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KIN

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184
 Fonds

Louis Franck
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with kind ardo
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Jours sincerity

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 Eu libus

Loustranck

Jury 1896
 8
264
32

"UNTO THIS LAST,"

UNTO THIS LAST

Four Essays
ON THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF

POLITICAL ECONOMY

BY
JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.
HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW
OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD

TENTH EDITION

GEORGE ALLEN, SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON

AND
156, CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON
1895
[All rights reserved]
 CONTENTS .

ESSAY PAGE
I. THE ROOTS OF HONOUR I

II. THE VEINS OF WEALTH 38

III. QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM 67

IV. AD VALOREM 105

 " FRIEND, I DO THEE NO WRONG. DIDST NOT THOU
AGREE WITH ME FOR A PENNY ? TAKE THAT THINE
IS, AND GO THY WAY. I WILL GIVE UNTO THIS LAST
EVEN AS UNTO THEE."

"" IF YE THINK GOOD, GIVE ME MY PRICE ; AND

IF NOT, FORBEAR . SO THEY WEIGHED FOR MY PRICE

THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER. "

b
 PREFACE .

1. THE four following essays were published

eighteen months ago in the ' Cornhill Magazine,'

and were reprobated in a violent manner, as
far as I could hear, by most of the readers
they met with.

Not a whit the less, I believe them to be

the best, that is to say, the truest, rightest-
worded, and most serviceable things I have
ever written ; and the last of them, having

had especial pains spent on it, is probably

the best I shall ever write.
"
This," the reader may reply, " it might
be, yet not therefore well written." Which,

in no mock humility, admitting, I yet rest

X PREFACE.

satisfied with the work, though with nothing

else that I have done ; and purposing shortly

to follow out the subjects opened in these

papers, as I may find leisure, I wish the
introductory statements to be within the reach

of any one who may care to refer to them.

So I republish the essays as they appeared .

One word only is changed, correcting the
estimate of a weight ; and no word is added. *

2. Although, however, I find nothing to modify

in these papers, it is matter of regret to me

that the most startling of all the statements
in them, that respecting the necessity of the
organization of labour, with fixed wages, —
should have found its way into the first essay ;

it being quite one of the least important, though

by no means the least certain, of the positions
to be defended . The real gist of these papers,

* Note to Second Edition.—An addition is made to

the note in the Fourteenth page of the preface of this
book ; which, being the most precious, in its essential
contents, of all that I have ever written, I reprint
word for word and page for page, after that addition,
and make as accessible as I can, to all.
 PREFACE. xi

their central meaning and aim, is to give, as

I believe for the first time in plain English, -
it has often been incidentally given in good

Greek by Plato and Xenophon, and good Latin

by Cicero and Horace,-a logical definition
of WEALTH : such definition being absolutely
needed for a basis of economical science. The

most reputed essay on that subject which has

appeared in modern times, after opening with

the statement that " writers on political eco-

nomy profess to teach, or to investigate, * the

nature of wealth," thus follows up the declara-
tion of its thesis-" Every one has a notion,

sufficiently correct for common purposes, of

what is meant by wealth." ... " It is no

part of the design of this treatise to aim at

metaphysical nicety of definition." †

3. Metaphysical nicety, we assuredly do

not need ; but physical nicety, and logical

* Which ? for where investigation is necessary,

teaching is impossible.
† 'Principles of Political Economy.' By J. S. Mill.
Preliminary remarks, p. 2.
xii PREFACE .

accuracy, with respect to a physical subject,

we as assuredly do.

Suppose the subject of inquiry, instead of

being House-law (Oikonomia) , had been Star-

law (Astronomia), and that, ignoring distinction

between stars fixed and wandering, as here
between wealth radiant and wealth reflective ,

the writer had begun thus : " Every one has

a notion, sufficiently correct for common pur-

poses, of what is meant by stars . Metaphy-

sical nicety in the definition of a star is not
the object of this treatise ; " the essay so
opened might yet have been far more true in
its final statements, and a thousand-fold more
serviceable to the navigator, than any treatise
on wealth, which founds its conclusions on the

popular conception of wealth, can ever become

to the economist.

4. It was, therefore, the first object of these

following papers to give an accurate and stable
definition of wealth. Their second object was

to show that the acquisition of wealth was

 PREFACE. xiii

finally possible only under certain moral con-

ditions of society, of which quite the first

was a belief in the existence, and even, for

practical purposes, in the attainability of

honesty .

Without venturing to pronounce- since on

such a matter human judgment is by no

means conclusive- what is, or is not, the

noblest of God's works, we may yet admit

so much of Pope's assertion as that an honest
man is among His best works presently

visible, and, as things stand, a somewhat rare

one ; but not an incredible or miraculous

work ; still less an abnormal one. Honesty

is not a disturbing force, which deranges

the orbits of economy ; but a consistent and

commanding force, by obedience to which-

and by no other obedience- those orbits can

continue clear of chaos .

5. It is true, I have sometimes heard Pope

condemned for the lowness, instead of the
height, of his standard :-" Honesty is indeed
a respectable virtue ; but how much higher
xiv PREFACE.

may men attain ! Shall nothing more be

asked of us than that we be honest ? "

For the present, good friends, nothing. It

seems that in our aspirations to be more than
that, we have to some extent lost sight of the
propriety of being so much as that. What

else we may have lost faith in, there shall

be here no question ; but assuredly we have

lost faith in common honesty, and in the
working power of it. And this faith, with
the facts on which it may rest, it is quite

our first business to recover and keep : not

only believing, but even by experience assur-

ing ourselves, that there are yet in the world
men who can be restrained from fraud other-

wise than by the fear of losing employment ; *

* " The effectual discipline which is exercised over

a workman is not that of his corporation, but of his
customers. It is the fear of losing their employment
which restrains his frauds, and corrects his negligence."
('Wealth of Nations,' Book I. chap. 10.)
Note to Second Edition.-The only addition I will
make to the words of this book shall be a very earnest
request to any Christian reader to think within himself
 PREFACE. XV

nay, that it is even accurately in proportion to

the number of such men in any State, that the

said State does or can prolong its existence.

To these two points, then, the following

essays are mainly directed. The subject of the

organization of labour is only casually touched
upon ; because, if we once can get a sufficient

quantity of honesty in our captains, the organi-

zation of labour is easy, and will develop itself

without quarrel or difficulty ; but if we cannot

what an entirely damned state of soul any human

creature must have got into, who could read with
acceptance such a sentence as this : much more write
it ; and to oppose to it, the first commercial words of
Venice, discovered by me in her first church :-
"Around this temple, let the Merchant's law be
just, his weights true, and his contracts guileless."
If any of my present readers think that my language
in this note is either intemperate, or unbecoming, I
will beg them to read with attention the Eighteenth
paragraph of ' Sesame and Lilies ' ; and to be assured
that I never, myself, now use, in writing, any word
which is not, in my deliberate judgment, the fittest
for the occasion.
VENICE,
Sunday, 18th March, 1877.
xvi PREFACE .

get honesty in our captains, the organization

of labour is for evermore impossible.
6. The several conditions of its possibility I

purpose to examine at length in the sequel.

Yet, lest the reader should be alarmed by

the hints thrown out during the following

investigation of first principles, as if they

were leading him into unexpectedly dangerous
ground , I will, for his better assurance, state
at once the worst of the political creed at
which I wish him to arrive.

(1.) First, that there should be training

schools for youth established, at Government
cost, * and under Government discipline, over

* It will probably be inquired by near-sighted

persons, out of what funds such schools could be
supported. The expedient modes of direct provision
for them I will examine hereafter ; indirectly, they
would be far more than self-supporting. The economy
in crime alone, (quite one of the most costly articles of
luxury in the modern European market,) which such
schools would induce, would suffice to support them
ten times over. Their economy of labour would be
pure gain, and that too large to be presently calculable.
 PREFACE. xvii

the whole country ; that every child born in

the country should, at the parent's wish, be
permitted (and, in certain cases, be under
penalty required) to pass through them ; and
that, in these schools, the child should, with
other minor pieces of knowledge hereafter to
be considered) imperatively be taught, with
the best skill of teaching that the country

could produce, the following three things :-

(a) The laws of health, and the exercises

enjoined by them ;

(b) Habits of gentleness and justice ; and

(c) The calling by which he is to live.
(2.) Secondly, that, in connection with these
training schools, there should be established,
also entirely under Government regulation,
manufactories and workshops for the pro-
duction and sale of every necessary of life,

and for the exercise of every useful art.

And that, interfering no whit with private
enterprise, nor setting any restraints or tax on
private trade, but leaving both to do their best,
and beat the Government if they could, —there
xviii PREFACE .

should, at these Government manufactories and

shops, be authoritatively good and exemplary

work done, and pure and true substance sold ;
so that a man could be sure, if he chose to

pay the Government price, that he got for his

money bread that was bread, ale that was ale,
and work that was work.

(3.) Thirdly, that any man, or woman, or

boy, or girl, out of employment, should be at
once received at the nearest Government school,
and set to such work as it appeared, on trial,

they were fit for, at a fixed rate of wages

determinable every year ;-that, being found

incapable of work through ignorance, they

should be taught, or being found incapable
of work through sickness, should be tended ;
but that being found objecting to work, they
should be set, under compulsion of the strictest
nature, to the more painful and degrading forms
of necessary toil, especially to that in mines

and other places of danger (such danger being,

however, diminished to the utmost by careful
regulation and discipline), and the due wages
 PREFACE. xix

of such work be retained, cost of compulsion

first abstracted-to be at the workman's com-
mand, so soon as he has come to sounder mind

respecting the laws of employment.

(4.) Lastly, that for the old and destitute,

comfort and home should be provided ; which
provision, when misfortune had been by the
working of such a system sifted from guilt,
would be honourable instead of disgraceful
to the receiver. For (I repeat this passage

out of my ' Political Economy of Art,' to

which the reader is referred for farther detail *)
" a labourer serves his country with his spade,
just as a man in the middle ranks of life

serves it with sword, pen, or lancet. If the

service be less, and, therefore, the wages

during health less, then the reward when

health is broken may be less, but not less
honourable ; and it ought to be quite as

natural and straightforward a matter for a

* Now ' A Joy for Ever ' (vol. xi. of " The Revised
Series "). Addenda p . 143 § 129 (and p. 165 § 143 of
the small edition).
XX PREFACE.

labourer to take his pension from his parish,

because he has deserved well of his parish, as

for a man in higher rank to take his pension

from his country, because he has deserved
well of his country."

To which statement, I will only add, for

conclusion, respecting the discipline and pay
of life and death, that, for both high and low,

Livy's last words touching Valerius Publicola,

") *
"de publico est elatus,' ought not to be a

dishonourable close of epitaph.

7. These things, then, I believe, and am about,

as I find power, to explain and illustrate in

their various bearings ; following out also what

belongs to them of collateral inquiry. Here I

state them only in brief, to prevent the reader
casting about in alarm for my ultimate mean-
ing ; yet requesting him, for the present, to

* P. Valerius, omnium consensu princeps belli

pacisque artibus, anno post moritur ; gloriâ ingenti,
copiis familiaribus adeo exiguis, ut funeri sumtus
deesset : de publico est elatus. Luxêre matronæ ut
Brutum."-Lib. ii. c. xvi.
 PREFACE. xxi

remember, that in a science dealing with so

subtle elements as those of human nature, it

is only possible to answer for the final truth

of principles, not for the direct success of

plans and that in the best of these last,
what can be immediately accomplished is

always questionable, and what can be finally

accomplished, inconceivable.

DENMARK HILL,
10th May, 1862.
 "UNTO THIS LAST. ”

ESSAY I.

THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

I. AMONG the delusions which at different

periods have possessed themselves of the

minds of large masses of the human race,

perhaps the most curious - certainly the least

creditable is the modern soi-disant science

of political economy, based on the idea that

an advantageous code of social action may

be determined irrespectively of the influence

of social affection.

Of course, as in the instances of alchemy,

astrology, witchcraft, and other such popular

I
2 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

creeds, political economy has a plausible idea

at the root of it. " The social affections ,"

says the economist, " are accidental and dis-

turbing elements in human nature ; but avarice

and the desire of progress are constant ele-
ments. Let us eliminate the inconstants, and,

considering the human being merely as a

covetous machine, examine by what laws of

labour, purchase, and sale, the greatest accumu-

lative result in wealth is obtainable. Those

laws once determined, it will be for each

individual afterwards to introduce as much

of the disturbing affectionate element as he

chooses, and to determine for himself the

result on the new conditions supposed."

2. This would be a perfectly logical and suc-

cessful method of analysis, if the accidentals

afterwards to be introduced were of the same

nature as the powers first examined . Sup-

posing a body in motion to be influenced by
constant and inconstant forces, it is usually

the simplest way of examining its course to

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 3

trace it first under the persistent conditions,

and afterwards introduce the causes of varia-

tion. But the disturbing elements in the social

problem are not of the same nature as the

constant ones : they alter the essence of the

creature under examination the moment they

are added ; they operate, not mathematically,

but chemically, introducing conditions which

render all our previous knowledge unavailable.

We made learned experiments upon pure

nitrogen, and have convinced ourselves that

it is a very manageable gas : but, behold ! the

thing which we have practically to deal with

is its chloride ; and this, the moment we

touch it on our established principles, sends

us and our apparatus through the ceiling. :

3. Observe, I neither impugn nor doubt the
conclusion of the science if its terms are

accepted. I am simply uninterested in them, as

I should be in those of a science of gymnastics
which assumed that men had no skeletons . It

might be shown, on that supposition , that it

4 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

would be advantageous to roll the students up

into pellets, flatten them into cakes, or stretch

them into cables ; and that when these results

were effected, the re- insertion of the skeleton

would be attended with various inconveniences

to their constitution. The reasoning might be

admirable, the conclusions true, and the science

deficient only in applicability. Modern poli-

tical economy stands on a precisely similar

basis. Assuming, not that the human being

has no skeleton, but that it is all skeleton, it
founds an ossifiant theory of progress on this

negation of a soul ; and having shown the

utmost that may be made of bones, and

constructed a number of interesting geome-

trical figures with death's-head and humeri,

successfully proves the inconvenience of the

reappearance of a soul among these corpus-

cular structures, I do not deny the truth

of this theory : I simply deny its applicability

to the present phase of the world.

4 This inapplicability has been curiously

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR . 5

manifested during the embarrassment caused

by the late strikes of our workmen. Here

occurs one of the simplest cases, in a per-

tinent and positive form, of the first vital

problem which political economy has to deal

with (the relation between employer and em-

ployed) ; and, at a severe crisis, when lives
in multitudes and wealth in masses are at

stake, the political economists are helpless

-practically mute : no demonstrable solution

of the difficulty can be given by them, such

as may convince or calm the opposing parties.

Obstinately the masters take one view of the

matter ; obstinately the operatives another ;

and no political science can set them at one.

5. It would be strange if it could, it being not

by "science " of any kind that men were ever

intended to be set at one. Disputant after

disputant vainly strives to show that the

interests of the masters are, or are not, anta-

gonistic to those of the men : none of the

pleaders ever seeming to remember that it

6 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

does not absolutely or always follow that the

persons must be antagonistic because their
interests are. If there is only a crust of

bread in the house, and mother and children

are starving, their interests are not the same.

If the mother eats it, the children want it ; if

the children eat it, the mother must go hungry
to her work . Yet it does not necessarily

follow that there will be " antagonism " be-

tween them, that they will fight for the crust,

and that the mother, being strongest, will get

it, and eat it. Neither, in any other case,

whatever the relations of the persons may be,

can it be assumed for certain that, because

their interests are diverse, they must neces-

sarily regard each other with hostility, and use

violence or cunning to obtain the advantage.

6. Even if this were so, and it were as just as

it is convenient to consider men as actuated

by no other moral influences than those which

affect rats or swine, the logical conditions of

the question are still indeterminable. It can

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 7

never be shown generally either that the

interests of master and labourer are alike, or

that they are opposed ; for, according to cir-

cumstances, they may be either. It is, indeed,

always the interest of both that the work

should be rightly done, and a just price ob-

tained for it ; but, in the division of profits,

the gain of the one may or may not be the

loss of the other. It is not the master's

interest to pay wages so low as to leave the

men sickly and depressed, nor the workman's

interest to be paid high wages if the smallness

of the master's profit hinders him from en-

larging his business, or conducting it in a

safe and liberal way. A stoker ought not

to desire high pay if the company is too poor

to keep the engine-wheels in repair.

7. And the varieties of circumstance which in-

fluence these reciprocal interests are so endless,

that all endeavour to deduce rules of action

from balance of expediency is in vain. And

it is meant to be in vain. For no human
 R
8 THE ROOTS OF HONOU .

actions ever were intended by the Maker of

men to be guided by balances of expediency,

but by balances of justice. He has therefore

rendered all endeavours to determine expe-

diency futile for evermore. No man ever

knew, or can know, what will be the ultimate

result to himself, or to others, of any given

line of conduct. But every man may know,

and most of us do know, what is a just and

unjust act. And all of us may know also,

that the consequences of justice will be ulti-

mately the best possible, both to others and

ourselves, though we can neither say what is

best, or how it is likely to come to pass.

I have said balances of justice, meaning, in

the term justice, to include affection, —such

affection as one man owes to another. All right

relations between master and operative, and all

their best interests, ultimately depend on these.

8. We shall find the best and simplest illus-

tration of the relations of master and operative

in the position of domestic servants.

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 9

We will suppose that the master of a house-

hold desires only to get as much work out

of his servants as he can, at the rate of wages

he gives. He never allows them to be idle ;

feeds them as poorly and lodges them as ill

as they will endure, and in all things pushes

his requirements to the exact point beyond

which he cannot go without forcing the servant

to leave him. In doing this, there is no

violation on his part of what is commonly

called " justice." He agrees with the domestic

for his whole time and service, and takes

them ; the limits of hardship in treatment

being fixed by the practice of other masters

in his neighbourhood ; that is to say, by the

current rate of wages for domestic labour. If

the servant can get a better place, he is free

to take one, and the master can only tell

what is the real market value of his labour,

by requiring as much as he will give.

This is the politico-economical view of the

case, according to the doctors of that science ;

ΙΟ THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

who assert that by this procedure the greatest

average of work will be obtained from the

servant, and therefore the greatest benefit to

the community, and through the community,

by reversion, to the servant himself.
That, however, is not so. It would be so

if the servant were an engine of which the

motive power was steam, magnetism, gravita-

tion, or any other agent of calculable force.

But he being, on the contrary, an engine whose

motive power is a Soul, the force of this very

peculiar agent, as an unknown quantity, enters

into all the political economist's equations,

without his knowledge, and falsifies every one

of their results. The largest quantity of work

will not be done by this curious engine for

pay, or under pressure, or by help of any kind

of fuel which may be supplied by the chaldron.

It will be done only when the motive force,

that is to say, the will or spirit of the creature,

is brought to its greatest strength by its own

.

proper fuel : namely, by the affections.

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. II

9. It may indeed happen, and does happen

often, that if the master is a man of sense and

energy, a large quantity of material work may

be done under mechanical pressure, enforced

by strong will and guided by wise method ;

also it may happen, and does happen often,

that if the master is indolent and weak (how-

ever good natured), a very small quantity

of work, and that bad, may be produced by

the servant's undirected strength, and con-

temptuous gratitude. But the universal law

of the matter is that, assuming any given

quantity of energy and sense in master and

servant, the greatest material result obtainable

by them will be, not through antagonism to

each other, but through affection for each other ;

and that, if the master, instead of endeavouring

to get as much work as possible from the

servant, seeks rather to render his appointed

and necessary work beneficial to him, and to

forward his interests in all just and wholesome

ways, the real amount of work ultimately done,

I2 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

or of good rendered, by the person so cared

for, will indeed be the greatest possible.

Observe, I say, " of good rendered," for a

servant's work is not necessarily or always the

best thing he can give his master. But good

of all kinds, whether in material service, in
protective watchfulness of his master's interest

and credit, or in joyful readiness to seize un-

expected and irregular occasions of help.

Nor is this one whit less generally true

because indulgence will be frequently abused,

and kindness met with ingratitude. For the

servant who, gently treated, is ungrateful,

treated ungently, will be revengeful ; and the

man who is dishonest to a liberal master will

be injurious to an unjust one.

[Link] any case, and with any person, this

unselfish treatment will produce the most effec-

tive return. Observe, I am here considering

the affections wholly as a motive power ; not

at all as things in themselves desirable or

noble, or in any other way abstractedly good.

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 13

I look at them simply as an anomalous force,

rendering every one of the ordinary political

economist's calculations nugatory ; while, even

if he desired to introduce this new element

into his estimates, he has no power of dealing

with it ; for the affections only become a true

motive power when they ignore every other

motive and condition of political economy.

Treat the servant kindly, with the idea of

turning his gratitude to account, and you will

get, as you deserve, no gratitude, nor any

value for your kindness ; but treat him kindly

without any economical purpose, and all eco-

nomical purposes will be answered ; in this, as

in all other matters, whosoever will save his

life shall lose it, whoso loses it shall find it. *

* The difference between the two modes of treat-

ment, and between their effective material results, may
be seen very accurately by a comparison of the relations
of Esther and Charlie in ' Bleak House,' with those of
Miss Brass and the Marchioness in ' Master Humphrey's
Clock.'
The essential value and truth of Dickens's writings
14 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR .

