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Show S4 DEFINI'fiONS OF 'VEALTH [ CH. I. is the balance of the annual produce and consumption. If in given periods the produce of a country exceeds its consun1ption, the 1neans of increasing its capital will be provided, its population \vill soon increase, or the actual nun1bers vvill be better accommodated, and probably both. If the consutnption in such periods fully equals the produce, no me_ans of increasing the capital \vill be afforded, and the society will be nearly at a stand. If the consumption exceeds the produce, every succeeding period will see the society worse supplied, and its prosperity and population will be evidently on the decline. But if this balance be so important, if upon it depends the progressive, stationary, or declining state of a society, surely it n1ust be of importance to distinguish those who mainly contribute to render this balance favourable fron1 those who chiefly contribute to n1ake the other scale preponderate. 'Vithout some such distinction we shall not be able to trace the causes why one nation is thriving and another is declining; and the superior riches of those countries where merchants and manufac- • turers abound, con1pared \:vith those in which the retainers of a court and an overgro\vn aristocracy predon1inate, 'villnot admit of an intelligible explanation. If a taste for idle retainers and a profusion of menial servants had continued among the great landholders of Europe fro1n the feudal times to the pres~nt, the wealth of its.different kingdon1s \vould have been ·very different fron1 what it no'v is. SEC. II,J AND PRODUCTIVE LABOUR. 35 Adam S1nith has justly stated that the grovving taste of our ancestors for n1aterial conveniences and luxuries, instead of personal services, was the main cause of the change. Personal services neither require nor generate_capital; and while they continue the predominant taste, must necessarily divide the great mass of society into two classes, the proprietors of land and their servants, the rich and the poor, one of which is in a state of abject dependance upon the other. Du.t a taste for 1na- · terial objects, however frivolous, ahnost always requires for its gratification the accumulation of capital, and the existence of manufacturers or Tilerchants, \Vholesale dealers· and retail dealers. The face of society is thus wholly changed. A n1iddle class of persons, living upon the profits of stock, rises into wealth and consequence. And an increasing accumulation of capital aln1ost exclusively derived from the mercantile and manufacturino- 1 1 0 c asses effects, .to a considerable extent, the divi-sion and alienation of those imtnense landed properties, \vhich, if the fashion of personal services had continued, tnight have remained to this time nearly in their for1ner state, and prevented the in-. crease of wealth on the land as well as elsewhere. I am hardly aware ho'v the causes of the increasing riches and prosperity of Europe since the feudal times could be traced, if ·we vtrere to consider per' sonal services as equally productive of \vealth with the labours of merchants and manufacturers. Surely then some distinction bet\veen the different kinds of labour, "'rith reference to their difD2 |
