in Bohemia, to every 14,860; in Galicia, to every
22,361; in the whole of Cis-Leithanian Austria, 12,259. In 1865,
there was in Prussia, one to every 11,149; in Bavaria, to every
7,350; in Hanover, to every 4,946; in 1862, in Baden, one to every
4,992; in 1867, in Saxony, one to every 3,048. _Hildebrand’s_
Tagebuch, 1868, I, 234. There was in Prussia, in 1871, one doctor to
every 3,230 inhabitants; in Berlin, to every 1,100; in Heldesheim,
to 1,803; in Cologne, to 2,120, in Marienwerder, to 7,240; in
Gumbinnen, to 10,047. _Engel_, Preuss. Statis. Zeitschrift, 1872,
376. The verb “to plow” is, according to comparative philologists,
of more recent origin than “to weave.” (_Lassen_, Indische Alterth.
I, 814 ff.) And yet agriculture, in the sense above indicated,
undoubtedly precedes industry.
240 Observed by _Geiler v. Kaisersberg_. Compare _Schmoller_ in the
Tübinger Zeitschr., 1860, 483. Hour wages occupy a middle place
between day wages and piece wages.
241 Thus the introduction of piece wages into lower Silesia has
increased the daily earnings of workmen by one-third, one-half, and
even more. _Engel’s_ Stastist. Zeitschr. (1868), p. 327. The
investigations of the German agricultural congress on the condition
of agricultural laborers in the German empire (report of _v. d.
Goltz_, 1875) show that in all Germany on an average, the daily
earnings of a contract workman (_Accordlöhner_) is to the daily
summer wages of a day laborer as 15:10 (1420). On the other hand,
_Brassey_, in the construction of a railway, found that the same
workmen engaged in grading, digging, etc., cost 18 pence per yard
when paid by the day, and 7 pence when paid by the piece. (Work and
Wages, 266.) Swiss experience is, that production became 20 per
cent. cheaper under the piece wages system. (_Böhmert_, Beitr.,
109.)
242 According to _v. d. Goltz’s_ Enquête, the earnings of workmen by the
piece, compared with the wages paid workmen by the day in summer, is
especially high in middle Franconia (16.5:10); in the Leipzig circle
of the German empire (16.6), in the Braunschweig plain (16.8),
within the jurisdiction of Hildesheim (18.1), of the Bavarian
Palatinate (18.6), in Rhenish Hesse (23.2), especially low in
Stettin (13.2:10), in Stralsund (12.4), in Schleswig Holstein (12),
in Osnabrück, (11.7.)
243 According to _v. Flotow_, Anleitung zur Fertigung der
Ertragsanschlage, I, 80, four days of serf labor are equivalent to
only three of a free day laborer. According to _v. Jacob_, Ueber die
Arbeit Leibeigener und freier Bauern (1815), 21, two day laborers
are equal to three serfs, and one farm horse is equal to two
employed by serfs. It is as impossible to obtain accurate general
estimates here, as in the case of slave labor. As a rule, hope is
not only a more humane but a sharper spur to action. But if force is
employed at all, there is no doubt that the greater it is, the more
effectual it is. Wherever the right of corporal punishment has been
taken from the masters, the technic value of serfdom has uniformly
decreased. In the English West Indies, formerly, philanthropic
masters who treated their negroes with unwonted gentleness, obtained
from them, as a rule, very poor economic results. While each of the
slaves expressed the greatest indignation at the idleness of the
others when they had “so good a master,” they were all equally and
excessively lazy. The weekly production of a plantation sank rapidly
under this system from thirty-three hogsheads to twenty-three, and
finally to thirteen. _Math. Levis_, Journal of a West India
Proprietor, 1834; Edinburg Review, XLV, 410. For the same reason,
the negroes in the Spanish colonies, who were treated much more
gently than those owned by other European nationalities produced
much worse work. See, however, _Columella_, De Re rust., I, 8.
244 According to _Howlett_, The Insufficiency of the Causes to which the
Increase of our Poor Rate have been ascribed (1788), piece wages had
become usual “a few years ago.” Very recently the trades unions have
again restricted the system of piece wages (§ 176).
245 This system is inapplicable in the case of domestic servants
(_Gesinde_) who are a part of the household, and who afford to their
masters, besides their services, the advantage of having a person at
their disposal always about them, and whose wages are therefore in
great part their board and lodging. Still less can it apply to the
case of the family physician, whose services consist not simply in
writing prescriptions, but who is also the professional family
friend. The same may be said of the state official, clergyman etc.,
from whom it is demanded that he should sacrifice his entire life to
the service of the public. Against adopting piece wages in the case
of state officials, it may be further urged that no case at law, no
act of public life is precisely similar to any other. It cannot be
applied to that of soldiers, because they are called upon for action
only after a long term of peace, during all of which they must keep
themselves in readiness for war. (_Schäffle_, N. Œk., II, 388.) It
has also been the practice of courts, until recently, on account of
their dignity, to pay their mechanics not by the piece, wherever
that was practicable, but by a fixed salary. An able professor in a
university is of use to it not only by his lectures, but by his
reputation and example etc.; hence, here, a combination of piece
wages and of a regular salary is preferred. As to services, the
permanency of which constitutes their essential character,
remuneration is also wont to be permanent or hereditary, as in the
case of very many public officers, while civilization is as yet
unadvanced. Later, in proportion as the progress of civilization
makes itself felt, this hereditariness is wont to be confined to the
sovereign. For an opposite view, see _Boxhorn_, Institutt. politt.
(1663), 41.
246 Thus, the Chinese, who, by a ridiculous exaggeration bordering on
caricature of many of our recent tendencies, may afford us a warning
reflection of ourselves in our present state of civilization, rarely
labor efficiently when not watched. Only by means of piece wages or
the share-system can they be induced to do good work. _R. M.
Micking_; Recollections of Manilla and the Phillippine Islands,
1851.
247 Day laborers, for instance, must be watched over during the harvest,
to prevent their idling away their time, and piece-workers to
prevent their continuing to work in spite of wet weather, binding
sheaves, for instance, which causes the sheaves to rot. In England,
it is considered almost an impossibility to induce laborers to cut
wheat close enough to the soil. (_Sinclair_, Code of Agriculture,
102.) The haste of piece-workers, in the harvest of the rape,
occasions great loss, by the fall of the seed. In Russia the
removing of the hide from animals is paid for by the piece, and the
laborers injure a very large number of skins in their haste.
_Steinhaus_, Russlands industrielle und commercielle Verhältnisse,
425. Piece-wages are to be entirely discountenanced in the reeling
of silk. See _Bernouilli_, Technologie, II, 215. A yearly salary is
to be recommended in the tending of cattle, because here a certain
connection (_Anschluss_) with individuals is desirable. In building
trades, contractors in England prefer a regular salary; but they
employ model workmen, the so-called “bell horses,” to whom they pay
a large salary, and who keep the others on the strain by their
example, and who on that account are very much hated by their
colleagues.
_ 248 Adam Smith_, W. of Nations, I, ch. 8. _Howlett_, also, l. c.,
thinks that piece-wages increase the earnings of workmen, but at the
expense of their capacity for constant labor. _Count Görtz_, in his
Reise, 328, relates with what fatal effect piece-work in Demarara
tells on white laborers and their horses. After the February
Revolution, Parisian workmen demanded the abolition of piece-wages,
and obtained it in several manufactories. Revue des deux Mondes,
March 15, 1848.
249 In several Swiss factories, understrappers receive a salary, while
_monteurs_ work by groupe-contract. (_Böhmert_, Arbeiterverältnisse
und Fabrikeinrichtungen der Schw., II, 70.) Sub-contracting, where
the contract is generally made with only one person, for the most
part of more than average capacity, and this latter contracts with
other workmen on his own account entirely, is considered by
philanthropic employers of labor as one of the worst kinds of
remuneration. The more democratic system of gang-contract is much
better, although even here, it is very easy for the weaker members
of a good gang to overwork themselves. (Edinburg Review, October,
1873, 365.)
