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Show 48 DEFINITIONS OF "'EALTH [ CH. I. person indeed must occasionally do son1e productive labour; and the line of separation "\vhich Adan1 Smith has dravvn between productive and unproductive labour tnay be perfectly distinct, although the denomination 'vhich he has given to the different classes of society, founded on their general character, must unavoidably be inaccurate 'vith regard to the exertions of some indi vidnals. It should also be recollected that ..1. \datn Stnith fully allows the value and importance of many sorts of labour vvhich he calls unproductive. From the enun1eration indeed 'vhich he has made of these different sorts, he must be a\vare that son1e of then1 produce a value with \Vhich the results of the labour en1ployed in making rib bands and laces, or indeed of any other labour but that "\vhich directly supplies our most pressing physical vvants, cannot for a n1o1nent be compared. Indirectly indeed and remotely, there cannot be a doubt that even the supply of these physical wants is most po\verfully promoted by the labours of the moralist, the legislator, and those vvho have exerted theznselves to obtain a good governn1ent; but the main value of these labours evidently depends upon the encouragement \V hich they give to the full deveJopme: t:lt of talents and industry, and their consequent invariable tendency to increase the quantity of mat~rial wealth. So far, therefore, as they contribute to promote this supply, their general effect, though not its precise amount, 'vill be estimated in the quantity of those material objects which the country can command; and so far as they contri- SEC. 11.] AND PHODUCTIVE LABOUR. 49 bute to other sources of happiness besid~s those which are derived frotn 1natter, it n1ay be 1nore correct to consider then1 as belonging to a class of objects, tpanyof,vhichcannot, \Vithout the greatest confusion, be n1ade to enter into the gross calculations which relate to national wealth. To estin1ate the value of N evvton's discoveries or the delight comn1unicated by Shakspeare and lVIilton by the price at which their works have sold, vvould be but a poor n1easure of the degree in 'vhich they have elevated and enchanted their country ; nor would it be less groveling and incongruous to estimate the benefit which the country has derived from the Revolution of i 688 by the pay of the soldiers, and aU other payments concerned in effecting it. On the \vhole, therefore, allowing that the labours of the moralist and the n1anufacturer, the legislator and the lacemaker, the agriculturist and the vocal perforn1er, have all for their object the gratification of sotne want or wish of n1ankind, it may still be the most natural, useful, and correct classification 'vhich the subject \vill admit, first to separate, under the nan1e of wealth or riches, every thing \vhich gratifies the wants of n1an by means of material objects, and then to denominate productive, every kind of labour which is directly productive of wealth, that is, so directly, as to be estimated in the value of the objects produced. The reader will see that I have not introduced this discussion with a view to the establishment of any nice and subtle distinctions 'vithout ·a practical object. My purpose is to she,v that there is really E |
