| OCR Text |
Show ON THE 11\fl\IEDIATE CAUSES ( CH. VIL savino· fron1 the stock ,vhich might have been destined 0 for imtnediate consumption, and adding it to that which is to yield a profit; or in other ,vords, by the conversion of revenue_ into capitaJ.:K: But we have yet to inquire what Is the state of thincrs which generally disposes a nation to accumul; te; and further, 'vhat is the state of things which tends to make that accumulation the n1ost effective, and lead to a further and continued increase of capital and wealth. It is undoubtedly possible by parsin1ony to devote at once a n1uch larger share than usual of the produce of any country to the maintenance of productive labour; and it is quite true that the labourers so etnployed are consumers as vvell as unproductive labourers; and as far as the labourers are concerned, there 'vould be no ditninution of consumption or detnand. But it has already been shewn that the consumption and demand occasioned by the persons en1ployed in productive labour can never alone furnish a motive to the accun1ulation and employment of capital; and with regard to the capitalists then1selves, together with the landlords and other rich persons, they have, by the supposition, agreed to be parsin10- nious, and by depriving thetnselves of their usual * Sec Lord Lauderdale's Chapter on Parsimony, in his Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public 'Vealth, ch. iv. p. 198. 2~. edit. Lord Lauderdale appears to have gone as much too far. m deprecating accumulation, as some other writers in recornmendmg it. This tendency to extremes is exactly what I consider as the great source of error in political economy. SE C• III•] OF THE PROGRESS OF W~ALTH. ~53 conveniences and luxuries to ·save from their revenue and add' to their capitaL Under these cir ... cumstances, I would ask, how it is possible to sup .. pose that the increased quantity of commodit~es, obtained by the increased number of productive labourers, should find purchasers, without such a fall of price as would probably sink their value belo\\t the costs of production, or, at least, very greatly diminish both the power and the will to save. It has been thought by son1e very able writers, that although there may easily be a glut of parti~ cular con1n1odities, there cannot possibly be a glut of comn1odities in general ; because, according to their view of the subject, cotnmodities being always exchanged for comn1odities, one half \vill furnish a market for the other half, and production being thus the sole source of demand, an excess in the supply of one article merely proves a deficiency in the supply of some other, and a general excess is in1possible. lVI. Say, in his distinguished work on political econon1y, has indeed gone so far as to state that the consumption of a commodity by taking it out of the market din1inishes demand, and the production of a commodity proportionably increases it. This doctrine, however, to the e:xtent in which it has been applied, appears to me to be utterly unfounded, and completely to contradict the· great principl~s which regulate supply and de• man d. I It is by no means true, as a matter of fact, AA |