250 Especially important in chemical factories. The expense of greasing
on the Rhenish railways fell, through premiums offered as rewards
for saving, from 27,000 thalers to 5,000, in spite of an increase in
the amount of traffic. (_v. Mangoldt_, Volkswirthschaftslehre, 349.)
This was, besides, the most effectual way of controlling the theft
of material.
251 In the cachelot fishery, the captain receives one-sixteenth, the
master, one twenty-fifth, the second master, one thirty-fifth, the
boatswain, one-sixtieth, each sailor, one eighty-fifth of the
profit. (_Humboldt_, N. Espagne, IV, 10.) This system is very common
in North America. See _Carey_ in _J. S. Mill’s_ Principles, V, ch.
9, 7. In heathen Iceland, mariners were always paid a certain quota
of the profits. _Leo_, in _Raumer’s_ historischem Taschenbuch, 1835,
524. The same was often the case in China. _McCulloch_, Comm.
Diction. v. Canton. In England, its employment was rendered very
difficult by the laws of partnership, which made each individual,
except in great chartered societies, responsible for all kinds of
debts contracted by the rest of the firm. _J. S. Mill_, B. IV, ch.
7, 5.
252 The house painter Leclaire, in Paris, obtained very high results in
this respect. _Leclaire_, Répartition des Bénéfices du Travail,
1842. He retained for his own services as contractor the sum of
6,000 francs, and paid each workman the salary he had hitherto
received. What remained was, at the end of the year, equally divided
among all. _Leclaire_ assures us that he was always satisfied with
the system. The paying of a proportion of the general profits to
laborers is advisable only in case their ability of surveying the
whole is not much inferior to that of their employers. Where a
special proportion is paid, in special branches of business, it is
sufficient if their supervision extends over that particular branch.
But a sharing in the profits of business always supposes a
corresponding supervision of the business itself, and also the
keeping of accounts.
253 A very good remedy against indigence among the lower classes.
(_Umpfenbach_, National Œkonomie, 1867, 214.) But whether it will
ever be possible to make the remuneration of the navvy or that of a
type-setter depend on the final success of his work, _qnœre_.
_ 254 Tournefort_, speaking of the fatalism of the Turks, says that they
always and everywhere leave the world as they found it. According to
their own proverb, no grass grows again where the Osman has set
foot.
255 The experiments made with the dynamometer in 1800 ff. show that the
average _force manuelle_ of an inhabitant of Van Dieman’s Land is to
that of an inhabitant of New Holland, of Timor, of a French marine,
and of an English colonist in Australia, in the ratio of 50, 51, 58,
69, 71 kilogrammes. _Péron_, Voyage de Découverte aux Terres
australes, 2d ed., II, 417. It was found more recently in the
American army, that the average lifting-power of white soldiers was
314 to 343 -lbs.; of white marines, 307; students, 308; negroes,
323; mulattos, 348; and Indians, 419. _Gould_, Investigations in the
Military and Anthropolog. Statistics of American Soldiers, 1869,
458, seq. According to English manufacturers, an English laborer
accomplishes almost as much again as a French one(?), and the latter
in turn more than an Irishman. An English contractor, who had worked
in French manufactories, expressed his opinion concerning the French
to this effect: “It cannot be called work they do; it is only
looking at it and wishing it done.” _Senior_, Outlines, 149. Thus,
for instance, a good English spinner with a machine of 800 spindles
could produce 66 lbs. of yarn, No. 40, while a Frenchman could
produce only 48 lbs. (_M. Mohl_, Reise durch Frankreich, 535;
compare _Dingler_, Polyt. Journal, I, 63 seq.) That the Americans
also are inferior to the English in strength and dexterity is
attested by the American _Hewitt_. See _Brentano_, Arbeitergilden,
II, 231. A Berlin wood-sawyer accomplished as much in ten days as a
West Prussian from Labiau in twenty-seven days. _J. G. Hoffmann._
English farmers on the Hellespont prefer to pay Greek laborers £10
per year “besides their keep,” rather than £3 to Turkish laborers.
(_Lord Carlisle_, Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters, 1854, p. 77
seq.) In Paulo-pinang, the Malayan agricultural laborer receives
$2-½ per month, the Malabar, $4, the Chinese, $6; for which
compensation they work respectively 26, 28 and 30 days. _Ritter_,
Erdkunde, v, 54.
256 Little light can be thrown on this subject by a comparison of
different countries. Thus, in France, there are 614 persons in every
1,000 examined fit for military service; in Bavaria, 705; in
Denmark, 523; in Austria, 498; in Prussia, 284; in Saxony, 259; in
England, where the conscription is from among the lowest classes,
665; and in Württemberg, 490. (_Wappäus_, Allg.
Bevölkerungsstatistik, II, 71, 140.) _Massy_, Remarks on the
Examination of Recruits, 1854. (_Memminger_, Würt. Jahrb., 1843,
103.) The comparison of different parts of the same state is much
more instructive. Thus, in Saxony, cities afford only 197, and the
flat country only 265 per 1,000 (Sächs. statist. Ztschr., 1856, No.
4 ff.); and in France there are among those of illegitimate birth a
very large number unfit for military service. (Journ. des Econ.,
1850, XXV, 69.) According to the Austrian Annual of military
statistics, there were in 1870, on an average, throughout the entire
monarchy, 211 per 1,000 of those liable to enter the ranks of the
military, fit for service; in the Innsbruck command, 325; in
Lemberg, 179.
_ 257 M. Chevalier_, Cours, I, 115. _Adam Smith_, B. I, ch. 8, noticed
the great industry of well paid workmen. Among the uneducated, labor
must almost necessarily be repulsive in proportion as it is illy
remunerated.
258 Thus _A. Young_ remarked that wages in Ireland are wretchedly low,
while labor is far from being cheap. In his “Evidence in Respect to
the Occupation of Land in Ireland,” II, 135, he says that a Scotch
day laborer at 1s. per day is cheaper than an Irish day laborer at
½s. According to _McCulloch_, “Statis. Account of the British
Empire,” I, 666, industrial labor in Germany and France is dearer
than in England, because in the former countries there are, _ceteris
paribus_, twice as many laborers employed in most manufactures. See
_Senior_, Lectures on Wages, 1830, 11, and the reports of the
committees of parliament, _passim_ on French manufactures (1825).
The same has been experienced in the agricultural history of
Schleswig-Holstein. See _Hanssen_, Archiv. der Politisch. Œk. IV,
421. _La main d’œuvre est chère en Russie dès qu’il s’agit d’une
certaine capacité et d’un certain degré d’instruction
professionelle, tandis que celle de l’ouvrier ordinaire n’est nulle
part aussi bas._ (_Tégoborsky._)
259 Thus even _Columella_, R. R. I, 9. _J. S. Mill_, Principles, I, ch.
7, 5.
260 Thus, for instance, the Lex Visigoth., VIII, 4, 16, graduates the
fine to be paid by the murderer according to the age of his victim.
It increases up to the 20th year in the case of males, and
diminishes after the 50th. In the case of females, the maximum is
attained between the ages of 15 and 40. Similarly even _Moses_, Book
III, 27.
261 As to what concerns the two sexes, the _force rénale_ of adult males
is twice that of females in the human species. The difference
between them in youth is not so great. The force _manuelle_ of the
two sexes at the age of 30 is as 9:5. (_Quételet_, Sur l’Homme II,
p. 73 ff.) The numerical ratio of one sex to the other varies but
little among those nations which have attained a certain degree of
civilization. See _infra_, § 245.
262 It is of great importance to calculate here the number of days in
the year in which the laborer is compelled to be idle on account of
sickness. _Fenger_, (Quid faciant ætas annique tempus ad frequentiam
et diuturnitatem morborum, Hafniæ 1840), finds the following result:
Between 15 and 19 years, 7.2 days. Between 35 and 39 years, 7.8
days.