11. The next clearest and simplest example of

relation between master and operative is that

which exists between the commander of a

regiment and his men.

have been unwisely lost sight of by many thoughtful

persons, merely because he presents his truth with
some colour of caricature. Unwisely, because Dickens's
caricature, though often gross, is never mistaken.
Allowing for his manner of telling them, the things he
tells us are always true. I wish that he could think
it right to limit his brilliant exaggeration to works
written only for public amusement ; and when he
takes up a subject of high national importance, such
as that which he handled in ' Hard Times,' that he
would use severer and more accurate analysis. The
usefulness of that work (to my mind, in several
respects the greatest he has written) is with many
persons seriously diminished because Mr. Bounderby
is a dramatic monster, instead of a characteristic
example of a worldly master ; and Stephen Blackpool
a dramatic perfection , instead of a characteristic ex-
ample of an honest workman. But let us not lose
the use of Dickens's wit and insight, because he
chooses to speak in a circle of stage fire. He is
entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every
book he has written ; and all of them, but especially
'Hard Times,' should be studied with close and earnest
care by persons interested in social questions. They
 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 15

Supposing the officer only desires to apply

the rules of discipline so as, with least trouble

to himself, to make the regiment most effective,

he will not be able, by any rules or admini-

stration of rules, on this selfish principle, to
develop the full strength of his subordinates.

If a man of sense and firmness, he may, as

in the former instance, produce a better result

than would be obtained by the irregular kind-
ness of a weak officer ; but let the sense and
firmness be the same in both cases, and as-

suredly the officer who has the most direct

personal relations with his men, the most care

for their interests, and the most value for their

lives, will develop their effective strength,

through their affection for his own person,

and trust in his character, to a degree wholly

will find much that is partial, and, because partial,

apparently unjust ; but if they examine all the evi-
dence on the other side, which Dickens seems to over-
look, it will appear, after all their trouble, that his view
was the finally right one, grossly and sharply told.
16 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR .

unattainable by other means. This law applies

still more stringently as the numbers con-

cerned are larger : a charge may often be

successful, though the men dislike their offi-

cers ; a battle has rarely been won, unless

they loved their general.

12. Passing from these simple examples to the

more complicated relations existing between a

manufacturer and his workmen, we are met

first by certain curious difficulties, resulting,

apparently, from a harder and colder state of

moral elements . It is easy to imagine an en-

thusiastic affection existing among soldiers for

the colonel. Not so easy to imagine an en-

thusiastic affection among cotton- spinners for

the proprietor of the mill. A body of men

associated for purposes of robbery (as a High-

land clan in ancient times) shall be animated

by perfect affection, and every member of it be

ready to lay down his life for the life of his chief.

But a band of men associated for purposes of

legal production and accumulation is usually

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 17

animated, it appears, by no such emotions,

and none of them are in any wise willing to

give his life for the life of his chief. Not

only are we met by this apparent anomaly, in

moral matters , but by others connected with

it, in administration of system. For a servant

or a soldier is engaged at a definite rate of

wages, for a definite period ; but a workman

at a rate of wages variable according to the

demand for labour, and with the risk of being

at any time thrown out of his situation by

chances of trade. Now, as, under these con-

tingencies, no action of the affections can

take place, but only an explosive action of

disaffections, two points offer themselves for

consideration in the matter.

The first- How far the rate of wages may

be so regulated as not to vary with the demand

for labour.

The second- How far it is possible that

bodies of workmen may be engaged and main-

tained at such fixed rate of wages (whatever
2
18 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

the state of trade may be), without enlarging

or diminishing their number, so as to give

them permanent interest in the establishment

with which they are connected, like that of

the domestic servants in an old family, or an

esprit de corps, like that of the soldiers in a

crack regiment.

13. The first question is, I say, how far it may

be possible to fix the rate of wages, irrespect-
ively of the demand for labour.
Perhaps one of the most curious facts in

the history of human error is the denial by the

common political economist of the possibility

of thus regulating wages ; while, for all the

important, and much of the unimportant, labour,

on the earth, wages are already so regulated.

We do not sell our prime-ministership by

Dutch auction ; nor, on the decease of a bishop ,

whatever may be the general advantages of

simony, do we (yet) offer his diocese to the

clergyman who will take the episcopacy at the

lowest contract. We (with exquisite sagacity
 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 19

of political economy !) do indeed sell commis-

sions ; but not openly, generalships : sick, we

do not inquire for a physician who takes less

than a guinea ; litigious, we never think of

reducing six-and-eightpence to four-and-six-

pence ; caught in a shower, we do not can-

vass the cabmen, to find one who values his

driving at less than sixpence a mile.

It is true that in all these cases there is, and

in every conceivable case there must be, ulti-

mate reference to the presumed difficulty of the

work, or number of candidates for the office.

If it were thought that the labour necessary

to make a good physician would be gone

through by a sufficient number of students

with the prospect of only half-guinea fees,

public consent would soon withdraw the un-

necessary half-guinea. In this ultimate sense,

the price of labour is indeed always regulated

by the demand for it ; but, so far as the
practical and immediate administration of the

matter is regarded, the best labour always

20 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

has been, and is, as all labour ought to be,

paid by an invariable standard.

14. " What ! " the reader perhaps answers

amazedly : " pay good and bad workmen

alike ? "

Certainly. The difference between one pre-

late's sermons and his successor's—
-or between

one physician's opinion and another's, —is far

greater, as respects the qualities of mind in-

volved, and far more important in result to you

personally, than the difference between good

and bad laying of bricks (though that is greater

than most people suppose). Yet you pay with

equal fee, contentedly, the good and bad work-

men upon your soul, and the good and bad

workmen upon your body ; much more may

you pay, contentedly, with equal fees, the

good and bad workmen upon your house.

" Nay, but I choose my physician, and (?)

my clergyman, thus indicating my sense of the

quality of their work." By all means, also,

choose your bricklayer ; that is the proper
 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 21

reward of the good workman, to be " chosen."

The natural and right system respecting all

labour is, that it should be paid at a fixed

rate, but the good workman employed, and

the bad workman unemployed. The false,

unnatural, and destructive system is when

the bad workman is allowed to offer his

work at half-price, and either take the place

of the good, or force him by his competition

to work for an inadequate sum.

15. This equality of wages, then, being the first

object towards which we have to discover

the directest available road, the second is,

as above stated, that of maintaining constant

numbers of workmen in employment, what-

ever may be the accidental demand for the

article they produce .

I believe the sudden and extensive inequali-

ties of demand, which necessarily arise in the

mercantile operations of an active nation , con-

stitute the only essential difficulty which has

to be overcome in a just organization of labour.

22 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

The subject opens into too many branches

to admit of being investigated in a paper of

this kind ; but the following general facts

bearing on it may be noted.

The wages which enable any workman to

live are necessarily higher, if his work is liable

to intermission, than if it is assured and con-

tinuous ; and however severe the struggle for

work may become, the general law will always

hold, that men must get more daily pay if,

on the average, they can only calculate on

work three days a week than they would

require if they were sure of work six days a

week. Supposing that a man cannot live on

less than a shilling a day, his seven shillings

he must get, either for three days' violent

work, or six days' deliberate work. The ten-

dency of all modern mercantile operations is

to throw both wages and trade into the form

of a lottery, and to make the workman's pay

depend on intermittent exertion, and the prin-

cipal's profit on dexterously used chance.

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 23

16. In what partial degree, I repeat, this may

be necessary in consequence of the activities

of modern trade, I do not here investigate ;

contenting myself with the fact that in its

fatallest aspects it is assuredly unnecessary,

and results merely from love of gambling on

the part of the masters, and from ignorance and

sensuality in the men. The masters cannot

bear to let any opportunity of gain escape them,

and frantically rush at every gap and breach

in the walls of Fortune, raging to be rich, and

affronting, with impatient covetousness, every

risk of ruin, while the men prefer three days

of violent labour, and three days of drunken-

ness, to six days of moderate work and wise

rest. There is no way in which a principal,

who really desires to help his workmen, may

do it more effectually than by checking these

disorderly habits both in himself and them ;

keeping his own business operations on a scale

which will enable him to pursue them securely,

not yielding to temptations of precarious gain ;

24 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

and at the same time, leading his workmen

into regular habits of labour and life, either

by inducing them rather to take low wages, in

the form of a fixed salary, than high wages,

subject to the chance of their being thrown

out of work ; or, if this be impossible, by

discouraging the system of violent exertion for

nominally high day wages, and leading the men

to take lower pay for more regular labour.

In effecting any radical changes of this kind,

doubtless there would be great inconvenience

and loss incurred by all the originators of the

movement. That which can be done with per-

fect convenience and without loss, is not always

the thing that most needs to be done, or which

we are most imperatively required to do.

17.I have already alluded to the difference

hitherto existing between regiments of men

associated for purposes of violence, and for

purposes of manufacture ; in that the former

appear capable of self-sacrifice- the latter, not ;

which singular fact is the real reason of the

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR . 25

general lowness of estimate in which the pro-

fession of commerce is held, as compared with

that of arms. Philosophically, it does not, at

first sight, appear reasonable (many writers

have endeavoured to prove it unreasonable)

that a peaceable and rational person, whose

trade is buying and selling, should be held

in less honour than an unpeaceable and

often irrational person, whose trade is slay-

ing. Nevertheless, the consent of mankind

has always, in spite of the philosophers,

given precedence to the soldier.

And this is right.

For the soldier's trade, verily and essen-

tially, is not slaying, but being slain. This,

without well knowing its own meaning, the

world honours it for. A bravo's trade is slay-

ing ; but the world has never respected bravos

more than merchants : the reason it honours

the soldier is, because he holds his life at the

service of the State. Reckless he may be-

fond of pleasure or of adventure —all kinds

26 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR .

of bye-motives and mean impulses may have

determined the choice of his profession, and

may affect (to all appearance exclusively) his

daily conduct in it ; but our estimate of him
is based on this ultimate fact-of which we

are well assured that put him in a fortress

breach, with all the pleasures of the world

behind him, and only death and his duty in

front of him, he will keep his face to the

front ; and he knows that his choice may be

put to him at any moment-and has before-

hand taken his part- virtually takes such

part continually-does, in reality, die daily.

[Link] less is the respect we pay to the lawyer

and physician, founded ultimately on their self-

sacrifice. Whatever the learning or acuteness

of a great lawyer, our chief respect for him

depends on our belief that, set in a judge's

seat, he will strive to judge justly, come of it

what may. Could we suppose that he would

take bribes, and use his acuteness and legal

knowledge to give plausibility to iniquitous

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 27

decisions, no degree of intellect would win for

him our respect. Nothing will win it, short

of our tacit conviction, that in all important

acts of his life justice is first with him ; his

own interest, second.

In the case of a physician, the ground of

the honour we render him is clearer still .

Whatever his science, we would shrink from

him in horror if we found him regard his

patients merely as subjects to experiment

upon ; much more, if we found that, receiving

bribes from persons interested in their deaths,

he was using his best skill to give poison in

the mask of medicine.

Finally, the principle holds with utmost

clearness as it respects clergymen . No

goodness of disposition will excuse want

of science in a physician, or of shrewdness

in an advocate ; but a clergyman, even

though his power of intellect be small, is

respected on the presumed ground of his

unselfishness and serviceableness.

28 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

19. Now, there can be no question but that

the tact, foresight, decision, and other mental

powers, required for the successful manage-
ment of a large mercantile concern, if not

such as could be compared with those of a

great lawyer, general, or divine, would at least

match the general conditions of mind required

in the subordinate officers of a ship, or of a

regiment, or in the curate of a country parish.

If, therefore, all the efficient members of the

so-called liberal professions are still, somehow,

in public estimate of honour, preferred before

the head of a commercial firm , the reason

must lie deeper than in the measurement of

their several powers of mind.
And the essential reason for such preference
will be found to lie in the fact that the mer-

chant is presumed to act always selfishly. His

work may be very necessary to the commu-

nity ; but the motive of it is understood to be

wholly personal. The merchant's first object

in all his dealings must be (the public believe)

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 29

to get as much for himself, and leave as little

to his neighbour (or customer) as possible.

Enforcing this upon him, by political statute,

as the necessary principle of his action ; re-

commending it to him on all occasions, and

themselves reciprocally adopting it, proclaim-

ing vociferously, for law of the universe, that

a buyer's function is to cheapen, and a seller's

to cheat, the public, nevertheless, involunta-

rily condemn the man of commerce for his

compliance with their own statement, and

stamp him for ever as belonging to an in-
ferior grade of human personality.

20. This they will find, eventually, they must

give up doing. They must not cease to

condemn selfishness ; but they will have to

discover a kind of commerce which is not

exclusively selfish. Or, rather, they will have

to discover that there never was, or can be,

any other kind of commerce ; that this which

they have called commerce was not commerce

at all, but cozening ; and that a true merchant
30 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

differs as much from a merchant according

to laws of modern political economy, as the

"
hero ofthe Excursion ' from Autolycus. They

will find that commerce is an occupation which

gentlemen will every day see more need to

engage in, rather than in the businesses of

talking to men, or slaying them ; that, in true

commerce, as in true preaching, or true fight-

ing, it is necessary to admit the idea of occa-

sional voluntary loss ;-that sixpences have to

be lost, as well as lives, under a sense of

duty ; that the market may have its martyr-

doms as well as the pulpit ; and trade its

heroisms as well as war.

May have -in the final issue, must have—

and only has not had yet, because men of

heroic temper have always been misguided in

their youth into other fields ; not recognizing

what is in our days, perhaps, the most im-

portant of all fields ; so that, while many a

zealous person loses his life in trying to teach

the form of a gospel, very few will lose a

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 31

hundred pounds in showing the practice of

one.

21. The fact is, that people never have had

clearly explained to them the true functions

of a merchant with respect to other people.

I should like the reader to be very clear
about this.

Five great intellectual professions, relating to

daily necessities of life, have hitherto existed—

three exist necessarily, in every civilized nation :

The Soldier's profession is to defend it.

The Pastor's to teach it.

The Physician's to keep it in health.

The Lawyer's to enforce justice in it.

The Merchant's to provide for it.

And the duty of all these men is, on due

occasion, to die for it.

"On due occasion," namely :-

The Soldier, rather than leave his post

in battle.

The Physician, rather than leave his post

in plague.
32 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

The Pastor, rather than teach Falsehood.

The Lawyer, rather than countenance In-

justice.
The Merchant-what is his " due occasion ”

of death ?

22. It is the main question for the merchant, as

for all of us. For, truly, the man who does

not know when to die, does not know how
to live.

Observe, the merchant's function (or manu-

facturer's, for in the broad sense in which it
is here used the word must be understood to

include both) is to provide for the nation. It is

no more his function to get profit for himself

out of that provision than it is a clergyman's

function to get his stipend. This stipend is

a due and necessary adjunct, but not the

object of his life, if he be a true clergyman,

any more than his fee (or honorarium) is the

object of life to a true physician. Neither is his

fee the object of life to a true merchant. All

three, if true men, have a work to be done

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 33

irrespective of fee- to be done even at any

cost, or for quite the contrary of fee ; the

pastor's function being to teach, the physician's

to heal, and the merchant's, as I have said, to

provide. That is to say, he has to understand

to their very root the qualities of the thing he

deals in, and the means of obtaining or pro-

ducing it ; and he has to apply all his sagacity

and energy to the producing or obtaining it in

perfect state, and distributing it at the cheapest

possible price where it is most needed .

And because the production or obtaining of

any commodity involves necessarily the agency

of many lives and hands, the merchant becomes
in the course of his business the master and

governor of large masses of men in a more

direct, though less confessed way, than a

military officer or pastor ; so that on him falls,

in great part, the responsibility for the kind

of life they lead : and it becomes his duty, not

only to be always considering how to produce

what he sells, in the purest and cheapest forms,

3
34 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR.

but how to make the various employments

involved in the production, or transference of

it, most beneficial to the men employed.

23. And as into these two functions, requiring

for their right exercise the highest intelligence,

as well as patience, kindness, and tact, the

merchant is bound to put all his energy, so

for their just discharge he is bound , as soldier

or physician is bound, to give up, if need be,

his life, in such way as it may be demanded of

him. Two main points he has in his providing

function to maintain : first, his engagements

(faithfulness to engagements being the real

root of all possibilities, in commerce) ; and,

secondly, the perfectness and purity of the

thing provided ; so that, rather than fail in

any engagement, or consent to any deterio-

ration, adulteration, or unjust and exorbitant

price of that which he provides, he is bound

to meet fearlessly any form of distress,

poverty, or labour, which may, through

maintenance of these points, come upon him.

 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 35

24. Again in his office as governor of the men

employed by him, the merchant or manufac-

turer is invested with a distinctly paternal

authority and responsibility. In most cases, a

youth entering a commercial establishment is

withdrawn altogether from home influence ; his

master must become his father, else he has,

for practical and constant help, no father at

hand in all cases the master's authority, to-

gether with the general tone and atmosphere

of his business, and the character of the men

with whom the youth is compelled in the

course of it to associate, have more immediate

and pressing weight than the home influence,

and will usually neutralize it either for good

or evil ; so that the only means which the

master has of doing justice to the men

employed by him is to ask himself sternly

whether he is dealing with such subordinate
as he would with his own son, if compelled

by circumstances to take such a position.

Supposing the captain of a frigate saw it
36 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR .

right, or were by any chance obliged, to place

his own son in the position of a common

sailor as he would then treat his son, he is

bound always to treat every one of the men

under him. So, also, supposing the master

of a manufactory saw it right, or were by any

chance obliged, to place his own son in the

position of an ordinary workman ; as he would

then treat his son, he is bound always to treat

every one of his men. This is the only

effective, true, or practical RULE which can

be given on this point of political economy.

And as the captain of a ship is bound to

be the last man to leave his ship in case of

wreck, and to share his last crust with the

sailors in case of famine, so the manufacturer,

in any commercial crisis or distress , is bound

to take the suffering of it with his men, and

even to take more of it for himself than he

allows his men to feel ; as a father would in

a famine, shipwreck, or battle, sacrifice himself

for his son.
 THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. 37

25. All which sounds very strange the only

real strangeness in the matter being, never-

theless, that it should so sound . For all this

is true, and that not partially nor theoretically,

but everlastingly and practically : all other

doctrine than this respecting matters political

being false in premises, absurd in deduction,

and impossible in practice, consistently with

any progressive state of national life ; all
the life which we now possess as a nation

showing itself in the resolute denial and

scorn, by a few strong minds and faithful

hearts, of the economic principles taught to

our multitudes, which principles, so far as

accepted, lead straight to national destruction.

Respecting the modes and forms of destruction

to which they lead, and , on the other hand,

respecting the farther practical working of

true polity, I hope to reason further in a

following paper.
 38

ESSAY II .

THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

[Link] answer which would be made by any

ordinary political economist to the statements

contained in the preceding paper, is in few

words as follows :-

" It is indeed true that certain advantages

of a general nature may be obtained by the

development of social affections. But political

economists never professed, nor profess, to

take advantages of a general nature into con-

sideration. Our science is simply the science

of getting rich. So far from being a fallacious

or visionary one, it is found by experience to

be practically effective. Persons who follow

its precepts do actually become rich, and

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH. 39

persons who disobey them become poor.

Every capitalist of Europe has acquired his

fortune by following the known laws of our

science, and increases his capital daily by

an adherence to them. It is vain to bring

forward tricks of logic, against the force

of accomplished facts. Every man of busi-

ness knows by experience how money is
made, and how it is lost."
Pardon me. Men of business do indeed

know how they themselves made their money,

or how, on occasion, they lost it. Playing a

long- practised game, they are familiar with the

chances of its cards, and can rightly explain

their losses and gains . But they neither know

who keeps the bank of the gambling-house ,

nor what other games may be played with

the same cards, nor what other losses and

gains, far away among the dark streets, are

essentially, though invisibly, dependent on

theirs in the lighted rooms. They have

learned a few, and only a few, of the laws

40 THE VEINS OF WEALTH.

of mercantile economy ; but not one of those

of political economy.

27. Primarily, which is very notable and curious,

I observe that men of business rarely know

the meaning of the word " rich." At least, if

they know, they do not in their reasonings

allow for the fact, that it is a relative word,

implying its opposite " poor " as positively as

the word " north " implies its opposite "south."

Men nearly always speak and write as if riches

were absolute, and it were possible, by follow-

ing certain scientific precepts, for everybody

to be rich. Whereas riches are a power like

that of electricity, acting only through in-

equalities or negations of itself. The force of

the guinea you have in your pocket depends

wholly on the default of a guinea in your

neighbour's pocket. If he did not want it, it

would be of no use to you ; the degree of

power it possesses depends accurately upon

the need or desire he has for it, - and the

art of making yourself rich, in the ordinary

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH. 41

mercantile economist's sense, is therefore

equally and necessarily the art of keeping your

neighbour poor.

I would not contend in this matter (and

rarely in any matter) for the acceptance of

terms. But I wish the reader clearly and

deeply to understand the difference between

the two economies, to which the terms
" Political "" and "Mercantile " might not

unadvisedly be attached.

28. Political economy (the economy of a State,

or of citizens) consists simply in the produc-

tion, preservation, and distribution, at fittest

time and place, of useful or pleasurable things .

The farmer who cuts his hay at the right time ;

the shipwright who drives his bolts well

home in sound wood ; the builder who lays

good bricks in well-tempered mortar ; the

housewife who takes care of her furniture in

the parlour, and guards against all waste in

her kitchen ; and the singer who rightly dis-

ciplines, and never overstrains her voice, are

42 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

all political economists in the true and final

sense adding continually to the riches and

well-being of the nation to which they belong.

But mercantile economy, the economy of
"( merces "} or of " pay," signifi
es the accumu-

lation, in the hands of individuals, of legal or

moral claim upon, or power over, the labour

of others ; every such claim implying precisely

as much poverty or debt on one side, as it

implies riches or right on the other.

