CHAPTER IV.

Production-Labour the source of wealth-Security of property Division of employments - Capital - Description of the manner in which manufactures and agriculture may be so conducted that demand must ever keep pace with production.

THE enjoyment of life is the common object of every human pursuit, and the

original source of all the means of enjoyment is labour. Even land is of no value until labour is applied to collect, increase, and regulate its productions; and capital, that is, accumulated valuables, is the result entirely of exertion, applied either to the production or appropriation of wealth.

But, although labour is the only source of wealth, there are other conditions and circumstances to be taken into account in considering the subject of production, by which the incitement to industry is increased, and by which its operations are assisted.

One of these conditions is the security of property, of which Mr M'Culloch observes: Security of property is the first and most

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indispensable requisite to the production of "wealth. Its utility in this respect is, indeed, "so obvious and striking, that it has been more " or less respected in every country, and in the “earliest and rudest periods. Nothing, it is

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plain, could ever tempt any one to engage in "a laborious employment—he would neither' "domesticate wild animals, nor clear and cul"tivate the ground-if, after months and

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years of toil, when his flocks had become “numerous, and his harvests were ripening "for the sickle, a stranger were to be allowed "to rob him of the produce of his industry."

If, however, the security of property is indispensable as an incitement to industry, the division of employment is not inferior to it in importance; for, as a means by which the productiveness of labour is increased, its value is altogether incalculable.

The advantages resulting from this principle, have been usually classed under the following heads: “ "First, The increased skill "and dexterity of the workmen; secondly, "The saving of the time which is commonly "lost in passing from one employment to "another; and, thirdly, The circumstance of

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"the division of employments having a tendency to facilitate the invention of machines "and processes for abridging and saving "labour."

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Of the increased skill resulting from the division of employments, it is observed by Mr Mill, in his Elements of Political Economy, that "The foundation of this class of im"provements is the faculty by which an ❝ operation, which we perform slowly at first, "is performed with greater and greater rapidity by repetition. This is a law of “human nature so familiar and well under"stood, that it hardly stands in need of illus"tration. The simplest of all operations, "that of beating equal times on a drum, is a proper example. A man who has not prac"tised a similar operation, is often surprised, upon trial, at the slowness with which he performs it, while the rapidity of a practised "drummer is still more astonishing."

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As respects the saving of time occasioned by the division of labour, Mr M'Culloch says: "The effect of the division of labour in pre❝venting that waste of time in moving from "one employment to another, which must always take place when an individual is engaged in different occupations, is even "more obvious than the advantage derived

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"from the improvement of the skill and dex"terity of the labourer. When the same ❝ individual carries on different employments, "in different and perhaps distant places, and “with different sets of tools, it is plainly impossible he can avoid losing a considerable portion of time in passing between them. If "the different businesses in which a labourer " is to be engaged could be carried on in the "same workshop, the loss of time would be "less, but even in that case it would be con"siderable." And again, "With regard to the “effect of the division of employments in facilitating the invention of machines, and "processes for abridging and saving labour, it " is obvious, that those engaged in any branch "of industry must be more likely to discover "easier and readier methods of carrying it on, "when the whole attention of their minds is "devoted exclusively to it, than if it were dissipated among a variety of objects."

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But the advantages proceeding from the division of employments, have been so frequently described, and are now so generally understood, that it is unnecessary here to do more than merely to recognize them, in the language of the political economists, as established principles of social science.

Another condition essential to production,

and without which it is impossible for any considerable advances to be made towards prosperity, is the accumulation of capital, of which much will be said hereafter: for the present another quotation will suffice. "What," says Mr McCulloch, "could the most skilful “ husbandman perform, were he deprived of his spade and his plough ?-a weaver, were ❝he deprived of his loom?-a carpenter, were "he deprived of his saw, his hatchet, and his planes? The division of labour cannot be "carried to any considerable extent without "the previous accumulation of capital.” “Be"fore labour can be divided," says Dr Adam Smith, "a stock of goods of different kinds "must be stored up somewhere, sufficient to "maintain the labourer, and to supply him "with materials and tools. A weaver cannot

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apply himself entirely to his peculiar busi"ness, unless there is beforehand stored up "somewhere, either in his own possession or "in that of some other person, a stock suffi"cient to maintain him, and to supply him "with the materials and tools of his work, "till he has not only completed but sold his "web. This accumulation must, evidently, "be previous to his applying himself for so long a time to such a peculiar business.”

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But the foregoing considerations, however