Between 20 and 24 years, 10.3 days. Between 40 and 44 years, 8.3
days.
Between 25 and 29 years, 9.5 days. Between 45 and 49 years, 11.6
days.
Between 30 and 34 years, 7.6 days. Between 50 and 59 years, 14.1
days.
According to _Villermé_, in the Annales d’Hygiène, II,
At 60 years, 16 days. At 67 years, 42 days.
At 65 years, 31 days. At 70 years, 75 days.
The latter table is the result of a comparison made of the tables of
seventy Scotch mutual aid societies. Compare _Digler_, Polyt.
Journal, XXIV, 168.
_ 263 Tacit._, Germ., 14. _Leo_, in _Raumer’s_ Taschenbuch, 1835, 418.
_Maxime sua esse credebant, quæ: ex hostibus cepissent._ (_Gajus_
IV, 16.) Roman auction _sub hasta_! Similar views obtained among the
Thracians. See _Herodot._, V, 6. In Sparta, even in the time of
Agesilaus, economic labor was considered unworthy of a free man,
(_Plutarch_, Ages, 26); while the Athenians, from the time of Solon,
punished idleness, and from that of Pericles “knew no other festival
but attending to their business.” _Thucyd._, I. 70. For some happy
observations on this subject, see _Riehl_, Die deutsche Arbeit,
1861.
264 Compare _Erasmus_ Colloq. (ed. _Stallb._), 21 ff., 213 ff., 392 ff.
_ 265 Temple_ learned from the Dutch of his own age that the time of
industrious men is the greatest home commodity of a country. (Works
I, 129.) “A trader’s time is his bread.” (_Sir M. Decker_, Essay on
the Decline etc., 1744, 24.) _Walpole_, in his Testament politique
II, 385, speaks of the inferiority of the Roman Church in this
respect. I would allude to the medieaval prohibition “to sell time”
as one of the chief grounds of the prohibition of usury. (See
_Roscher_, Gesch. der N. Œk. in Deutschland, 7.) _Economia di tempo
equivale a prolungamento di esistenza._ (_Soialeja._)
_ 266 Douville_, Voyage au Congo I, 239. See _v. Haxthausen_, Studien,
II, 439; _W. Jacob_, Production and Consumption of the precious
Metals, II, 209. The division of the day into hours dates from the
time of the sun dials of Alexandria. It was not known in Rome until
after the year of the city 491. (_Mommsen_, Römische Geschichte, I.
301.)
_ 267 Pinckard_, Notes on the West Indies, 1806, II, 107. In Spain it
looks as if no one in the streets was in a hurry. What a contrast
between the _sans souci_ gait of persons at bathing places and the
resorts of pilgrims and the precipitate haste in commercial centres!
_ 268 Meyendorff_, Voyage à Boukhara, 246.
269 The history of this idea affords a remarkable example of the
confusion produced by the employment of scientific terminology in
daily life. Until within a short time every possible meaning of the
word _capital_ was to be found in the dictionary of the French
Academy, its scientific politico-economical meaning alone excepted.
During the middle ages, the Latin _capitale_ was used to signify
both loaned money and cattle. (_Ducange_, s.v.) When culture was at
its highest in Greece, _Demosthenes_ entertained very good ideas of
the nature of capital which he sometimes calls ἀφορμὴ, sometimes
ἔρανος, the meaning of which he extends also to the incorporeal
capital of a good reputation. (Adv. Mid., 574; pro Phorm, 947.) The
same may be said of the Roman in conception of _peculium_. See
_Hildebrand’s_ Jahrbb., 1866, I. 338. On the beginnings of the
present idea of capital among the later schoolmen, see _Funck_,
Tübinger Ztschr., 1869, 149. The diary of _Lucas Rems_, 1491-1541
(ed. _Greiff_, 1861), calls commercial capital, in most instances,
the chief good (_Hauptgut_) p. 37; also _Cavedal_. The words money
and capital, interest and the price of money are now confounded in
daily life, as they were formerly by most writers. In the 17th
century, _Child_ and _Locke_ may be mentioned as instances. _Hobbes_
had some faint notion of the productive power of capital. See
_Roscher_, Zur Geschichte der englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre, 49,
60, 102. Thus, also, in the 18th century, _Law_, Sur l’Usage des
Monnaies, 697; Trade and money (1705) 117; _Mélon_, Essai politique
sur le Commerce, 1734, ch. 22; _Galiani_, Della Moneta, IV, 1, 3;
_Blackstone_, Commentaries, 1764, II, 456; _Genovesi_, Economia
civile, II, 2, 18, 13; _Stewart_, Principles, IV, 1, ch. IV;
_Verri_, Meditazioni, XIV; _Büsch_, Geldumlauf, V. 14; _A. Young_,
Political Arithmetics (1774), 1, ch. 7. _Hume_, on the other hand,
Discourses (1752), No. 4 (on interest), shows, that the rate of
interest is dependent, not as _Locke_ supposed, on the abundance or
scarcity of money, but on the state of profit and on the relation
between the demand and supply of capital. Similarly, _J. Massie_, An
Essay on the governing Causes of the Rate of Interest (1750).
_Quesnay_, Dialogue sur le Commerce, 173 (ed. Daire), shows that he
had a very clear conception of the operation, and of the principal
component parts of capital. _Turgot_, Sur la Formation et la
Distribution des Richesses, § 14, 54-79, came very near the truth,
and yet missed it. He recognized the necessity of advances which, as
a rule, are the result of saving, in every case of production. He
also distinguishes in the product of the soil, besides the _produit
net_ and the _subsistance du laboureur_, the _profit_ of the latter.
He likewise points out a great number of differences between the
“price of money” considered in its relation to trade, and in its
relation to loans. He explains the interest on capital, as
_Schröder_, in his Schatz-und Rentkammer, 231, and _Benjamin
Franklin_, in his Inquiry into the Nature of a Paper Currency (1729)
had done before, by the fact that the owner of capital can purchase
a piece of land with his capital, and thus draw an income without
working. Money, he said, was indeed not productive, but neither was
any other thing that could be loaned or leased, with the exception
of land and cattle. _Adam Smith_ deserves the greatest credit for
his analysis of the idea of capital, although he opposes “capital”
to what the Germans call capital-in-use, the “stock for immediate
consumption.” When _Canard_, Principes d’Economie politique (1801)
and _J. B. Say_, Cours pratique, 1828, I, 285, included man’s power
of labor in capital, they took a retrograde step. “Labour is
Capital, primary and fundamental.” _Colton_, 275. Every grown-up
individual, says _McCulloch_, Principles, 1825, II, ch. 2, may be
looked upon as a machine which has cost several years of continued
care and a considerable sum for its construction. It is only another
side of this same perversity, when _McCulloch_ seeks to force the
results produced by animals and machines into the definition of
labor. _Schlozer_, Anfangsgründe (1805), I, 21, goes so far as to
call the soul, raw material, which receives productive power from
the labor of the teacher! For a calculation of the money value of
man in the different ages of life, see Statis. Journ. XVI, 43 ff.
See, on the other hand, _Malthus_, Definitions, ch. 7; and _Rossi_,
in the Journal des Economistes, VI, 113. Nor does the view of
_Ganilh_, Systèmes d’Economie politique (1809), I, 243; of _Ad.
Müller_, Concordia, 93 ff., 211; of _Hermann_, “Staatswirth”
Untersuchungen, No. 3; of _Dunoyer_, Liberté du Travail, L. VI; of
_Bastiat_, _Carey_ and others, who include pieces of land in
themselves under the head of capital, seem to be better founded.