It does not, therefore, necessarily involve an

addition to the actual property, or well-being

of the State in which it exists . But since this

commercial wealth, or power over labour, is

nearly always convertible at once into real

property, while real property is not always

convertible at once into power over labour,

the idea of riches among active men in civilized

nations, generally refers to commercial wealth ;

an I in estimating their possessions, they rather

calculate the value of their horses and fields

by the number of guineas they could get for

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH . 43

them, than the value of their guineas by the

number of horses and fields they could buy

with them .

29. There is, however, another reason for this

habit of mind : namely, that an accumulation

of real property is of little use to its owner,

unless, together with it, he has commercial

power over labour. Thus, suppose any person

to be put in possession of a large estate of

fruitful land, with rich beds of gold in its

gravel ; countless herds of cattle in its pastures ;

houses, and gardens, and storehouses full of

useful stores : but suppose, after all, that he

could get no servants ? In order that he may
be able to have servants, some one in his

neighbourhood must be poor, and in want of

his gold - or his corn. Assume that no one

is in want of either, and that no servants are

to be had. He must, therefore, bake his own

bread, make his own clothes, plough his own

ground, and shepherd his own flocks . His

gold will be as useful to him as any other

44 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

yellow pebbles on his estate. His stores must

rot, for he cannot consume them. He can eat

no more than another man could eat, and wear

no more than another man could wear. He

must lead a life of severe and common labour

to procure even ordinary comforts ; he will

be ultimately unable to keep either houses in

repair, or fields in cultivation ; and forced to

content himself with a poor man's portion of

cottage and garden, in the midst of a desert

of waste land, trampled by wild cattle, and

encumbered by ruins of palaces, which he will

hardly mock at himself by calling " his own."

30. The most covetous of mankind would, with

small exultation, I presume, accept riches of

this kind on these terms. What is really

desired, under the name of riches, is, essen-

tially, power over men ; in its simplest sense,

the power of obtaining for our own advantage

the labour of servant, tradesman, and artist ;

in wider sense, authority of directing large

masses of the nation to various ends (good ,

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH. 45

trivial, or hurtful, according to the mind of

the rich person) . And this power of wealth

of course is greater or less in direct proportion

to the poverty of the men over whom it is

exercised, and in inverse proportion to the

number of persons who are as rich as ourselves,

and who are ready to give the same price for

an article of which the supply is limited. If

the musician is poor, he will sing for small

pay, as long as there is only one person who

can pay him ; but if there be two or three,

he will sing for the one who offers him most.

And thus the power of the riches of the patron
(always imperfect and doubtful, as we shall see

presently (§ 39) , even when most authoritative)

depends first on the poverty of the artist, and

then on the limitation of the number of equally

wealthy persons, who also want seats at the

concert. So that, as above stated, the art of

becoming " rich," in the common sense, is not

absolutely nor finally the art of accumu-

lating much money for ourselves, but also of
 H
46 THE VEINS OF WEALT .

contriving that our neighbours shall have

less. In accurate terms, it is "the art of

establishing the maximum inequality in our

own favour."

31. Now, the establishment of such inequality

cannot be shown in the abstract to be either

advantageous or disadvantageous to the body

of the nation. The rash and absurd assump-

tion that such inequalities are necessarily

advantageous, lies at the root of most of the

popular fallacies on the subject of political

economy. For the eternal and inevitable law

in this matter is, that the beneficialness of the

inequality depends, first, on the methods by

which it was accomplished ; and, secondly, on

the purposes to which it is applied. Inequalities

of wealth, unjustly established, have assuredly

injured the nation in which they exist during

their establishment ; and, unjustly directed,

injure it yet more during their existence. But

inequalities of wealth, justly established, benefit

the nation in the course of their establishment ;
 THE VEINS OF WEALTH. 47

and, nobly used, aid it yet more by their

existence . That is to say, among every active

and well-governed people, the various strength

of individuals, tested by full exertion and

specially applied to various need, issues in un-

equal, but harmonious results, receiving reward

*
or authority according to its class and service ;

* I have been naturally asked several times with re-

spect to the sentence in the first of these papers, " the bad
workmen unemployed," " But what are you to do with
your bad unemployed workmen ? " Well, it seems to me
the question might have occurred to you before. Your
housemaid's place is vacant-you give twenty pounds
a year- two girls come for it, one neatly dressed, the
other dirtily; one with good recommendations, the other
with none . You do not, under these circumstances,
usually ask the dirty one if she will come for fifteen
pounds, or twelve ; and, on her consenting, take her
instead of the well-recommended one. Still less do you
try to beat both down by making them bid against each
other, till you can hire both, one at twelve pounds a year,
and the other at eight. You simply take the one fittest
for the place, and send away the other, not perhaps con-
cerning yourself quite as much as you should with the
question which you now impatiently put to me, "What
is to become of her ? " For, all that I advise you to do,
is to deal with workmen as with servants ; and verily the
 H
48 THE VEINS OF WEALT .

while, in the inactive or ill-governed nation,

the gradations of decay and the victories of

treason work out also their own rugged system

of subjection and success ; and substitute, for

the melodious inequalities of concurrent power,

the iniquitous dominances and depressions of

guilt and misfortune.

32. Thus the circulation of wealth in a nation

resembles that of the blood in the natural

question is of weight : " Your bad workman, idler, and

rogue -what are you to do with him ? "
We will consider of this presently: remember that the
administration of a complete system of national commerce
and industry cannot be explained in full detail within
the space of twelve pages. Meantime, consider whether,
there being confessedly some difficulty in dealing with
rogues and idlers, it may not be advisable to produce as
few of them as possible. If you examine into the his-
tory of rogues, you will find they are as truly manufac-
tured articles as anything else, and it is just because our
present system of political economy gives so large a
stimulus to that manufacture that you may know it to
be a false one. We had better seek for a system which
will develop honest men, than for one which will deal
cunningly with vagabonds. Let us reform our schools,
and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.
 THE VEINS OF WEALTH. 49

body. There is one quickness of the current

which comes of cheerful emotion or wholesome

exercise ; and another which comes of shame

or of fever. There is a flush of the body

which is full of warmth and life ; and another

which will pass into putrefaction.

The analogy will hold down even to minute

particulars . For as diseased local determina-

tion of the blood involves depression of the

general health of the system, all morbid local

action of riches will be found ultimately to

involve a weakening of the resources of the

body politic.
The mode in which this is produced may

be at once understood by examining one or

two instances of the development of wealth

in the simplest possible circumstances .

33. Suppose two sailors cast away on an un-

inhabited coast, and obliged to maintain them-

selves there by their own labour for a series

of years .

If they both kept their health, and worked

4
50 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

steadily and in amity with each other, they

might build themselves a convenient house,

and in time come to possess a certain quan-

tity of cultivated land, together with various

stores laid up for future use. All these

things would be real riches or property ;

and, supposing the men both to have worked

equally hard, they would each have right to

equal share or use of it. Their political

economy would consist merely in careful pre-

servation and just division of these posses-
sions. Perhaps, however, after some time

one or other might be dissatisfied with the

results of their common farming ; and they

might in consequence agree to divide the

land they had brought under the spade into

equal shares , so that each might thencefor-

ward work in his own field, and live by it.

Suppose that after this arrangement had been

made, one of them were to fall ill, and be
unable to work on his land at a critical time

-say of sowing or harvest.

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH . 5I

He would naturally ask the other to sow or

reap for him.
Then his
his companion might say, with

perfect justice, " I will do this additional

work for you ; but if I do it, you must pro-

mise to do as much for me at another time.

I will count how many hours I spend on

your ground, and you shall give me a written

promise to work for the same number of

hours on mine, whenever I need your help,

and you are able to give it."

34. Suppose the disabled man's sickness to

continue, and that under various circum-

stances, for several years, requiring the help

of the other, he on each occasion gave a

written pledge to work, as soon as he was

able, at his companion's orders, for the same

number of hours which the other had given

up to him. What will the positions of the

two men be when the invalid is. able to

resume work ?

Considered as a " Polis," or state, they will

52 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

be poorer than they would have been other-

wise poorer by the withdrawal of what the

sick man's labour would have produced in

the interval. His friend may perhaps have

toiled with an energy quickened by the en-

larged need, but in the end his own land

and property must have suffered by the

withdrawal of so much of his time and

thought from them and the united property

of the two men will be certainly less than it

would have been if both had remained in

health and activity.

But the relations in which they stand to

each other are also widely altered. The sick

man has not only pledged his labour for some

years, but will probably have exhausted his

own share of the accumulated stores, and

will be in consequence for some time de-

pendent on the other for food, which he can

only " pay " or reward him for by yet more

deeply pledging his own labour.

Supposing the written promises to be held

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH . 53

entirely valid (among civilized nations their

validity is secured by legal measures * ), the

person who had hitherto worked for both

might now, if he chose, rest altogether, and

pass his time in idleness, not only forcing his

companion to redeem all the engagements he

had already entered into, but exacting from

him pledges for further labour, to an arbitrary

* The disputes which exist respecting the real nature

of money arise more from the disputants examining its
functions on different sides, than from any real dissent
in their opinions. All money, properly so called, is an
acknowledgment of debt ; but as such, it may either
be considered to represent the labour and property
of the creditor, or the idleness and penury of the
debtor. The intricacy of the question has been much
increased by the (hitherto necessary) use of marketable
commodities, such as gold, silver, salt, shells, etc.,
to give intrinsic value or security to currency ; but
the final and best definition of money is that it is
a documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by
the nation to give or find a certain quantity of labour
on demand. A man's labour for a day is a better
standard of value than a measure of any produce,
because no produce ever maintains a consistent rate
of productibility.
54 THE VEINS OF WEALTH.

amount, for what food he had to advance to

him.

35. There might not, from first to last, be the

least illegality (in the ordinary sense of the

word) in the arrangement ; but if a stranger

arrived on the coast at this advanced epoch

of their political economy, he would find one

man commercially Rich ; the other commer-

cially Poor. He would see, perhaps , with no

small surprise, one passing his days in idle-

ness ; the other labouring for both, and

living sparely, in the hope of recovering his

independence at some distant period.

This is, of course, an example of one only

out of many ways in which inequality of pos-

session may be established between different

persons, giving rise to the Mercantile forms
of Riches and Poverty. In the instance

before us, one of the men might from the

first have deliberately chosen to be idle, and

to put his life in pawn for present ease ; or

he might have mismanaged his land, and been

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH . 55

compelled to have recourse to his neighbour

for food and help, pledging his future labour

for it. But what I want the reader to note

especially is the fact, common to a large

number of typical cases of this kind, that the

establishment of the mercantile wealth which

consists in a claim upon labour, signifies a

political diminution of the real wealth which

consists in substantial possessions.

36. Take another example, more consistent with

the ordinary course of affairs of trade. Sup-

pose that three men, instead of two, formed

the little isolated republic, and found them-

selves obliged to separate, in order to farm

different pieces of land at some distance from

each other along the coast : each estate furnish-

ing a distinct kind of produce, and each more

or less in need of the material raised on the

other. Suppose that the third man, in order

to save the time of all three, undertakes

simply to superintend the transference of

commodities from one farm to the other ;

56 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

on condition of receiving some sufficiently

remunerative share of every parcel of goods

conveyed, or of some other parcel received

in exchange for it.

If this carrier or messenger always brings

to each estate, from the other, what is chiefly

wanted, at the right time, the operations of the

two farmers will go on prosperously, and the

largest possible result in produce, or wealth,

will be attained by the little community. · But
suppose no intercourse between the land-

owners is possible, except through the travel-

ling agent ; and that, after a time, this agent,

watching the course of each man's agriculture,
keeps back the articles with which he has

been entrusted until there comes a period of

extreme necessity for them, on one side or

other, and then exacts in exchange for them

all that the distressed farmer can spare of

other kinds of produce : it is easy to see that

by ingeniously watching his opportunities , he

might possess himself regularly of the greater

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH. 57

part of the superfluous produce of the two

estates, and at last, in some year of severest

trial or scarcity, purchase both for himself

and maintain the former proprietors thence-
forward as his labourers or servants.

37. This would be a case of commercial wealth

acquired on the exactest principles of modern

political economy. But more distinctly even
than in the former instance, it is manifest in

this that the wealth of the State, or of the

three men considered as a society, is collect-

ively less than it would have been had the

merchant been content with juster profit. The

operations of the two agriculturists have been
cramped to the utmost ; and the continual

limitations of the supply of things they wanted

at critical times, together with the failure of

courage consequent on the prolongation of a

struggle for mere existence, without any sense

of permanent gain, must have seriously dimi-

nished the effective results of their labour ;

and the stores finally accumulated in the

 58 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

merchant's hands will not in any wise be of

equivalent value to those which, had his

dealings been honest, would have filled at once

the granaries of the farmers and his own.

The whole question, therefore, respecting not

only the advantage, but even the quantity, of

national wealth, resolves itself finally into one

of abstract justice . It is impossible to con-

clude, of any given mass of acquired wealth,

merely by the fact of its existence, whether

it signifies good or evil to the nation in the

midst of which it exists. Its real value de-

pends on the moral sign attached to it, just

as sternly as that of a mathematical quantity

depends on the algebraical sign attached to it.

Any given accumulation of commercial wealth

may be indicative, on the one hand, of faithful

industries, progressive energies, and productive

ingenuities or, on the other, it may be in-
dicative of mortal luxury, merciless tyranny,
ruinous chicane. Some treasures are heavy
with human tears , as an ill-stored harvest
 THE VEINS OF WEALTH. 59

with untimely rain ; and some gold is brighter

in sunshine than it is in substance.

38. And these are not, observe, merely moral

or pathetic attributes of riches, which the

seeker of riches may, if he chooses, despise ;

they are, literally and sternly, material attri-

butes of riches, depreciating or exalting, incal-

culably, the monetary signification of the sum

in question. One mass of money is the out-

come of action which has created, -another, of

action which has annihilated,--ten times as

much in the gathering of it ; such and such

strong hands have been paralyzed, as if they

had been numbed by nightshade : so many

strong men's courage broken, so many pro-

ductive operations hindered ; this and the

other false direction given to labour, and lying

image of prosperity set up, on Dura plains

dug into seven-times-heated furnaces. That

which seems to be wealth may in verity be

only the gilded index of far-reaching ruin ; a

wrecker's handful of coin gleaned from the
 бо THE VEINS OF WEALTH.

beach to which he has beguiled an argosy ; a

camp-follower's bundle of rags unwrapped

from the breasts of goodly soldiers dead ; the

purchase-pieces of potter's fields, wherein shall

be buried together the citizen and the stranger.

And therefore, the idea that directions can

be given for the gaining of wealth, irrespect-

ively of the consideration of its moral sources,

or that any general and technical law of pur-

chase and gain can be set down for national

practice, is perhaps the most insolently futile

of all that ever beguiled men through their

vices. So far as I know, there is not in history

record of anything so disgraceful to the human

intellect as the modern idea that the commer-

cial text, " Buy in the cheapest market and

sell in the dearest," represents, or under any

circumstances could represent, an available

principle of national economy. Buy in the

cheapest market ?—yes ; but what made your

market cheap ? Charcoal may be cheap among

your roof timbers after a fire, and bricks may
 THE VEINS OF WEALTH . 61

be cheap in your streets after an earthquake ;

but fire and earthquake may not therefore be

national benefits . Sell in the dearest ?—yes,

truly ; but what made your market dear? You

sold your bread well to-day was it to a dying

man who gave his last coin for it, and will

never need bread more ; or to a rich man who

to-morrow will buy your farm over your head ;

or to a soldier on his way to pillage the bank

in which you have put your fortune ?

None of these things you can know. One

thing only you can know : namely, whether this

dealing of yours is a just and faithful one,

which is all you need concern yourself about

respecting it ; sure thus to have done your

own part in bringing about ultimately in the

world a state of things which will not issue

in pillage or in death. And thus every ques-

tion concerning these things merges itself

ultimately in the great question of justice,

which, the ground being thus far cleared for

it, I will enter upon in the next paper, leaving

62 THE VEINS OF WEALTH.

only, in this, three final points for the reader's

consideration.

39. It has been shown that the chief value and

virtue of money consists in its having power

over human beings ; that, without this power,

large material possessions are useless, and to

any person possessing such power, compara-

tively unnecessary . But power over human

beings is attainable by other means than by

money . As I said a few pages back (§ 30),

the money power is always imperfect and

doubtful ; there are many things which can-

not be reached with it, others which cannot

be retained by it. Many joys may be given

to men which cannot be bought for gold,

and many fidelities found in them which

cannot be rewarded with it.

Trite enough, the reader thinks. Yes : but

it is not so trite, -I wish it were,-that in this

moral power, quite inscrutable and immeasur-

able though it be, there is a monetary value just

as real as that represented by more ponderous

 THE VEINS OF WEALTH . 63

currencies . A man's hand may be full of

invisible gold, and the wave of it, or the grasp ,

shall do more than another's with a shower of

bullion. This invisible gold, also, does not

necessarily diminish in spending. Political

economists will do well some day to take

heed of it, though they cannot take measure.

But farther. Since the essence of wealth

consists in its authority over men, if the ap-

parent or nominal wealth fail in this power, it

fails in essence ; in fact, ceases to be wealth at

all. It does not appear lately in England , that

our authority over men is absolute. The ser-

vants show some disposition to rush riotously

upstairs, under an impression that their wages

are not regularly paid. We should augur ill

of any gentleman's property to whom this hap-

pened every other day in his drawing-room.

So, also, the power of our wealth seems

limited as respects the comfort of the servants,

no less than their quietude. The persons in

the kitchen appear to be ill-dressed , squalid,

 64 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

half-starved . One cannot help imagining that

the riches of the establishment must be of a

very theoretical and documentary character.

40. Finally. Since the essence of wealth consists

in power over men, will it not follow that the

nobler and the more in number the persons

are over whom it has power, the greater the

wealth ? Perhaps it may even appear, after some

consideration, that the persons themselves are

the wealth--that these pieces of gold with

which we are in the habit of guiding them, are,

in fact, nothing more than a kind of Byzantine

harness or trappings, very glittering and beauti-

ful in barbaric sight, wherewith we bridle the

creatures ; but that if these same living crea-

tures could be guided without the fretting

and jingling of the Byzants in their mouths

and ears, they might themselves be more valu-

able than their bridles. In fact, it may be

discovered that the true veins of wealth are

purple- and not in Rock, but in Flesh- perhaps

even that the final outcome and consummation
T
 THE VEINS OF WEALTH . 65

of all wealth is in the producing as many as

possible full-breathed, bright- eyed, and happy-

hearted human creatures. Our modern wealth,

I think, has rather a tendency the other way ;

-most political economists appearing to con-

sider multitudes of human creatures not con-

ducive to wealth, or at best conducive to it

only by remaining in a dim-eyed and narrow-

chested state of being.

41. Nevertheless, it is open, I repeat, to serious

question, which I leave to the reader's pon-

dering, whether, among national manufactures,

that of Souls of a good quality may not at last

turn out a quite leadingly lucrative one ? Nay,

in some far-away and yet undreamt-of hour,

I can even imagine that England may cast

all thoughts of possessive wealth back to the

barbaric nations among whom they first

arose ; and that, while the sands of the Indus

and adamant of Golconda may yet stiffen

the housings of the charger, and flash from

the turban of the slave, she, as a Christian

5
66 THE VEINS OF WEALTH .

mother, may at last attain to the virtues

and the treasures of a Heathen one, and be

able to lead forth her Sons, saying,—

" These are My Jewels."

 61

ESSAY III.

QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

[Link] centuries before the Christian era, a Jew

merchant, largely engaged in business on the

Gold Coast, and reported to have made one

of the largest fortunes of his time (held also

in repute for much practical sagacity), left

among his ledgers some general maxims con-

cerning wealth, which have been preserved,

strangely enough, even to our own days.

They were held in considerable respect by

the most active traders of the middle ages,

especially by the Venetians, who even went

so far in their admiration as to place a statue

of the old Jew on the angle of one of their

principal public buildings. Of late years these

 68 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.

writings have fallen into disrepute, being

opposed in every particular to the spirit of

modern commerce . Nevertheless I shall re-

produce a passage or two from them here,

partly because they may interest the reader

by their novelty ; and chiefly because they

will show him that it is possible for a very

practical and acquisitive tradesman to hold,

through a not unsuccessful career, that prin-

ciple of distinction between well-gotten and

ill-gotten wealth, which, partially insisted on

in my last paper, it must be our work more

completely to examine in this.

43. He says, for instance, in one place : " The

getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a

vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek

death ; " adding in another, with the same

meaning (he has a curious way of doubling

his sayings) : " Treasures of wickedness profit

nothing but justice delivers from death."
Both these passages are notable for their

assertions of death as the only real issue and

 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 69

sum of attainment by any unjust scheme of

wealth. If we read, instead of " lying tongue,"

"lying label , title, pretence, or advertisement,"

we shall more clearly perceive the bearing

of the words on modern business. The

seeking of death is a grand expression of the

true course of men's toil in such business .

We usually speak as if death pursued us,

and we fled from him ; but that is only so

in rare instances. Ordinarily he masks him-

self-makes himself beautiful-all-glorious ;

not like the King's daughter, all-glorious

within, but outwardly : his clothing of wrought

gold. We pursue him frantically all our days,

he flying or hiding from us. Our crowning

success at three- score and ten is utterly and

perfectly to seize, and hold him in his eternal

integrity-robes, ashes, and sting.

Again the merchant says, "He that op-

presseth the poor to increase his riches, shall
surely come to want." And again, more

strongly : " Rob not the poor because he is

 70 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

poor ; neither oppress the afflicted in the place

of business. For God shall spoil the soul of

those that spoiled them. "

This " robbing the poor because he is

poor," is especially the mercantile form of

theft, consisting in taking advantage of a

man's necessities in order to obtain his

labour or property at a reduced price. The

ordinary highwayman's opposite form of

robbery of the rich, because he is rich-

does not appear to occur so often to the

old merchant's mind ; probably because, being

less profitable and more dangerous than the

robbery of the poor, it is rarely practised by

persons of discretion.

