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Show I ' i 42 ''DEFINITIONS OF 'VEALTH [ CH. I. . And yet, if we once desert n1atter, and still make no distinction of this kind, \vith reference to payment, ·\ve are at once thro\vn upon a field so \vide, as utterly to confound all attempts to estitnate the comparative quantity of productive labour in different countries. If the exertion which produces a song, \vhether paid for or not, be productive labour, \vhy should the exertion \Vhich produces the more valuable result of instructive and agreeable conversation be excluded? why should \Ve exclude the efforts necessary to discipline our passions, and become obedient to all the la·,vs of God and n1an, the n1ost valuable of all labours? \vhy, indeed, should \VC exclude any exertion, the object of \Vhich is to obtain happiness or avoid pain, either present or future? and yet under this description may he comprehended the exertions of every human being during every mo- 111ent of his existence. It is quite clear, therefore, that, with any vievv to the use which may be n1ade of the tern1, it n1ust be n1ore confined. It 1nay be said, indeed, with regard to the term labour, that it seems to i1nply valuation and paynlent, and has nothing to do vvith unbought, voluntary exertions. But the \iVhole difficulty returns in the definition of riches; and if we do not con .. fine the1n to 1naterial objects, and yet wish to 1nake some practical use of the term in con1paring dif- . ferent countries together, 've n1ust include in our definition only those personal services which are bought, and thus draw the line which separates 'v hat ought to be called riches frorn what ought SEC. II.] AND PRODUCTIVE LABOUR. 43 not to be so denominated, between objects which . may in all respects be precisely the satne, except that one is the result of paid labour, and the other of un bought exertions. If, for instance, 've were to define wealth to be whatever has value in exchange, it is obvious that acting, dancin·g, singing, and oratory would sometimes be wealth and so1netin1es not; and even with regard to food and the tnost essential necessaries of life, excessive plenty or the custom of producing \vithout exchanging, would render the definition nugatory. ' If, in denominating personal services \Vealth, 've do not look to the quality of \vhat is produced, but n1e1~ely to the effect of the payn1cnt received for it in stin1ulating other \Vealth, this is introducing a ne\v and separate consideration, which has no relation to the direct production of 'vealth. In this view it will be seen that I attach very great importance to the unproductiYe labourers of Adan1 Sn1ith; but this is evidently not as producers themselves, but as stin1ulating others to produce, by the power which they possess of n1aking a den1and in proportion to the paytnent they have received. In this sense the mortgagee and ptl blic creditor are productive labourers to the a1nount of 'vhat they receive. But though the division of property occasioned by these classes· of society n1ay be useful, and tend indirectly to stirnulate the production of \vealth by increasing den1and, it would be confounding all natural distinctions to call them productive labourers. It \vould be equally incor- |