_Hermann_ defines capital the durable basis of every utility
possessed of value in exchange. _Schäffle_ reckons land as nature
offers it to us, among _free_ goods. From the moment that labor and
capital are spent upon it, it becomes immovable capital, but he
concedes that it still preserves many essential points which
distinguish it from other capital. (N. Œk. Theorie der
ausschliessenden Absatzverhältnisse, 1867, 65 ff., 89 ff.) These
differences appear to me to be still more important than that which
land and capital have in common; especially as the historic
development of their relations proceeds for the most part in
opposite directions. Thus, for instance, as civilization advances,
land is wont to become dearer and capital cheaper. How difficult
would it be to introduce clearness into the ideas of _intensive_ and
_extensive_ agriculture, if land were accounted capital! And it is
not only always theoretically, but also very often, in practice,
possible to separate the value of a given piece of land from the
most durable capital-improvements (_Kapitalmeliorationen_) made on
it. It is only necessary to call to mind the area of buildings.
_ 270 Marx_ makes a very arbitrary assertion when he says that only the
capital operating in trade, and even only that operating in trade
where money is used as the instrument of exchange, can properly be
called capital; and that, therefore, the modern biography of capital
dates only from the 16th century, (Das Kapital I, 106 ff.)
271 See, on the other hand, _Wolkoff_, Lectures d’Economie politique
rationelle, 167.
_ 272 Hermann_ (II ed., 238 ff.) distinguishes especially _preparatory
contrivances_ auxiliary to labor, such as stationary structures
etc., vessels, tools, machines and instruments for measuring etc.
273 Thus, for instance, the plow and the gun are machines, the spade and
the blow-pipe are tools. A hammer may be considered as a hard,
insensible fist; the bellows as a pair of very strong and durable
lungs. Tongs take the place of fingers, just as a spoon does of the
empty hand, and the knife the place of the teeth. A great number of
machines, on the other hand, may be compared to a complete workman.
Thus, the action of the mill which grinds grain has very little
resemblance to the blowing of the wind or the running of the water,
whereas the rising and falling of the pestle in the small mortar for
throwing grenades corresponds to the motion of the arm. (_Rau_,
Lehrbuch I, § 125.) The infinite number of functions of which our
members are capable is related to their inability to attain alone
the greater number of their ends. Hence animals which require no
tools can undertake to achieve very few things. “Man is a
tool-making animal.” (_B. Franklin._)
274 This is seen most clearly in the history of the grinding of corn. In
the time of Moses, and even of Homer, there were only hand-mills,
and originally only mortars. Later, mills set in motion by
horse-power were employed. Shortly after Cicero’s time, mills driven
by water-power came into use. _Brunck_, Analecta, II, 119, Ep. 39.
Mills built on pontoons do not date farther back than the time of
Belisarius. Wind-mills have been known since the ninth century;
Dutch wind-mills, only since the middle of the 16th century. See
_Beckman_, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Erfindungen II, I ff.
275 Compare _Plato_, Polit., 280.
276 Thus, _Ganilh_, Théorie de l’Economie politique I, 133, calls the
knowledge, talents and probity of merchants, as well as their
reputation, valuable parts of their capital in trade. See, also,
_Möser_, Patriot. Ph. II, 26. See some happy observations on the
intellectual capital of nations, as consisting of “known and unknown
preparatory labor through their history,” in _Lotze_, Mikrokosomos
II, 353 seq.
277 Compare _Dietzel_, System der Staatsanleihen (1856), 71 ff. And,
earlier yet, _Ad. Müller_ had looked upon taxes not in the light of
an insurance premium, but as “the interest of the invisible and yet
absolutely necessary intellectual capital of the nation.” (Elemente,
III, 75.) Of course, the State is much more than a species of
capital; just as a Gothic cathedral is something more than a piece
of masonry, but does not on that account cease to be a piece of
masonry.
_ 278 J. B. Say_, Traité d’Economie Politique I, ch. 10. Only think of
what is known in physiology as the change or transformation of
matter (_Stoffwechsel!_).
279 Productive capital has been rendered into German by the word
_Erwerbstamm_, by the author of “Staatswirthschaft nach
Naturgesetzen,” 1819. _Malthus_, Definitions, ch. 10, and _Rau_,
Lehrbuch, I, § 51, call productive capital alone, capital. According
to _M. Chevalier_, goods lose their quality of capital as soon as
they come into the hands of a consumer. _Schäffle_, N. Œk., II,
aufl., 59, calls capital in use _Genussvermögen_ (resources intended
for enjoyment) and productive capital, _Kapitalvermögen_
(capital-resources). On the other hand, _J. B. Say_, Traité, I, 13;
_McCulloch_, Principles, II, 2, 3, _Hermann_, Staatswirthschaft.
Untersuchungen, p. 60 ff., and _v. Mangoldt_,
Volkswirthschaftslehre, 122, divide capital into capital in use and
productive capital, according as it provides the possessor with that
which he may turn to account directly or indirectly by becoming the
owner of goods through its means. _Aristotle_ distinguishes between
ὄργανα and κτήματα, the former relating to ποίησις; for instance, a
shuttle; the latter to πράξις, as, for instance, bedding and
articles of dress. (Polit., I, 2, 5.)
280 Thus, for instance, class A embraces parks and forests; B, theaters,
churches, manufactories, arsenals, granaries, public walks and
roads. Walks can, besides, be used for the cultivation of fruit, and
roads for pleasure trips.
281 Translated “capital de consommation” by Wolowski, p. 96 of his
Roscher’s Principles.—_Translator’s note._
282 Dead, or better, dormant capital is such productive capital as, for
the time being, remains unused, and which, therefore, does not yield
even personal enjoyment. The sum total of this kind of capital is
very much diminished by the agency of savings banks. Loaned capital
which has been employed unproductively evidently constitutes no
longer a part of the wealth of a people. See _infra_, § 189.
_ 283 Wolkoff_ is so far right, when in his Lectures, p. 142, he calls
the return of capital in use not _revenu_, but _déstruction
graduelle_. _Schäffle_ is right, too, and entirely so, when he says
that only such an increase of the property, intended for enjoyment
simply, is anti-economic, as does not make the personal capacities
of labor (_Arbeitsvermögen_) as much more productive than they would
otherwise be. N. Œk., II, aufl., 224.
_ 284 Humboldt_, N. Espange, II, ch. 17; _v. Schlözer_, Anfangsgründe,
II, 109. Ausland, 140, No. 313. On the extraordinary wealth of even
Russian peasant women in pearls, see _v. Haxthausen_, Studien, 87,
309.
_ 285 Townsend_, Journey in Spain, I, 115, 310. In the patriarchal age of
the Jews, there was a relatively very large quantity of ornamental
objects in gold and silver: _Michælis_, De Pretiis Rerum apud
Hebræos, in the Comm. Soc. Götting., III, 151 ff., 160. Conservative
Sparta, in the middle age of its history, was certainly not rich,
and yet it had more gold and silver than any other Grecian state:
_Plato_, Alcib., I, 123. According to _St. John_, The Hellenes, III,
142, the ancients had relatively much more of the precious metals in
the form of objects for ornament than the moderns. The Romans, with
their usual good sense, did not make use of silver as an article of
luxury until they had attained great wealth. See _Cato_, R. R., ch.
23, and _Seneca_, De Vita beata, ch. 21. Then the Carthaginian
ambassadors railed at their hosts because they found the same pieces
of table silver in all the houses to which they were invited. The
younger Scipio, even, did not possess more relatively than 32 pounds
of silver ware. _Mommsen_, Römische Geschichte, II, 383. The
relatively great importance of the stores for domestic use,
nevertheless, runs through the whole of Roman history. The title _de
penu legato_, in the Pandects (Digest, XXIII, 9), points to this,
during the reign of the emperors, and in earlier times, the
derivation of _penates_ from _penu_. See _Rodbertus_, in
_Hildebrand’s_ Jahrbuch, 1870, I, 365. Immense importance of the
ring in the old north countries: _Weinhold_, Altnord. Leben, 184 ff.