44. But the two most remarkable passages in

their deep general significance are the follow-

ing :-

" The rich and the poor have met. God is

their maker."

" The rich and the poor have met. God is

their light."
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM . 71

They " have met " : more literally, have

stood in each other's way (obviaverunt) . That

is to say, as long as the world lasts, the action

and counteraction of wealth and poverty, the

meeting, face to face, of rich and poor, is

just as appointed and necessary a law of that

world as the flow of stream to sea, or the inter-

change of power among the electric clouds :-

" God is their maker." But, also, this action

may be either gentle and just, or convulsive

and destructive : it may be by rage of devour-

ing flood, or by lapse of serviceable wave ;-

in blackness of thunderstroke, or continual

force of vital fire, soft, and shapeable into

love-syllables from far away. And which of

these it shall be, depends on both rich and

poor knowing that God is their light ; that

in the mystery of human life, there is no

other light than this by which they can see

each other's faces, and live ;-light, which is

called in another of the books among which

the merchant's maxims have been preserved,

72 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

the " sun of justice,"* of which it is promised

that it shall rise at last with " healing" (health-

giving or helping, making whole or setting at

one) in its wings. For truly this healing is

only possible by means of justice ; no love,

no faith, no hope will do it ; men will be un-

wisely fond-vainly faithful, —unless primarily

they are just ; and the mistake of the best

men through generation after generation, has

been that great one of thinking to help the

poor by almsgiving, and by preaching of
patience or of hope, and by every other

means, emollient or consolatory, except the

one thing which God orders for them, justice .

* More accurately, Sun of Justness ; but, instead of

the harsh word " Justness," the old English " Righteous-
ness " being commonly employed, has, by getting con-
fused with " godliness," or attracting about it various
vague and broken meanings, prevented most persons
from receiving the force of the passage in which it
occurs. The word " righteousness " properly refers to
the justice of rule, or right, as distinguished from
" equity," which refers to the justice of balance. More
broadly, Righteousness is King's justice ; and Equity
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 73

But this justice, with its accompanying holi-

ness or helpfulness , being even by the best

man denied in its trial time, is by the mass

of men hated wherever it appears : so that,
when the choice was one day fairly put to

them , they denied the Helpful One and the

*
Just ; and desired a murderer, sedition-

raiser, and robber, to be granted to them ;—

the murderer instead of the Lord of Life, the

sedition-raiser instead of the Prince of Peace,

and the robber instead of the Just Judge of all

the world.

45. I have just spoken of the flowing of streams

Judge's justice ; the King guiding or ruling all, the

Judge dividing or discerning between opposites (there-
fore, the double question, " Man, who made me a ruler
—dikaσTη's—or a divider-µeploτns-over you ? ") Thus,
with respect to the Justice of Choice (selection, the
feebler and passive justice), we have from lego, —lex,
legal, loi, and loyal ; and with respect to the Justice of
Rule (direction, the stronger and active justice), we
have from rego, ―rex, regal, roi, and royal.
* In another place written with the same meaning,
"Just, and having salvation."
74 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.

to the sea as a partial image of the action

of wealth. In one respect it is not a partial,

but a perfect image. The popular economist

thinks himself wise in having discovered that

wealth, or the forms of property in general,

must go where they are required ; that where

demand is, supply must follow. He farther

declares that this course of demand and supply

cannot be forbidden by human laws. Precisely

in the same sense, and with the same certainty,

the waters of the world go where they are

required. Where the land falls, the water

flows. The course neither of clouds nor rivers

can be forbidden by human will. But the

disposition and administration of them can be

altered by human forethought. Whether the

stream shall be a curse or a blessing, depends

upon man's labour, and administrating intelli-

gence. For centuries after centuries, great

districts of the world, rich in soil, and favoured

in climate, have lain desert under the rage of

their own rivers ; nor only desert, but plague-
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM . 75

struck. The stream which, rightly directed ,

would have flowed in soft irrigation from field

to field- would have purified the air, given

food to man and beast, and carried their

burdens for them on its bosom- now over-

whelms the plain and poisons the wind ; its

breath pestilence, and its work famine. In
like manner this wealth " goes where it is

required." No human laws can withstand its

flow. They can only guide it but this, the

leading trench and limiting mound can do so

thoroughly, that it shall become water of life

* or, on
-the riches of the hand of wisdom ;
the contrary, by leaving it to its own lawless

flow, they may make it, what it has been

too often, the last and deadliest of national

plagues water of Marah-the water which

feeds the roots of all evil.

The necessity of these laws of distribution

or restraint is curiously overlooked in the

* "" Length of days in her right hand ; in her left,

riches and honour."
76 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

ordinary political economist's definition of his

own " science." He calls it, shortly, the

"science of getting rich." But there are many

sciences, as well as many arts, of getting rich.

Poisoning people of large estates, was one

employed largely in the middle ages ; adul-

teration of food of people of small estates, is

one employed largely now. The ancient and

honourable Highland method of black mail ;

the more modern and less honourable system

of obtaining goods on credit, and the other

variously improved methods of appropriation—

which, in major and minor scales of industry,

down to the most artistic pocket-picking, we

owe to recent genius, -all come under the

general head of sciences, or arts, of getting

rich.

[Link] that it is clear the popular economist,

in calling his science the science par excellence

of getting rich, must attach some peculiar ideas

of limitation to its character. I hope I do not

misrepresent him, by assuming that he means

 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 77

his science to be the science of " getting rich

by legal or just means." In this definition, is

the word "just," or " legal," finally to stand ?

For it is possible among certain nations, or

under certain rulers, or by help of certain

advocates, that proceedings may be legal which

are by no means just. If, therefore, we leave

at last only the word "just " in that place of

our definition, the insertion of this solitary and
small word will make a notable difference in

the grammar of our science . For then it will

follow that in order to grow rich scientifically,

we must grow rich justly ; and, therefore,

know what is just ; so that our economy will

no longer depend merely on prudence, but on
jurisprudence—and that of divine, not human

law. Which prudence is indeed of no mean

order, holding itself, as it were, high in the

air of heaven, and gazing for ever on the light

of the sun of justice ; hence the souls which

have excelled in it are represented by Dante

as stars forming in heaven for ever the figure
78 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

of the eye of an eagle ; they having been in

life the discerners of light from darkness ; or

to the whole human race, as the light of the

body, which is the eye ; while those souls

which form the wings of the bird (giving

power and dominion to justice , " healing in its

wings ") trace also in light the inscription in

heaven : " DILIGITE JUSTITIAM QUI JUDICATIS

TERRAM ." "Ye who judge the earth, give "

(not, observe, merely love, but) " diligent love

to justice " : the love which seeks diligently,

that is to say, choosingly, and by preference to

all things else. Which judging or doing judg .

ment in the earth is, according to their capacity

and position, required not of judges only, nor

of rulers only, but of all men : * a truth

* I hear that several of our lawyers have been

greatly amused by the statement in the first of these
papers that a lawyer's function was to do justice. I
did not intend it for a jest ; nevertheless it will be
seen that in the above passage neither the deter-
mination nor doing of justice are contemplated as
functions wholly peculiar to the lawyer. Possibly,
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 79

sorrowfully lost sight of even by those who

are ready enough to apply to themselves pas-

sages in which Christian men are spoken of as

called to be " saints " (i.e. to helpful or healing

functions) ; and " chosen to be kings " (i.e. to

knowing or directing functions) ; the true

meaning of these titles having been long lost

through the pretences of unhelpful and unable

persons to saintly and kingly character ; also

through the once popular idea that both the

sanctity and royalty are to consist in wearing

long robes and high crowns, instead of in

mercy and judgment ; whereas all true sanctity

is saving power, as all true royalty is ruling

power ; and injustice is part and parcel of the

denial of such power, which " makes men as

the more our standing armies, whether of soldiers,

pastors, or legislators (the generic term " pastor '
including all teachers, and the generic term "lawyer ”
including makers as well as interpreters of law),
can be superseded by the force of national heroism ,
wisdom, and honesty, the better it may be for the
nation.
80 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

the creeping things, as the fishes of the sea,

that have no ruler over them." *

47. Absolute justice is indeed no more attain-

able than absolute truth ; but the righteous

man is distinguished from the unrighteous

by his desire and hope of justice, as the true

man from the false by his desire and hope of

truth. And though absolute justice be un-

attainable, as much justice as we need for all

practical use is attainable by all those who

make it their aim.

We have to examine, then, in the subject

before us, what are the laws of justice respect-

ing payment of labour-no small part, these,

of the foundations of all jurisprudence.

I reduced, in my last paper, the idea of

money payment to its simplest or radical terms.

In those terms its nature, and the conditions

* It being the privilege of the fishes, as it is of rats

and wolves, to live by the laws of demand and supply ;
but the distinction of humanity, to live by those of
right.
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 81

of justice respecting it, can be best ascer-

tained.

Money payment, as there stated, consists

radically in a promise to some person working

for us, that for the time and labour he spends

in our service to- day we will give or procure

equivalent time and labour in his service at

any future time when he may demand it. *

If we promise to give him less labour than

he has given us, we under-pay him. If we

promise to give him more labour than he

* It might appear at first that the market price of

labour expressed such an exchange : but this is a fallacy,
for the market price is the momentary price of the kind
of labour required, but the just price is its equivalent
of the productive labour of mankind. This difference
will be analyzed in its place. It must be noted also
that I speak here only of the exchangeable value of
labour, not of that of commodities. The exchange-
able value of a commodity is that of the labour
required to produce it, multiplied into the force of
the demand for it. If the value of the labour = x
and the force of demandy, the exchangeable value
of the commodity is xy, in which if either x = 0, or
y = o, xy = 0.
6
A
82 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

has given us, we over-pay him . In practice,

according to the laws of demand and supply,

when two men are ready to do the work, and

only one man wants to have it done, the two

men underbid each other for it ; and the one

who gets it to do, is under-paid . But when

two men want the work done, and there is

only one man ready to do it, the two men

who want it done overbid each other, and
the workman is over- paid.

48. I will examine these two points of injustice

in succession ; but first I wish the reader to

clearly understand the central principle, lying

between the two, of right or just payment.

When we ask a service of any man, he

may either give it us freely, or demand pay-

ment for it. Respecting free gift of service,

there is no question at present, that being a

matter of affection- not of traffic. But if he

demand payment for it, and we wish to treat

him with absolute equity, it is evident that

this equity can only consist in giving time

 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 83

for time, strength for strength, and skill for

skill. If a man works an hour for us, and

we only promise to work half an hour for

him in return, we obtain an unjust advan-

tage. If, on the contrary, we promise to

work an hour and a half for him in return,

he has an unjust advantage. The justice

consists in absolute exchange ; or, if there

be any respect to the stations of the parties, it

will not be in favour of the employer : there is

certainly no equitable reason in a man's being

poor, that if he give me a pound of bread

to-day, I should return him less than a pound

of bread to-morrow ; or any equitable reason

in a man's being uneducated, that if he uses

a certain quantity of skill and knowledge in

my service, I should use a less quantity of

skill and knowledge in his. Perhaps, ulti-

mately, it may appear desirable, or, to say

the least, gracious, that I should give in return

somewhat more than I received. But at pre-

sent, we are concerned on the law of justice

84 QUI JUDI TERR .
CATI AM
S

only, which is that of perfect and accurate

exchange ;-one circumstance only interfering

with the simplicity of this radical idea of just

payment that inasmuch as labour ( rightly

directed) is fruitful just as seed is , the fruit

(or "interest," as it is called) of the labour

first given, or " advanced," ought to be taken

into account, and balanced by an additional

quantity of labour in the subsequent repay-

ment. Supposing the repayment to take place

at the end of the year, or of any other given

time, this calculation could be approximately

made, but as money (that is to say, cash)

payment involves no reference to time (it being

optional with the person paid to spend what he

receives at once or after any number of years),
we can only assume, generally, that some

slight advantage must in equity be allowed to

the person who advances the labour, so that

the typical form of bargain will be : If you

give me an hour to-day, I will give you an

hour and five minutes on demand. If you
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 85

give me a pound of bread to-day, I will give

you seventeen ounces on demand, and so on.

All that is necessary for the reader to note

is, that the amount returned is at least in

equity not to be less than the amount given.

The abstract idea, then, of just or due wages,

as respects the labourer, is that they will con-

sist in a sum of money which will at any time

procure for him at least as much labour as

he has given, rather more than less . And

this equity or justice of payment is, observe,

wholly independent of any reference to the

number of men who are willing to do the

work. I want a horseshoe for my horse.

Twenty smiths, or twenty thousand smiths
may be ready to forge it ; their number does

not in one atom's weight affect the question

of the equitable payment of the one who does

forge it. It costs him a quarter of an hour

of his life, and so much skill and strength of

arm, to make that horseshoe for me. Then

at some future time I am bound in equity to

86 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.

give a quarter of an hour, and some minutes

more, of my life (or of some other person's

at my disposal) , and also as much strength

of arm and skill, and a little more, in making

or doing what the smith may have need of.

49. Such being the abstract theory of just remu-

nerative payment, its application is practically

modified by the fact that the order for labour,

given in payment, is general, while the labour

received is special. The current coin or docu-

ment is practically an order on the nation for

so much work of any kind ; and this universal

applicability to immediate need renders it so

much more valuable than special labour can be,

that an order for a less quantity of this general

toil will always be accepted as a just equivalent

for a greater quantity of special toil. Any

given craftsman will always be willing to give

an hour of his own work in order to receive

command over half an hour, or even much less,

of national work. This source of uncertainty,

together with the difficulty of determining the

 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 87

monetary value of skill, * render the ascertain-

ment (even approximate) of the proper wages

* Under the term " skill " I mean to include the

united force of experience, intellect, and passion, in
their operation on manual labour : and under the term
"passion," to include the entire range and agency of
the moral feelings ; from the simple patience and gentle-
ness of mind which will give continuity and fineness to
the touch, or enable one person to work without fatigue,
and with good effect, twice as long as another, up to the
qualities of character which render science possible-
(the retardation of science by envy is one of the most
tremendous losses in the economy of the present
century) and to the incommunicable emotion and
imagination which are the first and mightiest sources
of all value in art.
It is highly singular that political economists should
not yet have perceived, if not the moral, at least the
passionate element, to be an inextricable quantity in
every calculation. I cannot conceive, for instance, how
it was possible that Mr. Mill should have followed the
true clue so far as to write, -" No limit can be set
to the importance-even in a purely productive and
material point of view-of mere thought," without see-
ing that it was logically necessary to add also, " and
of mere feeling." And this the more, because in his
first definition of labour he includes in the idea of it
"all feelings of a disagreeable kind connected with
the employment of one's thoughts in a particular
88 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAṀ.

of any given labour in terms of a currency,

matter of considerable complexity . But they

do not affect the principle of exchange. The

worth of the work may not be easily known ;

but it has a worth, just as fixed and real as the

specific gravity of a substance, though such

specific gravity may not be easily ascertainable

when the substance is united with many others.

occupation." True ; but why not also, " feelings of an

agreeable kind"? It can hardly be supposed that the
feelings which retard labour are more essentially a part
of the labour than those which accelerate it. The
first are paid for as pain, the second as power. The
workman is merely indemnified for the first ; but the
second both produce a part of the exchangeable value of
the work, and materially increase its actual quantity.
99
"Fritz is with us. He is worth fifty thousand men.'
Truly, a large addition to the material force ;-con-
sisting, however, be it observed, not more in operations
carried on in Fritz's head, than in operations carried
on in his armies' heart. "No limit can be set to the
importance of mere thought." Perhaps not ! Nay,
suppose some day it should turn out that " mere 99
thought was in itself a recommendable object of
production, and that all Material production was only
a step towards this more precious Immaterial one ?
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 89

Nor is there so much difficulty or chance in

determining it, as in determining the ordinary

maxima and minima of vulgar political eco-

nomy. There are few bargains in which the

buyer can ascertain with anything like pre-

cision that the seller would have taken no

less ; or the seller acquire more than a com-

fortable faith that the purchaser would have

given no more . This impossibility of precise

knowledge prevents neither from striving to

attain the desired point of greatest vexation

and injury to the other, nor from accepting it

for a scientific principle that he is to buy for

the least and sell for the most possible, though

what the real least or most may be he cannot

tell. In like manner, a just person lays it

down for a scientific principle that he is to pay

a just price, and, without being able precisely

to ascertain the limits of such a price, will

nevertheless strive to attain the closest possible

approximation to them. A practically service-

able approximation he can obtain. It is easier

90 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

to determine scientifically what a man ought

to have for his work, than what his necessities

will compel him to take for it. His necessities

can only be ascertained by empirical, but his

due by analytical, investigation . In the one

case, you try your answer to the sum like a

puzzled schoolboy-till you find one that fits ;

in the other, you bring out your result within

certain limits, by process of calculation.

50. Supposing, then, the just wages of any

quantity of given labour to have been ascer-

tained, let us examine the first results of just

and unjust payment, when in favour of the

purchaser or employer : i.e., when two men

are ready to do the work, and only one wants

to have it done.

The unjust purchaser forces the two to bid

against each other till he has reduced their

demand to its lowest terms. Let us assume

that the lowest bidder offers to do the work

at half its just price.

The purchaser employs him, and does not

 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 91

employ the other. The first or apparent

result is, therefore, that one of the two men is

left out of employ, or to starvation , just as

definitely as by the just procedure of giving

fair price to the best workman . The various

writers who endeavoured to invalidate the

positions of my first paper never saw this,

and assumed that the unjust hirer employed

both. He employs both no more than the just

hirer. The only difference (in the outset) is

that the just man pays sufficiently, the unjust

man insufficiently, for the labour of the single

person employed.
I say, " in the outset " ; for this first or

apparent difference is not the actual difference.

By the unjust procedure, half the proper price

of the work is left in the hands of the

employer. This enables him to hire another

man at the same unjust rate, on some other

kind of work ; and the final result is that he

has two men working for him at half-price.

and two are out of employ.
92 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.

[Link] the just procedure, the whole price of

the first piece of work goes into the hands

of the man who does it. No surplus being

left in the employer's hands, he cannot hire

another man for another piece of labour. But

by precisely so much as his power is diminished,

the hired workman's power is increased : that

is to say, by the additional half of the price

he has received ; which additional half he has

the power of using to employ another man in

his service. I will suppose, for the moment,

the least favourable, though quite probable,

case--that, though justly treated himself, he

yet will act unjustly to his subordinate ;

and hire at half-price if he can. The final

result will then be, that one man works for

the employer, at just price ; one for the

workman, at half-price ; and two, as in the

first case, are still out of employ. These

two, as I said before, are out of employ

in both cases . The difference between the

just and unjust procedure does not lie in

 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM . 93

the number of men hired, but in the price

paid to them , and the persons by whom it

is paid. The essential difference, that which

I want the reader to see clearly, is, that in

the unjust case, two men work for one, the

first hirer. In the just case, one man works

for the first hirer, one for the person hired, and
so on, down or up through the various grades

of service ; the influence being carried forward

by justice, and arrested by injustice . The

universal and constant action of justice in this

matter is therefore to diminish the power of

wealth, in the hands of one individual, over

masses of men, and to distribute it through a

chain of men. The actual power exerted by

the wealth is the same in both cases ; but by

injustice it is put all into one man's hands,

so that he directs at once and with equal force

the labour of a circle of men about him ; by

the just procedure, he is permitted to touch the

nearest only, through whom, with diminished

force, modified by new minds, the energy of

94 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.

the wealth passes on to others, and so till it

exhausts itself.

52. The immediate operation of justice in this

respect is therefore to diminish the power of

wealth, first, in acquisition of luxury, and

secondly, in exercise of moral influence. The

employer cannot concentrate so multitudinous

labour on his own interests, nor can he subdue

so multitudinous mind to his own will. But

the secondary operation of justice is not less

important. The insufficient payment of the

group of men working for one, places each

under a maximum of difficulty in rising above

his position. The tendency of the system is

to check advancement. But the sufficient or

just payment, distributed through a descending

series of offices or grades of labour,* gives each

* I am sorry to lose time by answering, however

curtly, the equivocations of the writers who sought to
obscure the instances given of regulated labour in the
first of these papers, by confusing kinds, ranks, and
quantities of labour with its qualities. I never said
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 95

subordinated person fair and sufficient means

of rising in the social scale, if he chooses to

use them ; and thus not only diminishes the

that a colonel should have the same pay as a private,

nor a bishop the same pay as a curate. Neither did I
say that more work ought to be paid as less work (so
that the curate of a parish of two thousand souls should
have no more than the curate of a parish of five
hundred). But I said that, so far as you employ it at
all, bad work should be paid no less than good work ;
as a bad clergyman yet takes his tithes, a bad physician
takes his fee, and a bad lawyer his costs. And this, as
will be farther shown in the conclusion , I said, and say,
partly because the best work never was, nor ever will
be, done for money at all ; but chiefly because, the
moment people know they have to pay the bad and
good alike, they will try to discern the one from the
other, and not use the bad. A sagacious writer in the
Scotsman asks me if I should like any common scribbler
to be paid by Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. as their
good authors are. I should, ifthey employed him—but
would seriously recommend them, for the scribbler's
sake as well as their own, not to employ him. The
quantity of its money, which the country at present
invests in scribbling is not, in the outcome of it, eco-
nomically spent ; and even the highly ingenious person
to whom this question occurred , might perhaps have
been more beneficially employed than in printing it.
 S
96 QUI JUDICATI TERRAM .

immediate power of wealth, but removes the

worst disabilities of poverty.

