(1.ii.2) As examples of the earliest and ******st of the instruments, contrived for thispurpose, we may mention the bow and arrow, and the sling, of the huntsman. The spade is an instrumenteasily invented for turning the soil; and a certain rude machine, to which the force of cattle maybe applied, and which is the first form of a plough, suggests itself at an early stage ofimprovement.
(1.ii.3) From these beginnings men proceed, inventing one instrument after another, the axe,the hammer, the saw, the wheel, the wheel-carriage, and so on, till they arrive at last at that copioussupply of complicated machinery by which labour is rendered productive in the most artificialstates of society. The provision which is made of these instruments is denominated capital.
(1.ii.4) This, however, is not the whole of what is denominated capital. Labour in its earlieststage is not employed upon any materials but such as nature presents, without any preparation atthe hands of man. When the savage climbs the tree, to gather the fruit; when the huntsman tearsdown the branch, to form his club or his bow, he operates upon materials, which are prepared forhim by the hand of nature. At a subsequent stage in the progress of industry, the materials uponwhich labour is employed, have generally been the result of previous labour. Thus, the flax andthe cotton, which are to be manufactured into cloth and muslin, have been the result of thelabour of agriculture; the iron has been the result of the labours of the miner and smelter, and soof other things. The materials, upon which labour is to be employed, when they have thus beenthe result of previous labour, are also denominated capital.
(1.ii.5) When we speak of labour, as one of the instruments of production, and of capital, asthe other, these two constituents, namely, the instruments which aid labour, and the materials onwhich it is employed, are all that can be correctly included in the idea of capital. It is true thatwages are in general included under that term. But, in that sense, labour is also included; and canno longer be spoken of as an instrument of production apart from capital. We have already seen,that, whenever labour is spoken of as a separate, distinct, instrument of production, the idea ofthe subsistence, or consumption, of the labourer, for which wages is but another name, isincluded in the idea of the labour.
(1.ii.6) Having thus endeavoured to annex precise ideas to the terms Capital and Labour, amatter of the utmost importance in the study of political economy, and to distinguish theirrespective departments, in the business of production, it is only further necessary, to advert tothe origin of capital, and the laws of its accumulation.
(1.ii.7) It is easy to discover, that the source, from which capital is ultimately derived, islabour.
Production, of necessity, begins with the hands. There can be no instrument till it is made; andthe first instrument had no previous instrument to be made with.
(1.ii.8) The first portion of capital, therefore, was the result of pure labour, without theco-operation of capital.
(1.ii.9) Speedily, however, after the first instrument, which increased the productive powersof labour, had been made, another instrument would be made to assist in the formation of it, as aknife, to aid in the formation of the bow; and then capital, for the first time, becomes the resultof labour, and of capital, conjoined.
(1.ii.10) This subject is too clear to need to be illustrated, by tracing the mode, in whichcapital and labour combine, in producing the articles, of which capital is composed, from the ******st,to the most complicated, cases. It will be hereafter seen, that, in the more artificial and improvedstates of the business of production, a very great proportion of the whole of the labour andcapital of the country is constantly employed in the production of the articles, which formcapital.
(1.ii.11) As capital, from its ******st, to its most complicated state, means, somethingproduced, for the purpose of being employed, as the means towards a further production; it is evidently aresult of what is called saving.
(1.ii.12) Without saving there could be no capital. If all labour were employed upon objectsof immediate consumption, all immediately consumed, such as the fruit, for which the savageclimbs the tree, no article of capital, no article to be employed, as a means to further production,would ever exist. To this end, something must be produced, which is not immediately consumed;which is saved and set apart for another purpose.
(1.ii.13) Of the consequences of this fact, all, to which it is necessary here to advert, aresufficiently obvious.
(1.ii.14) Every article, which is thus saved, becomes an article of capital. The augmentationof capital, therefore, is every where exactly in proportion to the degree of saving; in fact, theamount of that augmentation, annually, is the same thing with the amount of the savings, whichare annually made.
(1.ii.15) The labour and the capital, which combine to the production of a commodity, maybelong both to one party, or one of them, may belong to one party, the other to another. Thus,when the savage, who kills a deer, kills it with his own bow and arrows, he is the owner both ofthe labour and of the capital: when he kills it with the bow and arrows of another man, the one isthe owner of the labour, the other of the capital. The man, who cultivates his little farm with hisown labour and that of his family, without the aid of hired servants, is owner both of the capitaland of the labour. The man, who cultivates with none but hired servants, is owner of the capital.
The servants may be considered, at least for the present purpose, as owners of the labour, thoughwe shall presently see under what modification that meaning is to be taken.