The age of chivalry was very rich in silver plate, cups, basins,
etc. _Büsching_, Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, II, 137. _Anderson_,
Origin of Commerce, a. 1386. _Lord Burleigh_, in the age of queen
Elizabeth, left after him between fourteen and fifteen thousand
pounds sterling in silver ware; that is almost as much as the rest
of his whole estate; and, it would seem, that for a man of his rank,
even this was not considered a great deal. _Collins’_ Life of B.,
44. According to _Giustiniani_, cardinal Wolsey owned articles of
silver to the value of 1,500,000 ducats, and the greater number of
the lords of the time were equally well provided with them.
286 The Bedouins are fond of decorating their wives and children with
all the jewels that they possess, both on holidays and other days,
so that they sometimes have four or six bracelets on each arm and
fifteen ear-rings in each ear. _Burckhardt_, Bemerkungen, 188.
_Wellsted_ (Roederer’s translation), I, 224. In Asia Minor, girls
wear their whole dowry in the shape of personal ornaments.
_Belgiojoso_, Revue des deux Mondes, Feb. 1, 1855. In East India
even the most wretched towns have their silver workers. The emirs of
Scinde, with an annual income of £300,000, had a treasure worth
£20,000,000, nearly £7,000,000 of which were in jewels. _Ritter_,
Erdkunde VII, p. 185. On the upper Ganges more jewels and other
ornaments are worn than on the lower, where the wealthy prefer to
spend their capital on landed estates. _Ritter_, VI, 1143.
287 The first beginnings of this division are to be found in _Quesnay_
(Analyse du Tableau économique, 1758), in which he develops the
difference between _avances primitives_ and _avances annuelles_. See
also _Adam Smith_, W. of N., II, ch. 1, who, however, reduces the
difference between them mainly to the relations of possession, and
hence includes grain and seed in fixed capital. _Hermann_, Staatsw.
Untersuch., 269 ff.; _Ricardo_, Principles, ch. 1, sec. 2;
_Schmitt-henner_, Staatswissenschaften, I, 387, divides capital into
I, _infungible_, that is, 1, fixed in the strict sense of the word;
2, transportation-capital; II, _fungible_, 1, transformable capital;
a, material (raw material, auxiliary material etc.), b, formed
products; 2, circulating capital; a, wares; b, money. _A. Walker_,
S. of W., 57, calls circulating capital that which may be easily
transferred from one branch of production to another; fixed, that
which can be used with advantage only for the purpose for which it
was originally intended.
288 Old wood-work is burned; old iron utensils sold; also houses when
pulled down. _Emminghaus_, Allg. Gewerbelehre, 1868, 175.
289 If the Mongols, for instance, should despoil China of all its
moveable property with the exception of its buried money, its
immovable property would become productive only from the time that
that money would be used to secure other moveable articles. In any
case, the production would be proportioned only to the borrowed
seed, cattle, etc. (_Sismondi_, Richesses commerciale, 1803, I, p.
61.)
290 That the Athenians left everything in the lurch to oppose Xerxes,
much more readily than under Pericles, even, the flat country of
Attica. _Büchsenschütz_ (Besitz und Erwerb im griech. Alterthum,
589) explains by the fact that in the interval between the two
periods, fixed capital increased largely. In rude ages under the
appellation of a community or nation was understood a number of men;
and the state, while its members remained, was accounted entire.
With polished and mercantile states, the case is sometimes reverted.
The nation is a territory cultivated and improved by its owners;
destroy the possession even while the master remains, the state is
undone. _Ferguson_, Hist. of civil Society, V, 4; _v. Mangoldt_,
Volkswirthschaftslehre, 159. Fixed capital is not so sure of being
completely used up as circulating. On this point see _Schäffle_, N.
Œk., 53.
291 If the aggregate productive activity of man be designated by the
word labor (just as everything produced on a piece of land is
inaccurately called its product), then all capital may be considered
as the unconsumed result of labor. The recent socialistic theory
that considers capital as the wages which have been earned but not
paid, is a gross misconception of this truth. This is the origin
only of the capital of oppressors and deceivers, and of theirs only
in part. See _infra_, § 189.
292 “While we are clothed in our winter garments, the spring stuffs are
already in the shops of retail dealers; the light material of next
summer’s wear is already manufacturing, and the wool for our next
winter’s clothing spun.” Think of the study in advance which the
physician must have gone through, whom we summon to us at a moment’s
notice! _Menger_, Grundsätze, I, § 33. seq.
293 Thus in dangerous callings, as for instance, among soldiers and
sailors, there is very little saving. The same may be said of times
of plague. See _J. Rae_, New Principles on the Subject of Political
Economy, 1834.
294 That we keep our property under lock and key, while it was customary
in Plato’s time to seal it up, is in itself a great advance. See
_Becker_, Charicles, I, 202 seq. Earlier yet, artificial knots were
used. _Homer_, Odyss. VII, 443.
295 Compare _Hearne_, Reise, nach Prinzwalesfort, 43, 58, 119. _Barrow
von Sprengel_, 282. _Humboldt_, Relation historique, II, 245.
Ausland, 1844, No. 359; 1845, No. 84. _Stein-Wappüus_, Handbuch der
Geographie, I, 310. For proof that the clergy by preaching self
denial contributed largely to the creation of capital in the earlier
part of medieval history, see _Guórard_, Polyptiques d’Irminon
Préf., 13.
296 On the inevitableness of slavery, where capital is needed, and no
one cares to save, see _de Metz Noblet_, Phénomènes économiques, I,
306.
297 The origination of capital by “social connexions”
(_gesellschaftliche Zusammenhänge_) _Lassalle_ (Bastiat-Schultze,
92, 98) exaggerates into the absurdity that no capital was ever
saved. This is in part related to his confounding land with capital
(103 seq.). On the other hand, _P. L._ (_v. Lilienfeld_), Gedanken
über die Staatswissenschaft der Zukunft (1873), distinguishes
between the external and internal creation of capital in human
society; the latter based on the condition of every organic being,
by virtue of which the present is generated by the past, and
generates the future. The intercellular substance of plants, the
honey-comb of bees, and the blood in the animal body, correspond to
the capital of a nation.
_ 298 Hermann_, St. Untersuchungen, 289 ff.; _List_, System der
politischen Œkonomie, I, 325 ff. Thus, for instance, capitalization
among a race of hunters may be continued longest by the creation of
herds; that of a race of shepherds by the building of houses, and by
land-improvements; that of an agricultural people by the
establishment of trades, artificial roads, etc. As to how, in
general the accumulation of goods to any great extent, supposes
exchange, and as to how, first of all, with exchange through the
existence of a superabundance wealth may originate, see _Hermann_,
loc. cit., II, Aufl., 25 ff.
299 The annual increase of the capital of France during the later years
of Louis Philippe’s reign, was estimated at from 200 to 300 million
of francs; during the best years of Napoleon III’s reign, at 600
million. Journal des Econ., Nov., 1861, 170. The capital of the
British empire, judging from the statistics of the income tax,
increased from 1843 to 1853, in Great Britain alone, at least
£42,000,000 yearly; from 1854 to 1860, in the whole empire, at least
£114,000,000; and in 1863 alone by £130,000,000. London Statis.
Journal, 1864, 118 ff. A war carried on on English soil would
doubtless be more destructive of capital than one waged in Russia;
but Russia would recover from one like that of 1854-55 with much
greater difficulty because of the small tendency of its people to
amass capital. In countries in which the middle classes
preponderate, the influence of the amassing of capital on foreign
politics is one that favors peace. In despotic or democratic
countries, it may as readily favor war.
300 The “absolute formation” of capital above described is, of course,
the only one in the general economy of mankind. In the economy of
individuals, we frequently meet with another which is only
“relative,” as when the increase of one’s resources is attended by
as great or even greater decrease of another’s. This is the case,
for instance, where privileges or monopolies are granted. The same
phenomenon is found also in the intercourse of economies of
different nations. _Supra_, § 64.
301 Thus _Cicero_, De Off., II, 3, 4. Nature may indeed produce mere
value in use without the coöperation of labor, in the narrow sense
of the word; as, for instance, a forest which protects a district
from avalanches etc. But “everything which has been transformed into
goods tends constantly to return to its natural state, and to
withdraw itself from the life of goods.” _Stein_, Lehrbuch.