53. It is on this vital problem that the entire

destiny of the labourer is ultimately dependent.

Many minor interests may sometimes appear

to interfere with it, but all branch from it. For

instance, considerable agitation is often caused

in the minds of the lower classes when they

discover the share which they nominally, and

to all appearance, actually, pay out of their

wages in taxation (I believe thirty-five or forty

per cent.). This sounds very grievous ; but in

reality the labourer does not pay it, but his

employer. If the workman had not to pay it,

his wages would be less by just that sum ;

competition would still reduce them to the
lowest rate at which life was possible .

Similarly the lower orders agitated for the

repeal of the corn laws, * thinking they would

* I have to acknowledge an interesting communica-

tion on the subject of free trade from Paisley (for a
short letter from " A Well-wisher " at -, my thanks
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 97

be better off if bread were cheaper ; never per-

ceiving that as soon as bread was permanently

are yet more due). But the Scottish writer will, I

fear, be disagreeably surprised to hear, that I am, and
always have been, an utterly fearless and unscrupulous
free-trader. Seven years ago, speaking of the various
signs of infancy in the European mind (' Stones of
Venice,' vol. iii., p . 168), I wrote : " The first principles
of commerce were acknowledged by the English parlia-
ment only a few months ago, in its free-trade measures,
and are still so little understood by the million, that no
nation dares to abolish its custom-houses."
It will be observed that I do not admit even the idea
of reciprocity. Let other nations, if they like, keep
their ports shut ; every wise nation will throw its
own open. It is not the opening them, but a sudden,
inconsiderate, and blunderingly experimental manner
of opening them, which does harm. If you have been
protecting a manufacture for a long series of years, you
must not take the protection off in a moment, so as to
throw every one of its operatives at once out of employ,
any more than you must take all its wrappings off a
feeble child at once in cold weather, though the cumber
of them may have been radically injuring its health.
Little by little, you must restore it to freedom and to
air.
Most people's minds are in curious confusion on the
subject of free-trade, because they suppose it to imply
enlarged competition. On the contrary, free-trade puts
7
 S
98 QUI JUDICATI TERRAM .

cheaper, wages would permanently fall in pre-

cisely that proportion . The corn laws were

rightly repealed ; not, however, because they

directly oppressed the poor, but because they

indirectly oppressed them in causing a large

quantity of their labour to be consumed un-

productively. So also unnecessary taxation

oppresses them, through destruction of capital ;

but the destiny of the poor depends primarily

always on this one question of dueness of

an end to all competition. "

" Protection (among
various other mischievous functions) endeavours to
enable one country to compete with another in the
production of an article at a disadvantage. When
trade is entirely free, no country can be competed with
in the articles for the production of which it is natu-
rally calculated ; nor can it compete with any other, in
the production of articles for which it is not naturally
calculated. Tuscany, for instance, cannot compete
with England in steel, nor England with Tuscany in
oil. They must , exchange their steel and oil . Which
exchange should be as frank and free as honesty and
the sea-winds can make it. Competition, indeed, arises
at first, and sharply, in order to prove which is strongest
in any given manufacture possible to both ; this point
once ascertained, competition is at an end.
‫וד‬
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM . 99

wages. Their distress (irrespectively of that

caused by sloth, minor error, or crime) arises

on the grand scale from the two reacting forces

of competition and oppression. There is not

yet, nor will yet for ages be, any real over-

population in the world ; but a local over-

population, or, more accurately, a degree of

population locally unmanageable under exist-

ing circumstances for want of forethought and

sufficient machinery, necessarily shows itself

by pressure of competition ; and the taking

advantage of this competition by the purchaser

to obtain their labour unjustly cheap, consum-
mates at once their suffering and his own ; for

in this (as I believe in every other kind of

slavery) the oppressor suffers at last more than

the oppressed, and those magnificent lines of

Pope, even in all their force, fall short of the
truth :--

"Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf,

Each does but HATE HIS NEIGHBOUR AS HIMSELF :
Damned to the mines, an equal fate betides
The slave that digs it, and the slave that hides."
100 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

54. The collateral and reversionary operations

of justice in this matter I shall examine here-

after (it being needful first to define the nature

of value) ; proceeding then to consider within

what practical terms a juster system may be

established ; and ultimately the vexed question

of the destinies of the unemployed workmen . *
Lest, however, the reader should be alarmed at

some of the issues to which our investigations

seem to be tending, as if in their bearing

against the power of wealth they had some-

thing in common with those of socialism, I

wish him to know, in accurate terms, one or

two of the main points which I have in view.

* I should be glad if the reader would first clear the

ground for himself so far as to determine whether the
difficulty lies in getting the work or getting the pay
for it. Does he consider occupation itself to be an
expensive luxury, difficult of attainment, of which too
little is to be found in the world ? or is it rather that,
while in the enjoyment even of the most athletic delight,
men must nevertheless be maintained, and this main-
tenance is not always forthcoming ? We must be clear
on this head before going farther, as most people are
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. ΙΟΙ

Whether socialism has made more progress

among the army and navy (where payment

is made on my principles), or among the

manufacturing operatives (who are paid on

my opponents' principles), I leave it to those
opponents to ascertain and declare . Whatever

loosely in the habit of talking of the difficulty of

"finding employment." Is it employment that we
want to find, or support during employment ? Is it
idleness we wish to put an end to, or hunger ? We
have to take up both questions in succession, only not
both at the same time. No doubt that work is a
luxury, and a very great one. It is, indeed, at once
a luxury and a necessity ; no man can retain either
health of mind or body without it. So profoundly do
I feel this, that, as will be seen in the sequel, one of the
principal objects I would recommend to benevolent
and practical persons, is to induce rich people to seek
for a larger quantity of this luxury than they at present
possess. Nevertheless, it appears by experience that
even this healthiest of pleasures may be indulged in to
excess, and that human beings are just as liable to
surfeit of labour as to surfeit of meat ; so that, as on
the one hand, it may be charitable to provide, for some
people, lighter dinner, and more work,-for others, it
may be equally expedient to provide lighter work, and
more dinner.
102 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.

their conclusion may be, I think it necessary

to answer for myself only this : that if there

be any one point insisted on throughout my

works more frequently than another, that one

point is the impossibility of Equality. My

continual aim has been to show the eternal

superiority of some men to others , sometimes

even of one man to all others ; and to show

also the advisability of appointing such persons

or person to guide, to lead, or on occasion

even to compel and subdue, their inferiors

according to their own better knowledge and

wiser will. My principles of Political Economy

were all involved in a single phrase spoken

three years ago at Manchester : " Soldiers of

the Ploughshare as well as Soldiers of the

Sword : " and they were all summed in a

single sentence in the last volume of ' Modern

Painters '-" Government and co-operation are

in all things the Laws of Life ; Anarchy and

competition the Laws of Death."
And with respect to the mode in which these
 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. 103

general principles affect the secure possession

of property, so far am I from invalidating such

security, that the whole gist of these papers

will be found ultimately to aim at an extension

in its range ; and whereas it has long been

known and declared that the poor have no

right to the property of the rich, I wish it also

to be known and declared that the rich have

no right to the property of the poor.

55. But that the working of the system which I

have undertaken to develope would in many

ways shorten the apparent and direct, though

not the unseen and collateral, power, both of

wealth, as the Lady of Pleasure, and of capital

as the Lord of Toil, I do not deny : on the

contrary, I affirm it in all joyfulness ; knowing

that the attraction of riches is already too

strong, as their authority is already too

weighty, for the reason of mankind. I said

in my last paper that nothing in history had

ever been so disgraceful to human intellect

as the acceptance among us of the common

 104 QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM .

doctrines of political economy as a science. I

have many grounds for saying this, but one

of the chief may be given in few words. I

know no previous instance in history of a

nation's establishing a systematic disobedience

to the first principles of its professed religion.

The writings which we (verbally) esteem as

divine, not only denounce the love of money

as the source of all evil, and as an idolatry

abhorred of the Deity, but declare mammon

service to be the accurate and irreconcileable

opposite of God's service : and, whenever they

speak of riches absolute, and poverty absolute,

declare woe to the rich, and blessing to the

poor. Whereupon we forthwith investigate a

science of becoming rich, as the shortest road

to national prosperity.

" Tai Cristian dannerà l'Etiòpe,

Quando si partiranno i due collegi,
L'UNO IN ETERNO RICCO, E L'ALTRO INÒPE."
 105

ESSAY IV.

AD VALOREM.

[Link] the last paper we saw that just payment

of labour consisted in a sum of money which

would approximately obtain equivalent labour

at a future time : we have now to examine the

means of obtaining such equivalence. Which

question involves the definition of Value,

Wealth, Price, and Produce.

None of these terms are yet defined so as

to be understood by the public. But the last,

Produce, which one might have thought the

clearest of all, is, in use, the most ambiguous ;

and the examination of the kind of ambiguity

attendant on its present employment will best

open the way to our work.
106 AD VALOREM.

In his chapter on Capital,* Mr. J. S. Mill

instances, as a capitalist, a hardware manufac-

turer, who, having intended to spend a certain

portion of the proceeds ofhis business in buying

plate and jewels, changes his mind, and " pays

it as wages to additional workpeople." The
effect is stated by Mr. Mill to be, that more

food is appropriated to the consumption of

productive labourers."

57. Now I do not ask, though, had I written

this paragraph, it would surely have been

asked of me, What is to become of the

silversmiths ? If they are truly unproductive

persons, we will acquiesce in their extinction.

And though in another part of the same pas-

sage, the hardware merchant is supposed also

to dispense with a number of servants, whose

""
"food is thus set free for productive purposes,'

* Book I. chap . iv. s. 1. To save space, my future

references to Mr. Mill's work will be by numerals only,
as in this instance, I. iv. I. Ed. in 2 vols. 8vo, Parker,
1848.
 AD VALOREM. 107

I do not inquire what will be the effect, painful

or otherwise, upon the servants, of this emanci-

pation of their food. But I very seriously

inquire why ironware is produce, and silver-

ware is not ? That the merchant consumes

the one, and sells the other, certainly does not

constitute the difference, unless it can be shown

(which, indeed, I perceive it to be becoming

daily more and more the aim of tradesmen to

show) that commodities are made to be sold,

and not to be consumed. The merchant is an

agent of conveyance to the consumer in one

case, and is himself the consumer in the other : *

* If Mr. Mill had wished to show the difference in

result between consumption and sale, he should have
represented the hardware merchant as consuming his
own goods instead of selling them ; similarly, the silver
merchant as consuming his own goods instead of sell-
ing them. Had he done this, he would have made his
position clearer, though less tenable ; and perhaps
this was the position he really intended to take, tacitly
involving his theory, elsewhere stated, and shown in the
sequel of this paper to be false, that demand for com-
modities is not demand for labour. But by the most
108 AD VALOREM.

but the labourers are in either case equally

productive, since they have produced goods to

the same value, if the hardware and the plate

are both goods.

And what distinction separates them ? It is

indeed possible that in the " comparative esti-

mate of the moralist," with which Mr. Mill

says political economy has nothing to do ( III .

i. 2), a steel fork might appear a more sub-

stantial production than a silver one : we may

grant also that knives, no less than forks , are

good produce ; and scythes and ploughshares

serviceable articles. But, how of bayonets ?

Supposing the hardware merchant to effect

large sales of these, by help of the " setting

free " of the food of his servants and his

silversmith, is he still employing productive

diligent scrutiny of the paragraph now under examina-

tion, I cannot determine whether it is a fallacy pure
and simple, or the half of one fallacy supported by the
whole of a greater one ; so that I treat it here on the
kinder assumption that it is one fallacy only.
 AD VALOREM. 109

labourers, or, in Mr. Mill's words, labourers

who increase " the stock of permanent means

of enjoyment " ( I. iii. 4) ? Or if, instead of

bayonets, he supply bombs, will not the abso-

lute and final " enjoyment " of even these

energetically productive articles (each of which

costs ten pounds *) be dependent on a proper

choice of time and place for their enfante-

ment ; choice, that is to say, depending on

those philosophical considerations with which

political economy has nothing to do ? †

58. I should have regretted the need of pointing

out inconsistency in any portion of Mr. Mill's

work, had not the value of his work proceeded

* I take Mr. Helps' estimate in his essay on War.

† Also, when the wrought silver vases of Spain were
dashed to fragments by our custom-house officers
because bullion might be imported free of duty, but
not brains, was the axe that broke them productive ?—
the artist who wrought them unproductive ? Or again.
If the woodman's axe is productive, is the execu-
tioner's ? as also, if the hemp of a cable be productive,
does not the productiveness of hemp in a halter depend
on its moral more than on its material application ?
ΙΙΟ AD VALOREM.

from its inconsistencies. He deserves honour

among economists by inadvertently disclaiming

the principles which he states, and tacitly in-

troducing the moral considerations with which

he declares his science has no connection.

Many of his chapters are, therefore, true and

valuable ; and the only conclusions of his

which I have to dispute are those which

follow from his premises.

Thus, the idea which lies at the root of the

passage we have just been examining, namely,

that labour applied to produce luxuries will

not support so many persons as labour applied

to produce useful articles, is entirely true ; but

the instance given fails-and in four directions

of failure at once- because Mr. Mill has not

defined the real meaning of usefulness. The

definition which he has given- " capacity to

satisfy a desire, or serve a purpose " (III. i. 2)

-applies equally to the iron and silver ; while

the true definition- which he has not given, but
which nevertheless underlies the false verbal
 AD VALOREM. III.

definition in his mind, and comes out once or

twice by accident (as in the words " any sup-

port to life or strength " in I. i. 5 ) —applies

to some articles of iron, but not to others,

and to some articles of silver, but not to

others. It applies to ploughs, but not to

bayonets ; and to forks, but not to filigree. *

59.. The eliciting of the true definitions will give

us the reply to our first question, "What is

value ?" respecting which, however, we must

first hear the popular statements .

"The word ' value,' when used without

adjunct, always means, in political economy,

value in exchange " (Mill, III . i. 3) . So that,

if two ships cannot exchange their rudders,

their rudders are, in politico - economic lan-

guage, of no value to either.

But the subject of political economy is

wealth." (Preliminary remarks, page 1.)

* Filigree ; that is to say, generally, ornament de-

pendent on complexity, not on art.
 II2 AD VALOREM.

And wealth " consists of all useful and

agreeable objects which possess exchangeable

value.” —(Preliminary remarks, page 10.)

It appears, then, according to Mr. Mill,

that usefulness and agreeableness underlie the

exchange value, and must be ascertained to

exist in the thing, before we can esteem it

an object of wealth .

Now, the economical usefulness of a thing

depends not merely on its own nature, but

on the number of people who can and will

use it. A horse is useless, and therefore un-

saleable, if no one can ride, —a sword, if no

one can strike, and meat, if no one can eat.

Thus every material utility depends on its

relative human capacity .

Similarly : The agreeableness of a thing

depends not merely on its own likeableness,

but on the number of people who can be
got to like it. The relative agreeableness ,

and therefore saleableness, of " a pot of the

smallest ale," and of " Adonis painted by
 AD VALOREM. 113

a running brook," depends virtually on

the opinion of Demos, in the shape of

Christopher Sly. That is to say, the

agreeableness of a thing depends on its

relatively human disposition . * Therefore,

* These statements sound crude in their brevity ; but

will be found of the utmost importance when they are
developed. Thus, in the above instance, economists
have never perceived that disposition to buy is a wholly
moral element in demand : that is to say, when you
give a man half a crown, it depends on his disposition
whether he is rich or poor with it- whether he will buy
disease, ruin, and hatred, or buy health, advancement,
and domestic love. And thus the agreeableness or
exchange value of every offered commodity depends on
production, not merely of the commodity, but of buyers
of it ; therefore on the education of buyers, and on all
the moral elements by which their disposition to buy
this, or that, is formed. I will illustrate and expand
into final consequences every one of these definitions
in its place : at present they can only be given with ex-
tremest brevity ; for in order to put the subject at once
in a connected form before the reader, I have thrown
into one, the opening definitions of four chapters :
namely, of that on Value (" Ad Valorem " ; on Price
(" Thirty Pieces ") ; on Production ( " Demeter ") ; and
on Economy (" The Law of the House ").
8
 114 AD VALOREM .

political economy, being a science of wealth,

must be a science respecting human capa-

cities and dispositions. But moral consider-

ations have nothing to do with political
economy (III. i. 2) . Therefore, moral con-

siderations have nothing to do with human

capacities and dispositions.

60.I do not wholly like the look of this con-

clusion from Mr. Mill's statements :-let us try
Mr. Ricardo's.

"Utility is not the measure of exchange-

able value, though it is absolutely essential

to it." (Chap. I. sect. i . ) Essential in what

degree, Mr. Ricardo ? There may be greater

and less degrees of utility. Meat, for instance,
may be so good as to be fit for any one to
eat, or so bad as to be fit for no one to eat.

What is the exact degree of goodness which

is " essential " to its exchangeable value, but
not " the measure " of it ? How good must

the meat be, in order to possess any exchange-

able value ? and how bad must it be-(I wish

 AD VALOREM. 115

this were a settled question in London mar-

kets)-in order to possess none ?

There appears to be some hitch, I think,

in the working even of Mr. Ricardo's prin-

ciples ; but let him take his own example.

" Suppose that in the early stages of society

the bows and arrows of the hunter were of

equal value with the implements of the fisher-

man. Under such circumstances the value of

the deer, the produce of the hunter's day's

labour, would be exactly " (italics mine) " equal

to the value of the fish, the product of the

fisherman's day's labour. The comparative

value of the fish and game would be entirely

regulated by the quantity of labour realized in

each." (Ricardo, chap. iii . On Value. )

Indeed ! Therefore, if the fisherman catches

one sprat, and the huntsman one deer, one

sprat will be equal in value to one deer ; but

if the fisherman catches no sprat and the

huntsman two deer, no sprat will be equal in

value to two deer ?
116 AD VALOREM .

Nay ; but Mr. Ricardo's supporters may say

-he means, on an average ; -if the average

product of a day's work of fisher and hunter

be one fish and one deer, the one fish will

always be equal in value to the one deer.

Might I inquire the species of fish. Whale ?

or whitebait ? *
**
Perhaps it may be said, in farther support of
Mr. Ricardo, that he meant, " when the utility is con-
stant or given, the price varies as the quantity of
labour." If he meant this, he should have said it ; but,
had he meant it, he could have hardly missed the neces-
sary result, that utility would be one measure of price
(which he expressly denies it to be) ; and that, to prove
saleableness, he had to prove a given quantity of utility,
as well as a given quantity of labour ; to wit, in his own
instance, that the deer and fish would each feed the
same number of men, for the same number of days, with
equal pleasure to their palates . The fact is, he did not
know what he meant himself. The general idea which
he had derived from commercial experience, without
being able to analyze it, was that when the demand
is constant, the price varies as the quantity of labour
required for production ; or, using the formula I gave in
last paper --when v is constant, x y varies as x. But
demand never is nor can be ultimately constant, if x
varies distinctly ; for, as price rises, consumers fall
away ; and as soon as there is a monopoly (and all
 AD VALOREM . 117

It would be waste of time to pursue these fal-

lacies farther ; we will seek for a true definition.

scarcity is a form of monopoly, so that every commodity

is affected occasionally by some colour of monopoly),
y becomes the most influential condition of the price.
Thus the price of a painting depends less on its merit
than on the interest taken in it by the public ; the price
of singing less on the labour of the singer than the
number of persons who desire to hear him ; and the
price of gold less on the scarcity which affects it in
common with cerium or iridium, than on the sunlight
colour and unalterable purity by which it attracts the
admiration and answers the trust of mankind.
It must be kept in mind, however, that I use the
word " demand " in a somewhat different sense from
economists usually. They mean by it " the quantity of
a thing sold." I mean by it " the force of the buyer's
capable intention to buy." In good English, a person's
"demand" signifies, not what he gets, but what he asks
for.
Economists also do not notice that objects are not
valued by absolute bulk or weight, but by such bulk
and weight as is necessary to bring them into use.
They say, for instance, that water bears no price in the
market. It is true that a cupful does not, but a lake
does ; just as a handful of dust does not, but an acre
does. And were it possible to make even the possession
of a cupful or handful permanent (¿.e. , to find a place
for them), the earth and sea would be brought up by
handfuls and cupfuls.
 118 AD VALOREM .

61. Much store has been set for centuries upon

the use of our English classical education.

It were to be wished that our well-educated

merchants recalled to mind always this much

of their Latin schooling, -that the nominative

of valorem (a word already sufficiently familiar

to them) is valor ; a word which, therefore,

ought to be familiar to them. Valor, from

valere, to be well or strong (ipalvw) ; —

strong, in life (if a man) , or valiant ; strong,
for life (if a thing) , or valuable. To be " valu-
able," therefore, is to " avail towards life." A
truly valuable or availing thing is that which
leads to life with its whole strength. In pro-

portion as it does not lead to life, or as its

strength is broken, it is less valuable ; in
proportion as it leads away from life, it is
unvaluable or malignant.

The value of a thing, therefore, is inde-

pendent of opinion, and of quantity. Think

what you will of it, gain how much you

may of it, the value of the thing itself is
 AD VALOREM . 119

neither greater nor less. For ever it avails, or

avails not ; no estimate can raise , no disdain

repress, the power which it holds from the

Maker of things and of men.

