I think it may be not too much to say that, of all the political
delusions which are current in this queer world, the very stupidest are
those which assume that labour and capital are necessarily antagonistic;
that all capital is produced by labour and therefore, by natural right,
is the property of the labourer; that the possessor of capital is a
robber who preys on the workman and appropriates to himself that which
he has had no share in producing.
On the contrary, capital and labour are necessarily, close allies;
capital is never a product of human labour alone; it exists apart from
human labour; it is the necessary antecedent of labour; and it furnishes
the materials on which labour is employed. The only indispensable form
of capital--vital capital--cannot be produced by human labour. All that
man can do is to favour its formation by the real producers. There is no
intrinsic relation between the amount of labour bestowed on an article
and its value in exchange. The claim of labour to the total result of
operations which are rendered possible only by capital is simply an _a
priori_ iniquity.