302 Compare _List_, System der Polit. Œkon. But see also the very fine
discussion of _J. S. Mill_, Principles, IV, ch. VI, 2, on the
dreariness of nature, when taken exclusive possession of by man;
“with every rood of land brought into cultivation which is capable
of growing food for human beings; every flowery waste or natural
pasture plowed up; all quadrupeds or birds which are not
domesticated for man’s use, exterminated as his rivals for food;
every hedgerow or superfluous tree rooted out, and scarcely a place
left where a wild shrub or flower could grow, without being
eradicated as a weed, in the name of improved agriculture.”
303 In Paris, in 1820, the necessary tools of a rag-gatherer cost 6-¼
francs. _Garnier_, Elements d’Econ.-polit., 43.
304 It is not to be overlooked that all labor expended for a distant end
also falls under the head of capital. See _Droz_, Economie
politique, 1829, I, 6.
305 For a good exposition as to how England has need of more
agricultural products, the East Indies of more capital, and the West
Indies of more labor, see _Fawcett_, Manual of P. E., 110.
306 It is a very significant fact, that, at present, in certain European
countries, in Germany for instance, the laborer is called a _taker_,
and the capitalist a _giver_ of work. The expressions employed by
_Canard_, _Say_ and _Hermann_, teach a similar lesson.
_ 307 Schäffle_, Kapitalismus und Socialismus, 124 seq.
308 It is evident, that, absolutely considered, the predominating factor
of an earlier period may continue to increase during the following:
and, as a rule, it does continue to increase.
309 I need cite only the instance of the slaves, who called out the
hours, thus performing the functions of a clock: _Martial_, VIII.
67; _Juvenal_, X. 216; _Petron._ 26; of the turning of water wheels,
in Egypt and Babylon, by human hands. _Strabo_, XVI. 738, XVII.,
807. Among the ancients, it required one shepherd, and shepherd boys
besides, to take care of twenty sheep. (_Geopon._ XVIII, 1.) In
highly cultivated regions, the number ran up to fifty. (_Demosth._,
adv. Euerg. et Mnes., 1155.) It seldom passed eighty (_Varro_, De re
rust., II. 10, 10. 2, 20), or one hundred (_Cato_, R.R. c. 10);
while, recently, five men are sufficient to take care of eighteen
hundred sheep. See _Roscher’s_ discourse on the relation of
Political Economy to classical antiquity, in the reports of the
Royal Saxon Science Association, May, 1849. Also _D. Hume_,
Discourses, No. 10.
310 The productive power of each of the factors of production has been
over-estimated by some schools. After _Gratian_ (c. i, C. XIII. qu.
i), had clearly recognized the necessary coöperation of the three
elements, there was in the one-sidedness with which the Reformers
emphasized God’s blessing as the only source of wealth, a great
over-estimation of the factor nature. The Mercantile System
over-estimated the factor capital, in one of its most obvious
component parts, money. In later times again: “_La terre est la
source ou la matière d’où l’on tire la ichesse; le travail de
l’homme est la forme qui la produit. Tous les hommes d’un état
subsistent et s’enrichissent aux dépens des propriétaires des
terres._” (_Cantillon_, Sur la Nature du Commerce, 1755, I. 33, 55.)
_La terre est l’unique source des richesses._ (_Quesnay_, Maximes
générales de Gouvernement, 1758, ch. 3.) In another place, indeed,
the same writer says: _les revenus sont le produit des terres et des
hommes (Grains_, p. 276, Daire), and _Mirabeau_ frequently laid
stress on the necessary coöperation of labor and capital.
(Landwirthschaftsphilosophie, translation by _Wichmann,_ I, 5.)
_Turgot_, Sur la Formation et Distribution des Richesses, § 7. For
an excellent refutation of this “Physiocratic” one-sidedness, which,
if all men are endowed by nature with equal rights, leads to
socialism, see _Canard_, Principes, 6. According to _Gioja_, N.
Prospetto, I. 35, the part played by labor, in the production of
_Parmesan_ cheese, is a thousand times as great as that played by
the soil; and in the production of a Dutch tulip, a hundred thousand
times as great. The English are wont, similarly, to over-estimate
the relative power of labor. (_Ponocratie_, after _Ancillon_, Essais
philosophiques, 1817, II. 327.) “Commerce and trade first spring
from the labour of men.” (_North_, Discourses upon Trade, 112.)
Thus, _Locke_ (1690), Of Civil Government, II, 5, 40 ff., is of
opinion, that, at least 9/10 of the value of the products of the
soil, useful to man, are to be ascribed to labor, and, in the case
of most, even 99/100. And so, _Berkeley_ (1735), Querist, No. 38
seq. This view is advocated in its boldest form,—a thing unusual in
the case of the independent disciples of a great master—by
_McCulloch_, Principles, II, ch. i, that it is to labor, and to
labor alone, that man owes everything that possesses any value in
exchange. Similarly, _J. Mill_, Elements (1824), III, 2. The
consequences which socialism might draw from these premises are
self-evident. _Karl Marx’s_ whole system, for instance, rests,
without any attempt at demonstration, on the assumption that the
Ricardo school is right. Much more moderate views are met with
earlier. Thus, _Hobbes_, De Cive, XIII, 14, and _Leviath_., 24 (1642
and 1651), calls _labor et parsimonia_ necessary sources of wealth;
_proventus terræ et aquæ_ useful ones; and _Petty_, On Taxes (1679),
47, says: “Labour is the father and active principle of wealth, as
lands are the mother. Land and labour together are the sources of
all wealth; without a competency of lands there would be no
subsistence, and but a very poor one without labour.” _Harris_, Upon
Money and Coins, 1757, P.I. _Adam Smith_, also, in spite of the well
known passage at the beginning of his work, very frequently lays
stress on “the annual produce of land and labour.” (See the passages
collected in _Leser_, Begriff des Reichthums bei A.S., 97.)
According to _Leibniz, regionis potentia consistit in terra, rebus,
hominibus_. (ed. Dutens, IV. 2, 531.) _Ricardo’s_ school is wont to
bring capital under the head of labor, as saved-up labor. This is
about as correct as to say, that all that a grown man does, his
parents had done. (_Umpfenbach_, Nat. Œk., 64.) There is only one
way in which labor, and even then the expression is not exactly
correct, can be looked upon as the only factor in production; and
that is to presuppose the forces of nature as matters of course
(_als sich von selbst verstehend_), and to call the aggregate use
made of them by the human mind, labor. Or we might say with old
_Epicharmos_, that the gods sell all goods for labor. (_Xenoph_.,
Memor. II. 1.) Moreover, even in purely intellectual productions, in
poetical productions for instance, nature, labor and experience, the
culture inherited from former ages (a kind of intellectual capital)
uniformly coöperate. But how almost completely valueless in
literature are all entirely pure (empty!) productions of the fancy!
311 Before the predominance of the Mercantile System, _Montchrétien_
very cleverly called all trades: _parcelles et fragments de cette
sagesse divine que Dieu nous communique par le moyen de la raisen_.
By means of the three estates; _labourers, artisans, merchands, tout
état est nourri; par eux tout profit se fait. L’utilité règle les
rangs des arts_. (Traité, 12, 45, 66.) The teaching of _P. Gregorius
Tolosanos_ (ob. 1597) on the different classes of society and the
different callings of men, is still more in keeping with the present
doctrine of production; only, in the moralizing tone of the time, he
speaks rather of their dignity than of their influence in creating
wealth: De Rep. I, 195. See, also, the earlier views of _Franc.
Patricius_ (ob. 1494), De Rep. I, 4, 7, 8.