The real science of political economy, which

has yet to be distinguished from the bastard

science, as medicine from witchcraft, and astro-

nomy from astrology, is that which teaches

nations to desire and labour for the things

that lead to life and which teaches them to

scorn and destroy the things that lead to

destruction . And if, in a state of infancy,

they supposed indifferent things, such as ex-

crescences of shell-fish, and pieces of blue

and red stone, to be valuable, and spent

large measures of the labour which ought to

be employed for the extension and ennobling

of life, in diving or digging for them, and

cutting them into various shapes, —or if, in

the same state of infancy, they imagine pre-

cious and beneficent things, such as air, light,

and cleanliness, to be valueless, or if, finally,

I 20 AD VALOREM.

they imagine the conditions of their own exist-

ence, by which alone they can truly possess

or use anything, such, for instance, as peace,

trust, and love, to be prudently exchangeable,

when the markets offer, for gold, iron, or
-
excrescences of shells the great and only
science of Political Economy teaches them, in

all these cases, what is vanity, and what sub-

stance ; and how the service of Death, the

Lord of Waste, and of eternal emptiness,

differs from the service of Wisdom, the Lady

of Saving, and of eternal fulness ; she who has

said, "I will cause those that love me to inherit

SUBSTANCE ; and I will FILL their treasures."

The " Lady of Saving," in a profounder

sense than that of the savings bank, though

that is a good one : Madonna della Salute, —

Lady of Health, which, though commonly

spoken of as if separate from wealth, is in-

deed a part of wealth. This word, " wealth,"

it will be remembered, is the next we have to

define.
 AD VALOREM. I2 I

62." To be wealthy," says Mr. Mill, " is to have

a large stock of useful articles."

I accept this definition . Only let us per-

fectly understand it. My opponents often

lament my not giving them enough logic : I

fear I must at present use a little more than

they will like ; but this business of Political

Economy is no light one, and we must allow

no loose terms in it.

We have, therefore, to ascertain in the

above definition, first, what is the meaning of

"having," or the nature of Possession. Then

what is the meaning of " useful," or the nature

of Utility.

And first of possession. At the crossing

of the transepts of Milan Cathedral has lain,

for three hundred years, the embalmed body of

St. Carlo Borromeo. It holds a golden crosier,
and has a cross of emeralds on its breast.

Admitting the crosier and emeralds to be

useful articles, is the body to be considered

as " having " them ? Do they, in the politico-
I22 AD VALOREM

economical sense of property, belong to it ? If

not, and if we may, therefore, conclude gene-

rally that a dead body cannot possess property,

what degree and period of animation in the

body will render possession possible ?

As thus lately in a wreck of a Californian

ship, one of the passengers fastened a belt

about him with two hundred pounds of gold

in it, with which he was found afterwards at

the bottom. Now, as he was sinking- had

he the gold ? or had the gold him ? *

And if, instead of sinking him in the sea

by its weight, the gold had struck him on

the forehead, and thereby caused incurable

disease suppose palsy or insanity, —would

the gold in that case have been more a

"possession " than in the first ? Without

pressing the inquiry up through instances of

gradually increasing vital power over the

over

* Compare GEORGE HERBERT, ' The Church Porch,'

Stanza 28.
 AD VALOREM. 123

gold (which I will, however, give, if they

are asked for), I presume the reader will see

that possession, or "having," is not an abso-

lute, but a gradated, power ; and consists not

only in the quantity or nature of the thing

possessed, but also (and in a greater degree)

in its suitableness to the person possessing it
and in his vital power to use it.

And our definition of Wealth, expanded,

becomes : " The possession of useful articles,

which we can use." This is a very serious

change. For wealth, instead of depending

merely on a " have," is thus seen to depend

on a "
" can."
can." Gladiator's death, on a " habet ";

but soldier's victory, and State's salvation , on

a " quo plurimum posset." (Liv. VII. 6. ) And

what we reasoned of only as accumulation of
material, is seen to demand also accumulation

of capacity.
63. So much for our verb. Next for our

adjective. What is the meaning of " useful " ?

The inquiry is closely connected with the last.
124 AD VALOREM .

For what is capable of use in the hands of

some persons, is capable, in the hands of others,

of the opposite of use, called commonly " from-

use," or " ab-use." And it depends on the

person, much more than on the article, whether

its usefulness or ab-usefulness will be the

quality developed in it. Thus, wine, which

the Greeks, in their Bacchus, made rightly

the type of all passion, and which, when used,

"cheereth god and man " (that is to say,

strengthens both the divine life , or reasoning

power, and the earthy, or carnal power, of

man) ; yet, when abused, becomes " Dionusos,"

hurtful especially to the divine part of man,

or reason. And again, the body itself, being

equally liable to use and to abuse, and, when

rightly disciplined, serviceable to the State,

both for war and labour ;-but when not dis-

ciplined, or abused , valueless to the State, and

capable only of continuing the private or single

existence of the individual (and that but feebly)

-the Greeks called such a body an " idiotic "

 AD VALOREM. 125

or " private " body, from their word signifying

a person employed in no way directly useful

to the State ; whence finally, our " idiot,"

meaning a person entirely occupied with his

own concerns.

Hence, it follows that if a thing is to be

useful, it must be not only of an availing

nature, but in availing hands. Or, in accurate

terms, usefulness is value in the hands of

the valiant ; so that this science of wealth

being, as we have just seen, when regarded

as the science of Accumulation, accumulative

of capacity as well as of material,-when

regarded as the Science of Distribution , is

distribution not absolute, but discriminate ;

not of every thing to every man, but of the

right thing to the right man. A difficult

science, dependent on more than arithmetic.

[Link], therefore, is " THE POSSESSION OF

THE VALUABLE BY THE VALIANT " ; and in

considering it as a power existing in a nation,

the two elements, the value of the thing, and
126 AD VALOREM .

the valour of its possessor, must be estimated

together. Whence it appears that many of

the persons commonly considered wealthy,

are in reality no more wealthy than the locks

of their own strong boxes are, they being

inherently and eternally incapable of wealth ;

and operating for the nation , in an economical

point of view, either as pools of dead water,

and eddies in a stream (which, so long as the

stream flows, are useless , or serve only to

drown people, but may become of importance

in a state of stagnation should the stream
dry) ; or else, as dams in a river, of which

the ultimate service depends not on the dam,

but the miller ; or else, as mere accidental

stays and impediments, acting not as wealth,

but (for we ought to have a correspondent

term ) as " illth," causing various devastation
and trouble around them in all directions ; or

lastly, act not at all, but are merely animated

conditions of delay, (no use being possible

of anything they have until they are dead, ) in

 AD VALOREM. 127

which last condition they are nevertheless

often useful as delays, and " impedimenta,"

if a nation is apt to move too fast.

[Link] being so, the difficulty of the true

science of Political Economy lies not merely

in the need of developing manly character to

deal with material value , but in the fact, that

while the manly character and material value

only form wealth by their conjunction, they

have nevertheless a mutually destructive

operation on each other. For the manly

character is apt to ignore, or even cast away,

the material value -whence that of Pope :-

" Sure, of qualities demanding praise

More go to ruin fortunes, than to raise.”

And on the other hand, the material value is

apt to undermine the manly character ; so that

it must be our work, in the issue, to examine

what evidence there is of the effect of wealth

on the minds of its possessors ; also, what kind

of person it is who usually sets himself to
128 AD VALOREM.

obtain wealth, and succeeds in doing so ; and

whether the world owes more gratitude to

rich or to poor men, either for their moral

influence upon it, or for chief goods, dis-

coveries, and practical advancements. I may,

however, anticipate future conclusions, so far as

to state that in a community regulated only by

laws of demand and supply, but protected from

open violence, the persons who become rich

are, generally speaking, industrious, resolute,

proud, covetous, prompt, methodical, sensible,

unimaginative, insensitive, and ignorant. The

persons who remain poor are the entirely

foolish, the entirely wise,* the idle, the reck-

less, the humble, the thoughtful , the dull, the

imaginative, the sensitive, the well- informed ,

the improvident, the irregularly and impul-

sively wicked, the clumsy knave, the open

* "8
“ ¿ Zeús dýtov πÉveτaι .” —' Arist. Plut.' 582. It would
but weaken the grand words to lean on the preceding
ones :—“ ὅτι τοῦ Πλούτου παρέχω βελτίονας ἄνδρας, καὶ
""
τήν γνώμην, καὶ τήν ἰδέαν.
 AD VALOREM. 129

thief, and the entirely merciful, just, and

godly person.

66. Thus far, then, of wealth . Next, we have

to ascertain the nature of PRICE ; that is to

say, of exchange value, and its expression by

currencies.

Note first, of exchange, there can be no

profit in it. It is only in labour there can be

profit that is to say, a " making in advance,"

or " making in favour of " (from proficio) . In

exchange, there is only advantage, i.e., a bring-

ing of vantage or power to the exchanging

persons. Thus, one man, by sowing and reap-

ing, turns one measure of corn into two mea-

sures. That is Profit. Another, by digging and

forging, turns one spade into two spades. That

is Profit. But the man who has two measures

of corn wants sometimes to dig ; and the man

who has two spades wants sometimes to eat :-

They exchange the gained grain for the gained

tool ; and both are the better for the exchange ;

but though there is much advantage in the

9
130 AD VALOREM .

transaction, there is no profit. Nothing is con-

structed or produced . Only that which had
been before constructed is given to the person

by whom it can be used . If labour is neces-

sary to effect the exchange, that labour is in

reality involved in the production, and, like all

other labour, bears profit. Whatever number

of men are concerned in the manufacture, or in

the conveyance, have share in the profit ; but

neither the manufacture nor the conveyance

are the exchange, and in the exchange itself

there is no profit.

There may, however, be acquisition , which

is a very different thing. If, in the exchange,

one man is able to give what cost him little

labour for what has cost the other much, he

"acquires " a certain quantity of the produce

of the other's labour. And precisely what

he acquires, the other loses. In mercantile

language, the person who thus acquires is

commonly said to have " made a profit " ; and

I believe that many of our merchants are

 AD VALOREM. 131

seriously under the impression that it is pos-

sible for everybody, somehow, to make a profit

in this manner. Whereas, by the unfortunate

constitution of the world we live in, the laws

both of matter and motion have quite rigor-

ously forbidden universal acquisition of this

kind. Profit, or material gain, is attainable

only by construction or by discovery ; not

by exchange. Whenever material gain follows

exchange, for every plus there is a precisely

equal minus.

Unhappily for the progress of the science of

Political Economy, the plus quantities, or—if I

may be allowed to coin an awkward plural--

the pluses, make a very positive and venerable

appearance in the world, so that every one

is eager to learn the science which produces

results so magnificent ; whereas the minuses

have, on the other hand, a tendency to retire

into back streets, and other places of shade, --

or even to get themselves wholly and finally

put out of sight in graves : which renders the
132 AD VALOREM.

algebra of this science peculiar, and difficultly

legible ; a large number of its negative signs

being written by the account-keeper in a kind

of red ink, which starvation thins, and makes
strangely pale, or even quite invisible ink, for

the present.

[Link] Science of Exchange, or, as I hear it

has been proposed to call it, of " Catallactics ,”

considered as one of gain, is, therefore, simply

nugatory ; but considered as one of acquisition,

it is a very curious science, differing in its data

and basis from every other science known.

Thus :-If I can exchange a needle with a

savage for a diamond, my power of doing so

depends either on the savage's ignorance of

social arrangements in Europe, or on his want

of power to take advantage of them, by selling

the diamond to any one else for more needles .

If, farther, I make the bargain as completely

advantageous to myself as possible, by giving

to the savage a needle with no eye in it

(reaching, thus a sufficiently satisfactory type

 AD VALOREM . 133

of the perfect operation of catallactic science),

the advantage to me in the entire transaction

depends wholly upon the ignorance, powerless-

ness, or heedlessness of the person dealt with.

Do away with these, and catallactic advantage

becomes impossible. So far, therefore, as the

science of exchange relates to the advantage

of one of the exchanging persons only, it is

founded on the ignorance or incapacity of the

opposite person. Where these vanish, it also

vanishes. It is therefore a science founded on

nescience, and an art founded on artlessness.

But all other sciences and arts, except this,

have for their object the doing away with

their opposite nescience and artlessness. This

science, alone of sciences, must, by all available

means, promulgate and prolong its opposite

nescience ; otherwise the science itself is impos-
sible. It is, therefore, peculiarly and alone the

science of darkness ; probably a bastard science

-not by any means a divina scientia, but one

begotten of another father, that father who,
134 AD VALOREM.

advising his children to turn stones into bread,

is himself employed in turning bread into

stones, and who, if you ask a fish of him

(fish not being producible on his estate), can

but give you a serpent.

[Link] general law, then, respecting just or

economical exchange, is simply this :-There

must be advantage on both sides (or if only

advantage on one, at least no disadvantage

on the other) to the persons exchanging ; and

just payment for his time, intelligence, and

labour, to any intermediate person effecting

the transaction (commonly called a merchant) ;

and whatever advantage there is on either

side, and whatever pay is given to the inter-

mediate person, should be thoroughly known

to all concerned. All attempt at concealment

implies some practice of the opposite, or un-

divine science, founded on nescience. Whence
another saying of the Jew merchant's- " As

a nail between the stone joints, so doth sin

stick fast between buying and selling." Which

 AD VALOREM. 135

peculiar riveting of stone and timber, in men's

dealings with each other, is again set forth in

the house which was to be destroyed-timber

and stones together-when Zechariah's roll

(more probably " curved sword ") flew over it :

"the curse that goeth forth over all the earth

upon every one that stealeth and holdeth him-

self guiltless," instantly followed by the vision

of the Great Measure ;-the 'measure " of the

injustice of them in all the earth " αὕτη ἡ ἀδικία

αὐτῶν ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ), with the weight of lead

for its lid, and the woman, the spirit of wicked-
ness, within it ; that is to say, Wickedness

hidden by dulness, and formalized, outwardly,

into ponderously established cruelty. " It shall

be set upon its own base in the land of Babel.""'*

69.I have hitherto carefully restricted myself, in

speaking of exchange, to the use of the term

" advantage " ; but that term includes two

ideas : the advantage, namely, of getting what

* Zech. v. 11. See note on the passage, at p. 148 .

136 AD VALOREM.

we need, and that of getting what we wish for.

Three-fourths of the demands existing in the

world are romantic ; founded on visions , ideal-

isms, hopes, and affections ; and the regulation

of the purse is, in its essence, regulation of the

imagination and the heart. Hence, the right

discussion of the nature of price is a very high

metaphysical and psychical problem ; some-

times to be solved only in a passionate manner,

as by David in his counting the price of the

water of the well by the gate of Bethlehem ;

but its first conditions are the following :-The

price of anything is the quantity of labour

given by the person desiring it, in order to

obtain possession of it. This price depends on

four variable quantities. A. The quantity of

wish the purchaser has for the thing ; opposed

to a, the quantity of wish the seller has to keep

it. B. The quantity of labour the purchaser

can afford, to obtain the thing ; opposed to B,

the quantity of labour the seller can afford, to

keep it. These quantities are operative only in

 AD VALOREM. 137

excess : i.e., the quantity of wish (A) means

the quantity of wish for this thing, above wish

for other things ; and the quantity of work (B)

means the quantity which can be spared to

get this thing from the quantity needed to

get other things.

Phenomena of price, therefore, are intensely

complex, curious, and interesting- too com-

plex, however, to be examined yet ; every one

of them, when traced far enough, showing itself

at last as a part of the bargain of the Poor of

the Flock (or " flock of slaughter "), " If ye

think good, give ME my price, and if not,

forbear "-Zech. xi. 12 ; but as the price of
everything is to be calculated finally in

labour, it is necessary to define the nature

of that standard .

70. Labour is the contest of the life of man with

an opposite ; the term "life " including his

intellect, soul, and physical power, contending

with question, difficulty, trial, or material force.

Labour is of a higher or lower order, as it

138 AD VALOREM.

includes more or fewer of the elements of life :

and labour of good quality, in any kind, in-

cludes always as much intellect and feeling

as will fully and harmoniously regulate the

physical force.

In speaking of the value and price of labour,

it is necessary always to understand labour of a

given rank and quality, as we should speak of

gold or silver of a given standard. Bad ( that

is , heartless, inexperienced , or senseless) labour

cannot be valued ; it is like gold of uncertain

alloy, or flawed iron. *

* Labour which is entirely good of its kind, that is to

say, effective, or efficient, the Greeks called " weighable,”
or åέios, translated usually " worthy," and because thus
substantial and true, they called its price run, the
"honourable estimate " of it (honorarium) : this word
being founded on their conception of true labour as a
divine thing, to be honoured with the kind of honour
given to the gods ; whereas the price of false labour, or
of that which led away from life, was to be, not honour,
but vengeance ; for which they reserved another word,
attributing the exaction of such price to a peculiar
goddess, called Tisiphone, the " requiter (or quittance-
 AD VALOREM. 139

The quality and kind of labour being given,

its value, like that of all other valuable things,

is invariable. But the quantity of it which

must be given for other things is variable : and

in estimating this variation, the price of other

things must always be counted by the quantity

of labour ; not the price of labour by the quan-

tity of other things .

[Link], if we want to plant an apple sapling in

rocky ground, it may take two hours' work ; in

soft ground, perhaps only half an hour. Grant

the soil equally good for the tree in each case.

Then the value of the sapling planted by two

hours' work is nowise greater than that of the

sapling planted in half an hour. One will bear

no more fruit than the other. Also, one half-

hour of work is as valuable as another half-

hour ; nevertheless, the one sapling has cost

taker) of death " ; a person versed in the highest

branches of arithmetic, and punctual in her habits ;
with whom accounts current have been opened also
in modern days.
140 AD VALOREM .

four such pieces of work, the other only one.

Now, the proper statement of this fact is, not

that the labour on the hard ground is cheaper

than on the soft ; but that the tree is dearer.

The exchange value may, or may not, after-

wards depend on this fact. If other people

have plenty of soft ground to plant in, they will
take no cognizance of our two hours' labour in

the price they will offer for the plant on the

rock. And if, through want of sufficient

botanical science, we have planted an upas-

tree instead of an apple, the exchange value

will be a negative quantity ; still less propor-

tionate to the labour expended.

What is commonly called cheapness of

labour, signifies, therefore, in reality, that

many obstacles have to be overcome by it ;

so that much labour is required to produce a

small result. But this should never be spoken

of as cheapness of labour, but as dearness of

the object wrought for. It would be just as

rational to say that walking was cheap, because

 AD VALORÉM. 141

we had ten miles to walk home to our dinner,

as that labour was cheap, because we had to

work ten hours to earn it.

72. The last word which we have to define is

" Production ."

I have hitherto spoken of all labour as profit-

able ; because it is impossible to consider under

one head the quality or value of labour, and

its aim . But labour of the best quality may be

various in aim. It may be either constructive

(" gathering," from con and struo), as agricul-

ture ; nugatory, as jewel-cutting ; or destruc-

tive (" scattering," from de and struo) , as

war. It is not, however, always easy to prove
*
labour, apparently nugatory, to be actually so ;

* The most accurately nugatory labour is, perhaps,

that of which not enough is given to answer a purpose
effectually, and which, therefore, has all to be done over
again. Also, labour which fails of effect through non-
co-operation. The curé of a little village near Bellin-
zona, to whom I had expressed wonder that the pea-
sants allowed the Ticino to flood their fields, told me that
they would not join to build an effectual embankment
142 AD VALOREM.

generally, the formula holds good : " he that

gathereth not, scattereth " ; thus, the jeweller's

art is probably very harmful in its ministering

to a clumsy and inelegant pride. So that,

finally, I believe nearly all labour may be

shortly divided into positive and negative
labour positive, that which produces life ;

negative, that which produces death ; the most

directly negative labour being murder, and the

most directly positive, the bearing and rearing

of children : so that in the precise degree in

which murder is hateful, on the negative side

of idleness, in that exact degree child-rearing

is admirable, on the positive side of idleness.

For which reason, and because of the honour

that there is in rearing* children, while the

high up the valley, because everybody said "that would

help his neighbours as much as himself." So every
proprietor built a bit of low embankment about his
own field ; and the Ticino, as soon as it had a mind,
swept away and swallowed all up together.
*
Observe, I say, "rearing," not " begetting." The
praise is in the seventh season not in σwopyrós, nor in
 AD VALOREM. 143

wife is said to be as the vine (for cheering) , the

children are as the olive branch, for praise : nor

for praise only, but for peace (because large

families can only be reared in times of peace) :

though since, in their spreading and voyaging

in various directions, they distribute strength,

they are, to the home strength, as arrows in

the hand of the giant- striking here and there

far away .

Labour being thus various in its result, the

prosperity of any nation is in exact proportion

to the quantity of labour which it spends in

obtaining and employing means of life . Ob-

serve, -I say, obtaining and employing ; that

is to say, not merely wisely producing, but

φυταλία, but in οπώρα. It is strange that men always

praise enthusiastically any person who, by a moment-
ary exertion, saves a life ; but praise very hesitatingly
a person who, by exertion and self-denial prolonged
through years, creates one. We give the crown " ob
civem servatum "; why not "ob civem natum " ?
Born, I mean, to the full, in soul as well as body.
England has oak enough, I think, for both chaplets.
144 AD VALOREM.

wisely distributing and consuming. Econo-

mists usually speak as if there were no good

in consumption absolute.* So far from this
being so, consumption absolute is the end,

crown, and perfection of production ; and wise

consumption is a far more difficult art than

wise production. Twenty people can gain

money for one who can use it ; and the vital

question, for individual and for nation, is,

never " how much do they make ? " but " to

what purpose do they spend ?

[Link] reader may, perhaps, have been sur-

prised at the slight reference I have hitherto

made to " capital," and its functions. It is

here the place to define them.

Capital signifies " head, or source, or root

material " it is material by which some deri-

vative or secondary good is produced. It is

only capital proper (caput vivum, not caput

* When Mr. Mill speaks of productive consumption,

he only means consumption which results in increase of
capital or material wealth. See I iii . 4, and I. iii. 5.
 AD VALOREM. 145

mortuum) when it is thus producing something

different from itself. It is a root, which does

not enter into vital function till it produces

something else than a root : namely, fruit.