312 Compare _A. Serra_, Breve Trattato delle Cause che possono far
abbondare i Regni d’Oro d’Argento, 1613. _Th. Mun_, England’s
Treasure by foreign Trade, 1664. _Ch. King_, British Merchant or
Commerce Preserved, 1721. But, particularly, _A.C. Leib_, Von
Verbesserung Land und Leuten etc. (1708), who, from the point of
view of the Mercantile System, draws a very clear distinction
between the productive and unproductive classes. See, also, _infra_,
§ 116. First thoroughly refuted by _W. Petty_, Political Anatomy of
Ireland, 67, 82. Quantulumcunque concerning Money (1682). _D.
North_, Discourses upon trade (1691). See _Roscher’s_ Geschichte der
englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre, 77, 88, 138. And later,
especially, _Ad. Smith_, W. of N. IV., ch. 1 ff. _Adam Smith’s_
doctrine of productive and unproductive labor is to be found
already, in this period, in _Petty_, Several Essays, 127 ff.
Political Anatomy, 185 ff; also, in the anonymous work, A Discourse
of Trade, Coyn and Paper Credit, London (1697), 44, 159.
_ 313 Quesnay_, Dialogue sur les Travaux des Artisans, 210 ff.; 289 éd.
Daire; _Turgot_, Sur la Formation etc., § 8; _Dupont_,
Correspondence avec J.B. Say, 400, éd. Daire. _B. Franklin_, Letter
to Dr. Evans (1768), and Positions Concerning National Wealth
(1769), Works ed. Sparks, VII and II. Similarly even _Aristotle_,
Oec., I, 2, says, that commerce, wage-labor and war win from men,
with or without their will; but that only agriculture obtains booty
from nature. And so _Cicero_ says of merchants: _nihil proficiunt,
nisi admodum mentiantur_. De Off., I, 42. The same view seems to
have prevailed during the middle ages. See _Thom. Aquin._, De Rebus
publicis, II, 3, 5 seq. _Luther_ entertained a like notion (Vom
Kaufhandel und Wucher, 1524). He prefers agriculture to the trades.
See the Irmischer edition of his works, XXII, 284; XXXVI, 172; LXI,
352. _Calvin_ considered commerce both useful and honorable; so that
_ex ipsius mercatoris diligentia atque industria_, its profit may be
greater than that of agriculture. (Opp. ed. Amstelod, 1664, IX,
223.) _Asgill_, Several Assertions proved in order to create another
Species of Money than Gold (1691): “what we call commodities is
nothing but land severed from the soil; man deals in nothing but
earth.” Concerning _Cantillon_, compare § 47, note 4. How violent an
innovation the Physiocratic theory was in its time may be inferred
from what _Zincke_ writes in the Leipzig Sammlungen, X, 551 ff.
(1753), p. 20, XIII, 861.
_ 314 Quesnay_, l. c., 189, does not ignore that many workmen earn more
than the cost of their necessary subsistence; but he claimed that
this was a result of a natural or legal monopoly of the same. The
dearer labor was, the more productive it seemed. Per contra, see
_Dohm_ on the Physiocratic system, in the Deutsch. Museum, 1778, II,
313 ff.
_ 315 Gournay_ (compare _Turgot_, Eloge de G., in Guillaumin’s edition,
I, 266, 271 ff.), as well as _Raynal_, Histoire des Indes, vol. X,
Livre 19, spite of the similarity of their and Quesnay’s views,
acknowledged on this account, the productiveness of industry. For
some remarkable examples illustrative of how it may increase the
value in exchange of raw material, see the anonymous work, Paying
Old Debts without New Taxes, London, 1723. See also _Algarotti_ (ob.
1794), 318, in _Custodi_, Economisti classici italiani, Parte
moderna, I. Thus a cwt. of coarse cast iron is converted, in a
Berlin manufactory, into 88,440 shirt buttons worth 6-⅔ silver
groschens each. Hence the value is raised from 1-2 thalers to 19,653
thalers. The increase of the value in use by industrial labor is
self-evident.
_ 316 Quesnay_, Dialogue sur le Commerce.
317 Recognized very early by _Ad. Contzen_, Politicorum, Lib. VIII, C.
10 (1629).
318 This did not escape the notice of Frederick II. _Von Raumer_,
Hohenstaufen, III, 535.
_ 319 Condillac_ acknowledges the productive power both of industry and
of commerce; and that the service rendered by the state is at least
economically indispensable. (Le Commerce et le Gouvernment, 1776, I,
6, 7, 10.) _Beccaria_, Economia pubblica (1769 ff.), IV, 4, 24.
_Boisguillebert_ (ob. 1714), Sur la Nature des Richesses,
illustrated the utility of commerce by the picture of a number of
men bound to pillars, one hundred steps apart, one with a
superabundance of food but naked, a second with a superabundance of
fuel, a third with a superabundance of clothing etc.; all of whom
perish, because unable to exchange their respective surpluses with
one another. According to _Lotz_, Revision, I, 217, “buying dear,”
apart from real fraud, means only a decrease of possible gain.
_ 320 Verri_, Meditazioni, XXIV, instead of calling the merchant
productive, calls him a mediator between producers and consumers. It
would be just as reasonable to call the shoemaker a mediator between
the production and consumption of leather; or the cloth merchant,
who cuts the material from the piece, an assistant preparatory to
the tailor. The labor of commerce is especially like that of the
fisherman or the turf digger, because they produce only in so far as
they transfer goods from inaccessible to accessible places. See,
however, _Rau_, Lehrbuch, I, § 103. See the demonstration of the
productive power of commerce in general, as well as of what is, by
way of preference, called industry, in _Ad. Smith_, W. of N., IV,
ch. 9. A much more fundamental refutation of the Physiocratic
Principle is to be found in _Jacob_, N. Œk., 204 ff.
321 In 1843, about 55,000 tons of ice were shipped from Boston. Less
than 25 cents per ton was paid for the ice in the first instance.
When packed on board ship, it was worth $2.55 per ton. The ultimate
sale brought $3,575,000. Ausland, 1844, No. 278. The ancients were
acquainted with a similar production of ice, the value in exchange
of which might be almost entirely reduced to the labor of commerce.
See _Xenoph._, Memor., II, I, 30; Athen. III 97: Proverbs of
Solomon, 25, 13.
322 W. of N., ch. 3. See, however, _Garnier’s_ French translation of Ad.
Smith, Préf. p. IX and V, note 20. Similarly, _Malthus_, Principles,
ch. 1, Lect. 21. Definitions, ch. 7, 10.
_ 323 Bacon_ had already said of the nobility, clergy and literateurs:
_sorti reipublicæ nihil addunt_ (Serm., 15, 29); in opposition to
which, _Hobbes_ justly remarks, that even human labor may, like
other things, be exchanged against goods of all sorts. (Leviathan,
24.) In the work, Discourse of Trade, Coyn and Credit, p. 44 ff.,
and p. 156, the absolute necessity of “head-work” as well as bodily
labor, is conceded; but it is insisted that physicians, clergymen
and jurists can never enrich a country, and that a relatively large
number of them would even conduce to national poverty. (See
_Roscher_, Geschichte der englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre, 138.)
_David Hume_ considers merchants as productive, but says that a
doctor or lawyer can grow rich only at the expense of some one else.
(Discourses, No. 4, On Interest.) _Ferguson_ very cleverly compares
such a valuation of national wealth to that of a miser. Hist. of
Civil Society, VI, I.
324 Similarly _Lauderdale_, Inquiry, 355; _Lotz_, Handbuch der
Staätswirthschaft, I, § 39, and _Rau_, Lehrbuch I, § 195, concede
only indirect productiveness to commerce. It may be shown, in a
great many instances, that such productiveness exists side by side
with direct productiveness, on account of the thousand ways in which
all economic threads are interwoven with one another. Thus _Paley_
remarks in his work on the Principles of Morals and Politics, that a
tobacco manufacturer even may contribute indirectly to the
cultivation of grain; an actor, to industry etc.
325 Thus _Sismondi_, Nouveaux Principes, II, ch. 1, and, earlier,
_Mengotti_ Colbertismo, 317. (Cust.) See, on the other hand,
_Hermann_, Staatsw. Untersuchungen, 34 ff. Even _J.B. Say_ does no
manner of justice, in this respect, to personal services. He speaks
_of produits qui ne s’attachent à rien qui s’évanouissent à mésure
qu’ils naissent, qu’il est impossible d’accumuler, qui n’ajoutent
rein à la richesse nationale_. Compare Catéchisme (3d ed.) 52 ff.,
174 ff. On the other hand _Dunoyer_, Libertê du Travail, L.V.,
remarks that here labor and its result are made to change places;
the former like all labor is very perishable, the latter as lasting
as in the case of other kinds of labor. In the one case the utility
is fixed in things, in the other in persons. _Ad. Müller_, Elemente
der Staatskunst passim, calls special attention to how the kinds of
labor, called unproductive by _Adam Smith_, preserve the state, and
in that way, all individual exchangeable goods. Similarly, _Storch_,
Handbuch, I, 347; _Steinlein_, Handbuch, I, 460. _Lauderdale_ (443),
however, is correct when he says, that the continued duration of the
product of labor depends, usually, more on the caprice of consumers
than on the nature of the labor.
_ 326 Garnier_ calls attention to the fact, that there is a great
quantity of material products, such as laces, perfumes etc., that
can scarcely be ever used in further production, and, generally
speaking, one’s resources for the most part are not kept in lasting
goods, but are preserved by the change of technic forms in
production. _Hermann_, I, Aufl., 115.
327 When _Schön_, Nat. Œkonomie, 33, ridicules the idea of the
productiveness of personal services, by citing the instance of
prostitution carried on as a trade, he forgets that many material
goods also may conduce to the moral damage of the purchaser of them.
It is said that there are in France 3,500 retailers and colporteurs
of immoral writings and pictures, who sell yearly nine million
numbers or pieces, at a cost of six million francs! (Moniteur, 9
Avril, 1853.)
328 Compare _Schäffle_, Theorie der ausschliessenden Absatzverhältnise,
1867, 135. seq.
329 Many of the socialists take a retrograde step in this respect, in as
much as they consider only manual labor productive. _Fourier’s_
school particularly, declaim passionately against the
unproductiveness of commerce and of most personal services. Compare
_V. Considérant_, Destinée sociale, 1851, I, 44.
330 Besides the above, see _Gioja_, N. Prospetto, I, 246 ff.;
_Scialoja_, 42; _J. B. Say_, Traité, I, ch. 2; _Hufeland_, N.
Grundlegung, I, 42, 54; _Gr. Soden_, Nat. Œkonomie, I, 142 ff.
_Hermann_, St. Untersuchungen, 20 ff., distinguishes three
politico-economical points of view; that of the producer, that of
the consumer, and that of the whole nation’s economy. The producer
calls his labor productive, in case he receives back his outlay of
capital with the rate of profit usual in the trade of the country.
To this point of view, therefore, every service which is paid for,
according to wish, seems productive. On the other hand, the consumer
ascribes productiveness to all those kinds of labor the achievements
of which he may use, and which he can obtain at a convenient price.
Whenever, therefore, he pays for a service voluntarily, he
acknowledges its productiveness. Lastly, from a national-economical
point of view, all labor is considered productive which increases
the quantity of goods exposed for sale in the market; and this,
personal services do. The technic productiveness, which depends on
the execution of the technic ideas floating before the mind of the
workman, must be distinguished from this economic productiveness. It
is possible that, technically labor may be very productive, and yet
cause economic loss; for instance, the fine arts and the so-called
master pieces of the trades! See _Seneca_, De Benef., II, 33. _H._
(33) furnishes a very good refutation of the doctrine that a great
deal depends on whether the labor has been paid from capital or from
income. _Eiselen_, Volkswirthschaft (1843), 27 ff., remarks, that
the laborer, for instance, who grows corn, must besides look after
his health and the preservation of his house; this is a part of his
necessary aggregate labor. Why, then, should it be called
unproductive when such secondary labor is performed by particular
persons? Otherwise the farmer would have no time whatever for his
principal business! Edinburgh Review, 1804, IV, 343 ff.;
_Wakefield_, An Essay upon Political Economy, 1804, who is concerned
mainly with the theory of the productiveness of labor. _L.
Lauderdale_ says, that when the nation’s wealth is estimated
according to its value in use, all useful labor is productive; and
that when estimated according to its value in exchange, all labor
that is paid is productive. (Inquiry, ch. 3.) _Stein_ (Lehrbuch, 68;
Tüb. Zeitschr., 1868, 230) conditions the notion of productiveness
by the presence of a superfluity of values. But, it may be asked,
does a family, which does no more than support itself, labor
unproductively? (Compare, however, § 30.) _J. S. Mill_ took a
surprisingly retrograde step in the doctrine on this point, in his
Principles, I, ch. 3. Compare his Essays on some unsettled Questions
of Political Economy, No. 3. A still more surprising exaggeration in
_de Augustinis_ Instituzzioni di Economia sociale (Napoli 1837), who
goes so far as to call a person guilty of arson a productive person
because he has produced for himself “the pleasure of destruction”!
More recently, _von Mangoldt_ distinguishes between economic labor
and the labor of culture: the latter is incorporated into the man
himself, the former one employed on the external world, in order to
transform it in a way corresponding to human wants. Viewed from the
stand-point of Political Economy, the latter only is productive.
(Volkswirthschaftslehre, 1865, 26 ff.)
331 We might, indeed, compare original production, that which preceded
all other, to eating; the trades, to digestion; commerce, to the
movements of the several members of the body; personal services to
inspiration, and yet all are equally necessary to the life of the
body! Thus, _Gamilh_ compares agriculture to the root of a tree of
which the service rendered by the state is the top. The growth of
the latter contributes, as well as that of the former, to the
nutrition of the whole, and is far removed from exhausting the tree.
Théorie de l’ E.P., II, 46 ff. “Natural production” would, indeed,
accomplish very little without the legal protection guaranteed by
the state, or without the tools furnished by industry etc. But it
is, besides, in most instances, a distortion of the truth to speak
of productive and unproductive men or classes of men. These
expressions are proper only when applied to individual kinds of
labor. See _Murhard_, Ideen über Nat. Œk., 88 ff. Persons seriously
ill are temporarily unproductive, and children who die early, are
unproductive for their whole life.
332 Not, however, in the case in which the loser estimates the pleasure
of the play higher than the loss.
_ 333 J. B. Say_, Traité, I. ch. 1.
_ 334 v. Cancrin_, Œkonomie der menschlichen Gesellschaften, 1845, 10,
speaks, in this case, of privative production. Among the Socialists,
_Bazard’s_ expression _l’exploitation de l’homme par l’homme_, has
found loud echo; instead of which only _l’exploitation du globe par
l’homme_ should be allowed to obtain. (Exposition de la Doctrine de
St. Simon, 24.) But _von Schröder_ had already warned the world of
“imagined food” which led only to idleness. (F. Schatz- und
Rentkammer, 191, 363.)
335 Therefore, there should not be too many nor too highly salaried
offices. See _Storch_, Nationaleinkommen, 33 ff.
336 See _v. Mangoldt_, Volkswirthschaftslehre, 29 ff.
_ 337 Remained_, and not _become_, poor, as is generally supposed; for
the enormous wealth of Spain, under Ferdinand and Isabella, as well
as during the early period of Charles V. is only a _fable convenue_.
Charles V. said: France has a superabundance of everything, and
Spain is in want of everything. See also the embassy report of
_Navagero_ (1526), Viaggio fatto in Spagna e in Francia (Venet.,
1563), and _Ranke_, Fürsten und Volker, I, 393 ff.
338 The prize was won by _Arreta de Monteseguro_. The author of the
history of Portuguese Asia, translated by _Stevens_, is of opinion
(III, ch. 6), that commerce is not a proper subject for serious
history to treat.