That fruit will in time again produce roots ;

and so all living capital issues in reproduction

of capital ; but capital which produces nothing

but capital is only root producing root ; bulb

issuing in bulb, never in tulip ; seed issuing in

seed, never in bread. The Political Economy

of Europe has hitherto devoted itself wholly to

the multiplication, or (less even) the aggrega-

tion, of bulbs. It never saw, nor conceived,

such a thing as a tulip. Nay, boiled bulbs they

might have been- glass bulbs- Prince Rupert's

drops, consummated in powder (well, if it were

glass- powder and not gunpowder), for any end

or meaning the economists had in defining the

laws of aggregation. We will try and get a

clearer notion of them.

The best and simplest general type of capi-

tal is a well-made ploughshare . Now, if that

10
 146 AD VALOREM .

ploughshare did nothing but beget other

ploughshares, in a polypous manner, -how-

ever the great cluster of polypous plough

might glitter in the sun, it would have lost its

function of capital. It becomes true capital

only by another kind of splendour , --when it

is seen " splendescere sulco, " to grow bright

in the furrow ; rather with diminution of its

substance, than addition, by the noble friction.

And the true home question, to every capitalist

and to every nation, is not, " how many ploughs

have you ? " but, " where are your furrows ? "

not-" how quickly will this capital reproduce

itself? "-but, " what will it do during repro-

duction ?" What substance will it furnish,

good for life ? what work construct, protective

of life ? if none, its own reproduction is useless

-if worse than none, -(for capital may destroy

life as well as support it), its own reproduction

is worse than useless ; it is merely an advance

from Tisiphone, on mortgage - not a profit by
any means.
 AD VALOREM. 147

[Link] a profit, as the ancients truly saw, and

showed in the type of Ixion ;-for capital is

the head, or fountain head, of wealth- the

" well-head " of wealth, as the clouds are the

well-heads of rain : but when clouds are with-

out water, and only beget clouds , they issue in

wrath at last, instead of rain, and in lightning

instead of harvest ; whence Ixion is said first

to have invited his guests to a banquet, and

then made them fall into a pit filled with fire ;

which is the type of the temptation of riches

issuing in imprisoned torment, ―torment in a

pit, (as also Demas' silver mine ,) after which,

to show the rage of riches passing from lust of

pleasure to lust of power, yet power not truly

understood, Ixion is said to have desired Juno,

and instead, embracing a cloud (or phantasm),

to have begotten the Centaurs ; the power of

mere wealth being, in itself, as the embrace

of a shadow, -comfortless, (so also " Ephraim

feedeth on wind and followeth after the east

wind " ; or " that which is not "-Prov. xxiii . 5 ;

148 AD VALOREM .

and again Dante's Geryon, the type of ava-

ricious fraud, as he flies, gathers the air up
with retractile claws, -" l'aer a se raccolse," *)

but in its offspring, a mingling of the brutal

with the human nature : human in sagacity-

using both intellect and arrow ; but brutal in

its body and hoof, for consuming, and trampling

* So also in the vision of the women bearing the

ephah, before quoted, " the wind was in their wings,"
not wings " of a stork," as in our version ; but “ milvi,”
of a kite, in the Vulgate, or perhaps more accurately
still in the Septuagint, " hoopoe," a bird connected typi-
cally with the power of riches by many traditions, of
which that of its petition for a crest of gold is perhaps
the most interesting. The " Birds " of Aristophanes, in
which its part is principal, are full of them ; note espe-
cially the " fortification of the air with baked bricks,
like Babylon," 1. 550 ; and, again , compare the Plutus
of Dante, who (to show the influence of riches in
destroying the reason) is the only one of the powers of
the Inferno who cannot speak intelligibly ; and also the
cowardliest ; he is not merely quelled or restrained, but
literally " collapses " at a word ; the sudden and help-
less operation of mercantile panic being all told in the
"
brief metaphor, as the sails, swollen with the wind,
fall, when the mast breaks."
 AD VALOREM. 149

down. For which sin Ixion is at last bound

upon a wheel - fiery and toothed, and rolling

perpetually in the air ;-the type of human

labour when selfish and fruitless (kept far into

the Middle Ages in their wheel of fortune) ;

the wheel which has in it no breath or spirit,

but is whirled by chance only ; whereas of all

true work the Ezekiel vision is true, that the

Spirit of the living creature is in the wheels,

and where the angels go, the wheels go by
them ; but move no otherwise.

75. This being the real nature of capital, it

follows that there are two kinds of true pro-

duction, always going on in an active State :

one of seed, and one of food ; or production

for the Ground, and for the Mouth ; both of

which are by covetous persons thought to be

production only for the granary ; whereas

the function of the granary is but intermedi-

ate and conservative, fulfilled in distribution ;

else it ends in nothing but mildew, and

nourishment of rats and worms. And since
150 . AD VALOREM.

production for the Ground is only useful with

future hope of harvest, all essential production

is for the Mouth ; and is finally measured by

the mouth ; hence, as I said above, consump-

tion is the crown of production ; and the

wealth of a nation is only to be estimated by

what it consumes .

The want of any clear sight of this fact is

the capital error, issuing in rich interest and

revenue of error among the political econo-

mists . Their minds are continually set on

money-gain, not on mouth-gain ; and they fall

into every sort of net and snare, dazzled by

the coin-glitter as birds by the fowler's glass ;

or rather (for there is not much else like birds

in them) they are like children trying to jump

on the heads of their own shadows ; the money-

gain being only the shadow of the true gain,

which is humanity.

76. The final object of political economy, there-

fore, is to get good method of consumption,

and great quantity of consumption : in other

 AD VALOREM. 151

words, to use everything, and to use it nobly ;

whether it be substance, service, or service

perfecting substance. The most curious error

in Mr. Mill's entire work, (provided for him

originally by Ricardo,) is his endeavour to

distinguish between direct and indirect service,

and consequent assertion that a demand for

commodities is not demand for labour (I. v. 9,

et seq.). He distinguishes between labourers

employed to lay out pleasure grounds, and to

manufacture velvet ; declaring that it makes

material difference to the labouring classes in

which of these two ways a capitalist spends

his money ; because the employment of the

gardeners is a demand for labour, but the pur-

chase of velvet is not. * Error colossal, as well

* The value of raw material, which has, indeed, to

be deducted from the price of the labour, is not con-
templated in the passages referred to, Mr. Mill having
fallen into the mistake solely by pursuing the collateral
results of the payment of wages to middlemen. He
says "The consumer does not, with his own funds,
pay the weaver for his day's work." Pardon me : the
152 AD VALOREM.

as strange. It will, indeed, make a difference

to the labourer whether we bid him swing his

scythe in the spring winds, or drive the loom

in pestilential air ; but, so far as his pocket is

concerned, it makes to him absolutely no dif-

ference whether we order him to make green

velvet, with seed and a scythe, or red velvet ,

with silk and scissors. Neither does it anywise

concern him whether, when the velvet is made,

we consume it by walking on it, or wearing it,

consumer of the velvet pays the weaver with his own

funds as much as he pays the gardener. He pays,
probably, an intermediate ship-owner, velvet merchant,
and shopman ; pays carriage money, shop rent, damage
money, time money, and care money ; all these are
above and beside the velvet price, (just as the wages of
a head gardener would be above the grass price) ; but
the velvet is as much produced by the consumer's
capital, though he does not pay for it till six months
after production, as the grass is produced by his capital,
though he does not pay the man who rolled and mowed
it on Monday, till Saturday afternoon. I do not know if
Mr. Mill's conclusion, " the capital cannot be dispensed
with, the purchasers can " (p . 98), has yet been reduced
to practice in the City on any large scale.
 AD VALOREM. 153

so long as our consumption of it is wholly

selfish. But if our consumption is to be in

anywise unselfish, not only our mode of con-

suming the articles we require interests him,

but also the kind of article we require with a

view to consumption . As thus (returning for a

moment to Mr. Mill's great hardware theory* ) :

it matters, so far as the labourer's immediate

profit is concerned, not an iron filing whether

I employ him in growing a peach, or forging

a bombshell ; but my probable mode of con-

sumption of those articles matters seriously.

Admit that it is to be in both cases " unselfish,"

and the difference, to him, is final, whether

when his child is ill, I walk into his cottage

and give it the peach, or drop the shell down

his chimney, and blow his roof off.

Which, observe, is the precise opposite of the one

under examination . The hardware theory required us
to discharge our gardeners and engage manufacturers ;
the velvet theory requires us to discharge our manu-
facturers and engage gardeners.
154 AD VALOREM.

The worst of it, for the peasant, is , that the

capitalist's consumption of the peach is apt to

*
be selfish, and of the shell, distributive ; but,

* It is one very awful form of the operation of wealth

in Europe that it is entirely capitalists' wealth which
supports unjust wars. Just wars do not need so much
money to support them ; for most of the men who wage
such, wage them gratis ; but for an unjust war, men's
bodies and souls have both to be bought ; and the best
tools of war for them besides ; which makes such war
costly to the maximum ; not to speak of the cost of base
fear, and angry suspicion , between nations which have
not grace nor honesty enough in all their multitudes
to buy an hour's peace of mind with : as, at present,
France and England, purchasing of each other ten
millions sterling worth of consternation annually, (a
remarkably light crop, half thorns and half aspen leaves,
-sown, reaped, and granaried by the " science " of the
modern political economist, teaching covetousness in-
stead of truth). And all unjust war being supportable,
if not by pillage of the enemy, only by loans from
capitalists, these loans are repaid by subsequent taxa-
tion of the people, who appear to have no will in the
matter, the capitalists' will being the primary root of
the war; but its real root is the covetousness of the
whole nation, rendering it incapable of faith, frankness ,
or justice, and bringing about, therefore, in due time, his
own separate loss and punishment to each person.
 AD VALOREM. 155

in all cases, this is the broad and general fact,

that on due catallactic commercial principles,

somebody's roof must go off in fulfilment of

the bomb's destiny. You may grow for your

neighbour, at your liking, grapes or grape-

shot ; he will also, catallactically, grow grapes

or grape-shot for you, and you will each reap

what you have sown.

[Link] is, therefore, the manner and issue of

consumption which are the real tests of pro-

duction. Production does not consist in things

laboriously made, but in things serviceably

consumable ; and the question for the nation

is not how much labour it employs, but how

much life it produces. For as consumption is

the end and aim of production, so life is the
end and aim of consumption.

I left this question to the reader's thought two

months ago (§§ 40-41 ) , choosing rather that he
should work it out for himself than have it

sharply stated to him. But now, the ground

being sufficiently broken (and the details into

156 AD VALOREM .

which the several questions, here opened, must

lead us, being too complex for discussion in the

pages of a periodical, so that I must pursue

them elsewhere), I desire, in closing the series

of introductory papers, to leave this one great

fact clearly stated. THERE IS NO WEALTH

BUT LIFE. Life, including all its powers of

love, of joy, and of admiration. That country

is the richest which nourishes the greatest

number of noble and happy human beings ;

that man is richest who, having perfected the

functions of his own life to the utmost, has

also the widest helpful influence, both per-

sonal, and by means of his possessions, over

the lives of others.

A strange political economy ; the only

one, nevertheless, that ever was or can be :

all political economy founded on self-interest*

* " In all reasoning about prices , the proviso must

be understood , ' supposing all parties to take care of
their own interest.' "-Mill, III . i. 5 .
 AD VALOREM. 157

being but the fulfilment of that which once

brought schism into the Policy of angels, and

ruin into the Economy of Heaven .

78." The greatest number of human beings

noble and happy." But is the nobleness

consistent with the number ? Yes, not only

consistent with it, but essential to it. The

maximum of life can only be reached by the

maximum of virtue. In this respect the law

of human population differs wholly from that

of animal life. The multiplication of animals

is checked only by want of food, and by the

hostility of races ; the population of the gnat

is restrained by the hunger of the swallow,

and that of the swallow by the scarcity of

gnats . Man, considered as an animal, is indeed

limited by the same laws : hunger, or plague,

or war, are the necessary and only restraints

upon his increase, -effectual restraints hitherto,

-his principal study having been how most

swiftly to destroy himself, or ravage his

dwelling-places, and his highest skill directed
158 AD VALOREM.

to give range to the famine, seed to the plague,

and sway to the sword. But, considered as

other than an animal, his increase is not limited

by these laws. It is limited only by the limits

of his courage and his love. Both of these

have their bounds ; and ought to have ; his

race has its bounds also ; but these have not

yet been reached, nor will be reached for ages.

[Link] all the ranges of human thought I know

none so melancholy as the speculations of

political economists on the population ques-

tion. It is proposed to better the condition

of the labourer by giving him higher wages.

" Nay," says the economist,-"if you raise his

wages, he will either people down to the same

point of misery at which you found him, or

drink your wages away." He will. I know it.

Who gave him this will ? Suppose it were

your own son of whom you spoke, declaring

to me that you dared not take him into your

firm , nor even give him his just labourer's

wages, because if you did he would die of
 AD VALOREM . 159

drunkenness, and leave half a score of children

to the parish. " Who gave your son these

dispositions ? "-I should enquire. Has he

them by inheritance or by education ? By one

or other they must come ; and as in him, so

also in the poor . Either these poor are of a

race essentially different from ours, and un-

redeemable (which, however often implied, I

have heard none yet openly say ), or else by such

care as we have ourselves received, we may

make them continent and sober as ourselves

-wise and dispassionate as we are- models

arduous of imitation. " But," it is answered,

"they cannot receive education ." Why not ?

That is precisely the point at issue. Charit-

able persons suppose the worst fault of the

rich is to refuse the people meat ; and the

people cry for their meat, kept back by fraud,

to the Lord of Multitudes. * Alas ! it is not

* James v. 4. Observe, in these statements I am

not taking up, nor countenancing one whit, the com-
mon socialist idea of division of property : division of
160 AD VALOREM.

meat of which the refusal is cruelest, or to

which the claim is validest. The life is

more than the meat. The rich not only

refuse food to the poor ; they refuse wisdom ;

property is its destruction ; and with it the destruction

of all hope, all industry, and all justice : it is simply
chaos -a chaos towards which the believers in modern
political economy are fast tending, and from which I am
striving to save them. The rich man does not keep
back meat from the poor by retaining his riches ; but by
basely using them. Riches are a form of strength ; and
a strong man does not injure others by keeping his
strength, but by using it injuriously. The socialist,
seeing a strong man oppress a weak one, cries out-
" Break the strong man's arms ; " but I say, " Teach him
to use them to better purpose." The fortitude and
intelligence which acquire riches are intended, by the
Giver of both, not to scatter, nor to give away, but to
employ those riches in the service of mankind ; in other
words, in the redemption of the erring and aid of the
weak- that is to say, there is first to be the work to gain
money ; then the Sabbath of use for it--the Sabbath,
whose law is, not to lose life, but to save. It is continu-
ally the fault or the folly of the poor that they are poor,
as it is usually a child's fault if it falls into a pond, and
a cripple's weakness that slips at a crossing ; neverthe-
less, most passers-by would pull the child out, or help up
the cripple. Put it at the worst, that all the poor of the
world are but disobedient children, or careless cripples,
 AD VALOREM. 161

they refuse virtue ; they refuse salvation. Ye

sheep without shepherd, it is not the pasture

that has been shut from you , but the Presence.

Meat ! perhaps your right to that may be plead-

able ; but other rights have to be pleaded first.

Claim your crumbs from the table if you will ;

but claim them as children, not as dogs ; claim

your right to be fed, but claim more loudly

your right to be holy, perfect, and pure.

Strange words to be used of working people ! ·

"What ! holy ; without any long robes or

anointing oils ; these rough-jacketed , rough-

worded persons ; set to nameless, dishonoured
service ? Perfect -these, with dim eyes and

cramped limbs, and slowly wakening minds ?

Pure !--these, with sensual desire and grovel-
ling thought ; foul of body and coarse of soul ? "

It may be so ; nevertheless, such as they are,

and that all rich people are wise and strong, and you
will see at once that neither is the socialist right in
desiring to make everybody poor, powerless, and
foolish as he is himself, nor the rich man right in
leaving the children in the mire.
II
162 AD VALOREM.

they are the holiest, perfectest, purest persons'

the earth can at present show. They may be

what you have said ; but if so, they yet are

holier than we who have left them thus .

But what can be done for them ? Who can

clothe- who teach-who restrain their multi-

tudes ? What end can there be for them at

last, but to consume one another ?

I hope for another end, though not, indeed,

from any of the three remedies for over-popu-

lation commonly suggested by economists.

[Link] three are, in brief--Colonization ;

Bringing in of waste lands ; or Discouragement

of Marriage .

The first and second of these expedients

merely evade or delay the question . It will,

indeed, be long before the world has been all

colonized, and its deserts all brought under

cultivation, But the radical question is, not

how much habitable land is in the world, but

how many human beings ought to be main-

tained on a given space of habitable land.

 AD VALOREM. 163

Observe, I say, ought to be, not how many

can be. Ricardo, with his usual inaccuracy, de-

fines what he calls the " natural rate of wages "

as "that which will maintain the labourer."

Maintain him ! yes ; but how ?-the question

was instantly thus asked of me by a working

girl, to whom I read the passage. I will

amplify her question for her. " Maintain him ,

how ? " As, first, to what length of life ? Out

of a given number of fed persons, how many

are to be old - how many young ? that is to

say, will you arrange their maintenance so

as to kill them early- say at thirty or thirty-

five on the average, including deaths of weakly

or ill-fed children ?—or so as to enable them

to live out a natural life ? You will feed a

greater number, in the first case,* by rapidity

of succession ; probably a happier number

in the second : which does Mr. Ricardo mean

* The quantity of life is the same in both cases ; but

it is differently allotted.
164 AD VALOREM.

to be their natural state, and to which state

belongs the natural rate of wages ?

Again : A piece of land which will only

support ten idle, ignorant, and improvident

persons, will support thirty or forty intelligent

and industrious ones. Which of these is their

natural state, and to which of them belongs

the natural rate of wages ?

Again : If a piece of land support forty per-

sons in industrious ignorance ; and if, tired of

this ignorance, they set apart ten of their num-

ber to study the properties of cones , and the

sizes of stars ; the labour of these ten being

withdrawn from the ground, must either tend

to the increase of food in some transitional

manner, or the persons set apart for sidereal

and conic purposes must starve, or some one

else starve instead of them. What is, there-

fore, the natural rate of wages of the scientific

persons, and how does this rate relate to, or

measure, their reverted or transitional product-

iveness ?
 AD VALOREM. 165

Again : If the ground maintains, at first,

forty labourers in a peaceable and pious state

of mind, but they become in a few years so

quarrelsome and impious that they have to set

apart five, to meditate upon and settle their

disputes ;-ten, armed to the teeth with costly

instruments, to enforce the decisions ; and five

to remind everybody in an eloquent manner of

the existence of a God ?-what will be the

result upon the general power of production ,

and what is the " natural rate of wages " of the
meditative, muscular, and oracular labourers ?

[Link] these questions to be discussed, or

waived, at their pleasure, by Mr. Ricardo's fol-

lowers, I proceed to state the main facts bear-

ing on that probable future of the labouring

classes which has been partially glanced at by

Mr. Mill . That chapter and the preceding one

differ from the common writing of political eco-

nomists in admitting some value in the aspect

of nature, and expressing regret at the proba-

bility of the destruction of natural scenery.
166 AD VALOREM.

But we may spare our anxieties on this head .

Men can neither drink steam, nor eat stone.

The maximum of population on a given space

of land implies also the relative maximum of

edible vegetable, whether for men or cattle ; it

implies a maximum of pure air, and of pure

water. Therefore : a maximum of wood, to

transmute the air, and of sloping ground, pro-

tected by herbage from the extreme heat of the

sun, to feed the streams . All England may, if

it so chooses, become one manufacturing town ;

and Englishmen, sacrificing themselves to the

good of general humanity, may live diminished

lives in the midst of noise, of darkness, and

of deadly exhalation. But the world cannot

become a factory, nor a mine. No amount of

ingenuity will ever make iron digestible by

the million, nor substitute hydrogen for wine.
Neither the avarice nor the rage of men will

ever feed them ; and however the apple of

Sodom and the grape of Gomorrah may

spread their table for a time with dainties of

 AD VALOREM . 167

ashes, and nectar of asps, -so long as men live

by bread, the far away valleys must laugh as

they are covered with the gold of God, and

the shouts of His happy multitudes ring round

the winepress and the well.
82. Nor need our more sentimental economists

fear the too wide spread of the formalities of a

mechanical agriculture. The presence of a wise

population implies the search for felicity as well

as for food ; nor can any population reach its

maximum but through that wisdom which

"rejoices " in the habitable parts of the earth.

The desert has its appointed place and work ; the

eternal engine, whose beam is the earth's axle,

whose beat is its year, and whose breath is its

ocean, will still divide imperiously to their desert

kingdoms bound with unfurrowable rock, and

swept by unarrested sand, their powers of frost

and fire but the zones and lands between,

habitable, will be loveliest in habitation. The

desire of the heart is also the light of the eyes.

No scene is continually and untiringly loved,

 168 AD VALOREM.

but one rich by joyful human labour ; smooth

in field ; fair in garden ; full in orchard ; trim,

sweet, and frequent in homestead ; ringing with

voices of vivid existence. No air is sweet that

is silent ; it is only sweet when full of low

currents of under sound-triplets of birds, and

murmur and chirp of insects, and deep-toned

words of men, and wayward trebles of child-

hood. As the art of life is learned, it will be

found at last that all lovely things are also

necessary ; the wild flower by the wayside, as

well as the tended corn ; and the wild birds and

creatures of the forest, as well as the tended

cattle ; because man doth not live by bread

only, but also by the desert manna ; by every

wondrous word and unknowable work of God.

Happy, in that he knew them not, nor did

his fathers know ; and that round about him

reaches yet into the infinite, the amazement

of his existence.

83. Note, finally, that all effectual advancement

towards this true felicity of the human race

 AD VALOREM. 169

must be by individual, not public effort. Cer-

tain general measures may aid, certain revised

laws guide, such advancement ; but the measure
and law which have first to be determined are

those of each man's home. We continually hear

it recommended by sagacious people to com-

plaining neighbours (usually less well placed

in the world than themselves), that they should

" remain content in the station in which Provi-

dence has placed them ." There are perhaps

some circumstances of life in which Providence

has no intention that people should be con-

tent. Nevertheless, the maxim is on the whole

a good one ; but it is peculiarly for home use.

That your neighbour should, or should not,

remain content with his position, is not your

business ; but it is very much your business to

remain content with your own . What is chiefly

needed in England at the present day is to

show the quantity of pleasure that may be ob

tained by a consistent, well-administered com-

netence, modest, confessed , and laborious. We
 170 AD VALOREM.

need examples of people who, leaving Heaven

to decide whether they are to rise in the

world, decide for themselves that they will be

happy in it, and have resolved to seek-not

greater wealth, but simpler pleasure ; not

higher fortune, but deeper felicity ; making

the first of possessions, self- possession ; and

honouring themselves in the harmless pride

and calm pursuits of peace.

Of which lowly peace it is written that

"justice and peace have kissed each other " ;
and that the fruit of justice is “ sown in peace

of them that make peace " ; not " peace-makers"

in the common understanding -reconcilers of

quarrels ; (though that function also follows on

the greater one ; ) but peace-Creators ; Givers of

Calm. Which you cannot give, unless you first

gain ; nor is this gain one which will follow

assuredly on any course of business, commonly

so called. No form of gain is less probable,

business being (as is shown in the language of

all nations-πωλεῖν from πέλω, πρᾶσις from

 AD VALOREM. 171

πeρáw, venire, vendre, and venal, from venio,

etc. ) essentially restless -and probably conten-

tious ; having a raven-like mind to the motion

to and fro, as to the carrion food ; whereas the

olive-feeding and bearing birds look for rest for

their feet ; thus it is said of Wisdom that she

" hath builded her house, and hewn out her

seven pillars " ; and even when, though apt to

wait long at the doorposts, she has to leave her

house and go abroad, her paths are peace also .

[Link] us, at all events, her work must begin

at the entry of the doors : all true economy is
" Law of the house." Strive to make that law

strict, simple, generous waste nothing, and

grudge nothing. Care in nowise to make more

of money, but care to make much of it ; remem-

bering always the great, palpable, inevitable

fact the rule and root of all economy-- that

what one person has, another cannot have ; and

that every atom of substance, of whatever kind,

used or consumed, is so much human life spent ;

which, if it issue in the saving present life, or

172 AD VALOREM.

gaining more, is well spent, but if not is either

so much life prevented, or so much slain . In

all buying, consider, first, what condition of

existence you cause in the producers of what

you buy ; secondly, whether the sum you have

paid is just to the producer, and in due pro-

portion, lodged in his hands ; * thirdly, to how

much clear use, for food, knowledge, or joy,

this that you have bought can be put ; and

fourthly, to whom and in what way it can be

most speedily and serviceably distributed ; in

all dealings whatsoever insisting on entire open-

ness and stern fulfilment ; and in all doings, on

* The proper offices of middlemen, namely, overseers

(or authoritative workmen), conveyancers (merchants,
sailors, retail dealers, etc. ), and order-takers (persons
employed to receive directions from the consumer),
must, of course, be examined before I can enter farther
into the question of just payment of the first producer.
But I have not spoken of them in these introductory
papers, because the evils attendant on the abuse of
such intermediate functions result not from any alleged
principle of modern political economy, but from private
carelessness or iniquity.
 AD VALOREM. 173

perfection and loveliness of accomplishment ;

especially on fineness and purity of all market-

able commodity : watching at the same time
for all ways of gaining, or teaching, powers

of simple pleasure ; and of showing " ooov ev

ἀσφοδέλῳ γέγ᾽ ὅνειαρ ”—the sum of enjoy-

ment depending not on the quantity of

things tasted, but on the vivacity and patience

of taste .

85. And if, on due and honest thought over these

things, it seems that the kind of existence to

which men are now summoned by every plea

of pity and claim of right, may, for some time

at least, not be a luxurious one ;-consider

whether, even supposing it guiltless, luxury

would be desired by any of us, if we saw clearly

at our sides the suffering which accompanies it

in the world. Luxury is indeed possible in the

future-innocent and exquisite ; luxury for all,

and by the help of all ; but luxury at present

can only be enjoyed by the ignorant ; the

cruelest man living could not sit at his feast,

174 AD VALOREM .

unless he sat blindfold. Raise the veil boldly ;

face the light ; and if, as yet, the light of the

eye can only be through tears, and the light of

the body through sackcloth, go thou forth

weeping, bearing precious seed, until the

time come, and the kingdom, when Christ's

gift of bread, and bequest of peace, shall be

" Unto this last as unto thee " ; and when, for
earth's severed multitudes of the wicked and
the weary, there shall be holier reconcilia-

tion than that of the narrow home, and calm

economy, where the Wicked cease- not from

trouble, but from troubling-and the Weary

are at rest.
INDEX .
 INDEX .

[The references in this index arefirst to the numbered para-

graphs (added in this edition ) ; and secondly to the pages, common
to this and all other editions of the book. Thus , 63, 124, refers
to $63, p. 124.] ·
Abuse, use and, 63, 124.
Accumulation of capacity, not only of material , 63, 125.
" of material for its own sake ends in rottenness, 75,
149.
Acquisition, profit distinct from, 66, 130.
Adonis, "painted by a running brook, " 59, 112-13.
" value of such a picture , 59, 112-13.
Adulteration , 23, 34.
the least, to be avoided, 84, 173.
Advantage, meaning of the word, 69, 135.
Advertisement, lying, 43, 69.
Affection, avarice or, which most constant in man, 1, 2.
"" is a debt owed by one to another, and is thus
part ofjustice, 7, 8.
motives of, as influencing, e.g., domestic servants, 8seqq .
8seqq.
Agreeableness, relativity of, 59, 112–13.
Agriculture, serving one's country with the spade, pref. 6 (4) ;
xix.
Alchemy, 1 , 1.
Ale, "" a pot of the smallest," 59, 112.
Almsgiving, justice before, 44, 72.
I2
178 UNTO THIS LAST.

Anarchy, a law of death, 54, 102.

Antagonism, opposite interest need not cause-e.g, starving
mother and her children, 5, 6.
Aristophanes, Birds (i. 550), on the hoopoe , 74n , 48n .
Aristotle, Plutus (582), ỏ Zevs . πένεται, 652, 128 .
Armies, standing, cost of, 762 , 154n .
Art, imagination and, 49n, 87n.
Astrology 1 , 1.
61, 119.
Astronomy, must define a star ? pref. 3, xii.
" 61, 119.
Author, movements of,
10 May, 1862, at Denmark Hill, pref. 7, xxi.
18 March, 1877, at Venice, pref. 5n, xivn.
writings of,
(a) accused of being illogical, 62, 121.
plans for further works on economy, 77, 156.
style of, not intemperate, pref. án, xivn.
(b) quoted, &c.
A Joyfor Ever (Polit. Economy of Art), " soldiers
of ploughshare and of sword," pref. 6 (4),
xix. ; 54, 102.
Modern Painters, vol. v. , on anarchy and
government, 54, 102.
(c) Sesame and Lilies, s. 18, on author's style, pref. ön,
xivn.
Stones of Venice, iii. 168, on free trade, 53n, 96n.
Unto this Last,
adverse reception of, pref. 1 , ix.
author's high estimate of, pref. 1-2 ; ix-x.
gist of, pref. 2seqq., xseqq.
publication in the Cornhill, pref. i, ix.
titles of proposed further chapters, 59n , 113n.
Authorship, bad, no money to be wasted on, 52n, 94n.
Autolycus, 20, 30.
Avarice, affection or, most constant in men ? 1, 2.
fraud and, Geryon typical of, 74, 148.
Axe, executioner's and woodman's, are both productive, 57½, 109n.
 INDEX . 179

agios, meaning of, 70n , 138n.

Axle, the earth's, 82, 167.

Bacchus , Dionysos and, 63, 124.

Banks, savings- , 61 , 120.
Barabbas, chosen before Christ, 44, 73.
Bayonets, are they produce ? 57, 107 ; 58, 111.
Beasts, supply and demand their law, but right the law of man,
46n, 8on.
Bellinzona, floods near (anecdote), 72n, 141n.
Bible, on the poor and rich, 55, 104.
"} popular acceptance and disregard of the, 55, 104.
quoted and referred to—
Genesis viii. 9, 66 No rest for ... her foot," 83, 171,
Exodus xv. 23, "Waters of Marah," 45, 75.
Numbers xxvii. 17, " Sheep which have no shepherd," 79, 161.
Judges ix. 13, "Wine which cheereth God and Man," 63, 124.
Job iii. 17, "Wicked cease from troubling,” .... 85, 174.
Ps. xlv. 14, " The King's daughters ... glorious within,” 43, 69.
" lxxxv. 13, " Righteousness and peace have kissed each other,"
83, 170.
"" cxxviii. 3, " Thy wife as a vine . . . thy children as olive
plants," 72, 143.
Prov. iii. 16, " Length of days . riches and honour,” 451, 75n.
17, Her ways pleasantness ... paths peace," 83, 171.
"" viii. 21, "Those that love me ... inherit substance . . . fill
their treasures, ' 61, 120.
"" 31, " Rejoicing in the habitable parts ofthe earth," 82, 167.
"" ix. I, "Wisdom builded her house . . . seven pillars," 83, 171 .
"" X. 2, " Treasures of wickedness profit nothing," 43, 68.
"" xxi 6, " Getting oftreasures by a lying tongue," 43, 68.
" xxii. 2, " The rich and the poor meet,” 44, 70, 71.
"" 16, "He that oppresseth the poor ... shall come to
want," 43, 69.
19 22, " Rob not the poor " ... 43, 69.
" xxiii. 5, "Wilt thou set eyes on that which is not ? for riches
make themselves wings," 74, 147.
Hosea xii. 1, " " Ephraim feedeth on wind," 74, 147.
Habakkuk i. 14, " Fishes and creeping things that have no ruler
over them ," 46, Ɛo.
180 UNTO THIS LAST .

Bible, quoted and referred to, continued :—

Zechariah v. 1, Zechariah's " flying roll," 68, 135.
"" 3, " The curse ・ ・ ・ for every one that stealeth "
(marginal version), 68, 135.
"" 6-11, "Women with the ephah," 74 , 148n.
8, "The weight of lead upon the mouth thereof," 68,
135.
" 9, " The wind is in their wings . . . like the wings of
a stork," 74n, 148n.
II, Set there on its own base," 68, 135.
"" xi. 7, " I will feed the flock of slaughter," 69, 137.
23 12, CC If ye think good, give me my price . pieces
of silver" (motto), 69, 137.
Malachi iv. 2, " Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings,"
44, 72.
Matt. iv. 3, " Command that these be made bread," 67, 134.
"" 4, " Man ... live by bread alone,” 82, 168.
99 v. 9, " Blessed are the peacemakers," 83, 170.
"" vi. 24, 66'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon," 75, 104.
" 25, "Is not the life more than meat ? " 79, 160.
"" vii. 10, " If he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? " 67, 134.
" xii. 30, " He that gathereth not ... scattereth," 72, 142.
" XV. 27, "The dogs eat of the crumbs," 79, 16t.
19 xvi. 25, "Whosoever ... lose his life ... shall find it," 10, 13.
"" XX. 13, " Unto this last even as unto thee " (motto), 85, 174.
"" xxvii. 7, " The potter's field to bury strangers in," 38, 60.
Acts iii. 14, "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, " 44, 73.
‫ دو‬vii. 27, "Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us ?" 44n, 72n.
I Cor. xv. 31, " I die daily," 17, 26.
Gal. vi. 7, "What a man soweth . . . reap," 78, 155.
1 Tim. vi. 10, 'The love of money the root of all evil," 55, 104
James iii. 18, " Sown in peace of them that make peace, ” 82, 170.
"" V. 4, " Hire ... kept back by fraud," 70n, 159n.
Jude 12, "" Clouds they are without water,” 74, 147.
Rev. xii. 7, "War in Heaven," 77, 157.
xxi. 7, "Water of life," 45, 75.

Bishops, equality of salary among, 13, 18.

Blackmail, old methods of, 45 , 76.
Blood, circulation of wealth and, compared , 32 , 48–9.
"" the " red ink " of starvation, 66, 132.
Bombs, are they produce ? 57, 109.
 INDEX . 181

Bombs, price of, ib. ib.

"" production of peaches and, (illustration), 76, 153.
Borromeo St. Carlo, tomb of, Milan, 62, 121.
Bread, price of, and the corn laws, 53, 96-98.
Building, true economy of good, 28, 41.
Bulbs, reproduction of nothing but (modern political economy),
73, 145.
Bulk, as affecting price and value, 60n , 116n.
Burial, state ; a dignity not a disgrace, pref. 6 (4) , xx.
Buying, what to consider in , 84, 172.
Byzants, 40, 64.

Californian miner, drowned by his belt of gold, (illustration) 62,

I22.
Capacity, accumulation of, 63, 125.
"" to use, no wealth without it, 62, 123.
Capital, meaning of, 73 , 144.
" power of, as lord of toil, to be checked , 55, 103.
" "" destructive, 73, 146.
"1 reproduces itself, 73, 145.
the root only, and dead till it bears fruit, ib. ib.
"" the well-head of wealth, 74, 147.
Capitalists, unjust wars supported by their wealth , 76n , 1542 .
Caput vivum et mortuum, 73, 144.
•
Carlyle quoted, " Fritz is with us, he is worth 50,000 men 45n,
87-88n.
Catallactics (exchange), science of, 67, 132.
Centaurs, parentage of, the 74, 147.
Character, is inherited or induced , 79, 159.
material wealth and, antagonistic, 65, 127.
true political economy should develop, ib. ib.
Cheapness, and dearness of labour and things, 71 , 140.
Cheating, wealth may indicate, 37, 57.
Children, delicate and manufactured, their 'protection,"
(illustration) , 53n , 96–97n.
"" labour of bearing and rearing, noble, 72, 142.
"} large families of, their strength, 73, 143.
" leaping over their own shadows, (illustration), 75, 150.
182 UNTO THIS LAST.

Choice and rule, justice of, 44n, 72n.

Christ, Barabbas chosen before, 44, 73.
Christopher Sly. See s. Shakespeare.
Church. See s. Clergymen.
Cicero, wealth defined by, pref. 2, xi.
Circulation of wealth and blood compared, 32, 48-49.
Clan, esprit de corps of a Highland, 12, 17.
Classical education, English respect for a, 61 , 118.
Clergymen, respect for, on what based , 18-21 ; 26seqq.
Clouds without water (Jude 12) destructive, 74, 147.
Colonisation, over-population and, 80, 162.
Commerce, despised, and why, 17seqq., 24-25.
good faith, the root of, 23, 34.
" heroisms and martyrdoms even in, 26, 30.
Commissions, all secret, deprecated , 68, 134.
Commodities, exchangeable, value of, 47n , 81n.
" for sale only or consumption ? 57, 107.
Competition, a law of death, 54, 102.
"" free trade and, 53n, 96n.
oppression of, recoils on the oppressor, 53, 96.
"" wages as affected by, ib. ib.
Constructive, meaning of the word, 72, 141.
Consumption, absolute, productive, wise, 72n , 144n.
aim ofall, is life, 77, 155.
"" production aims at, not only at sale, 57, 107 and n.
"" "" crowned by it, 75, 150.
" tested by it, 77, 155.
" selfish and unselfish, 76, 153.
Contentment in " that station of life, &c. ," 83, 169.
Co-operation, a law of life, 54, 102.
Corn laws, repeal of the, 53, 98.
Cornelia, " These are my jewels, " 41, 66.
Corpse, can things be possessed by a, 62 ; 122n , 122.
Cotton spinner, can his employés have esprit de corps ? 12, 16.
Country, which is the richest, 77, 156.
Covetousness, unjust war and, 67n, 154n.
Credit, modern system of, 45, 76.
Crowns for life saved, why not for life nobly formed, 72n. 142.
 INDEX. 183

Currency. See s. Money.

Custom-houses. See s. Free Trade.

Dante, quoted or referred to-

L'uno in Eterno, 55, 104.
Geryon, " l'aer a se raccolse," 74n, 148n .
"" on the stars eagle-eyed and winged, 46, 77–78.
Plutus inarticulate, and why , 74n, 148n.
David counting the price of the water, 69, 136.
Dearness of article and cheapness of labour, 71 , 140.
Death, " due occasions " of, 21, 31seqq.
"" ill-gotten wealth ends only in, 43, 68-69.
knowledge of when to die means knowledge of how to
live, 22, 32.
"" pursued by or pursuing us, 43, 69.
"" "" by us (Tisiphone), 70n, 138n .
"" the requisites of, 70n, 138n.
the wealthy are often useful only in, 64, 126.
Demand, author's definition of, 604, 116 .
" constancy of, and price, 60n, 116N.
"" moral element in, 59 , 113 .
price of labour regulated by, 13, 18seqq.
"" romanticity of most of our demands, 69, 136.
"" supply and, a law for beasts, not men, 462, 80.
11 as affecting over- and under-pay, 47, 81-82.
"} not an absolute law, 45, 74-75.
" "" steadiness of, desirable, 15, 21-22.
Demas, silver mine of, 74, 147.
Desert, the, has its function, 82, 167.
See s. Island.
Desire, and need, distinct, 69, 136.
Destructive, meaning of, 72 , 141.
Diamonds, needles and, supposed exchange of, 67, 132–133.
Dickens, caricature of, always true, 10n, 13n.
Bleak House (Esther and Charlie), ib. ib.
Hard Times, its value, ib. ib.
" Master Humphrey's Clock (Miss Brass and the Mar-
chioness), ib. ib.
 184 UNTO THIS LAST .

δικαστής, 44η, 72η.

Dionysos, Bacchus and, 63, 124.
Disposition as affecting demand, 59 , 113 .
Dura plains, 38, 59.

Economy in the household, 28, 41.

"" is house-law, pref. 3, xii.; 84, 171.
59 law of, life the aim of all substance, 84, 171.
Education, classical, 61 , 118.
" government, what it should include, pref. 6 and n,
"" xvi and n.
"" of the poor, 79, 159.
"" technical, pref. 6 (1) ; xvii.
See s. Ethics.
Emotion in art, 49n., 87n.
Employment, a necessary luxury, 54n, 100n.
finding, ib. ib.
See s. Master, Workman.
Engine, the eternal, of nature, 82, 167.
England, future of wealth of, in her sons, 41, 65–66.
oak enough for crowns in honour of lives both saved
and created , 81 , 166.
"" steel of, 532, 96n.
"" to become one large manufacturing town ? 81, 166.
Enjoyment, on what dependent, 84, 173.
Envy, loss to science through, 49n, 87n.
Equality impossible, 54, 102.
Equity, the meaning of, 442, 72n.
Esprit-de-corps in a regiment, why not in a factory ? 12, 16seqq.
Ethics in education, enforce gentleness and justice, pref. 6 ( 1 ) xvii.
Exchange, accurate, the only just payment, 487, 82seqq.
"" price and, 66, 129.
"" profit impossible in just, 66, 130.
"" "" in, means loss to somebody, 66, 131.
"" the science of, founded on some one's ignorance, 67,
132-33.
"" true law of just, 68, 134.
Expediency, act not according to, but justice, 7, 8.
 INDEX . 185

Farmer, duty of a, 28, 41.

Fear of loss, not the only motive of human action , pref. s. and n.
xiv and n.
Fee first or duty first, the test of a man, 22, 32.
Filigree work defined , 582, IIIN.
Fish live by law of supply and demand, 467 , 80.
" none in hell, 67, 134.
Fisher and hunter, supposed exchange of, their game (Ricardo
quoted), 60, 115-16.
Foreign loans, war and, 76n, 154n.
Fortune, medieval wheel of, 74, 149.
Fowler's glass, birds and the (illustration), 75, 150.
Free trade, advocated , reciprocal or not, 53n, 96n.
" Fritz is with us-worth 50,000 men," 49n, 87n.
Furrows of more value than the plough that made them, 73,
146.

Gardening, productive labour of, 76n, 157n.

Generalships , not put up to auction, 13, 19.
Geryon. See s. Dante.
God, the only light for rich and poor, 44, 71.
Golconda, adamant of, 41, 65.
Gold, invisible , its power, 39, 63.
"" price of, on what dependent, 60n , 116n.
Government, a law of life, 54 , 162.
See s. Education , Manufactures, Schools, Work.
Gracchi. See s. Cornelia.
Granary, function of a, to store for distribution , not till things
rot, 75, 149.
Grapes, or grape-shot ? 76, 155.

Halters, are they productive? 57n., 10gn.

Happiness, the greatest, of greatest number, 78, 157.
Hardware manufactures , illustrations, 56 , 106.
See s. Mill.
Health, laws of, every child to learn, pref. 6 (i .) ; xvii.
part of wealth , 61 , 120.
Heart, purse and, regulation of, 69, 136.
186 UNTO THIS LAST.

Heaven, war in, 77, 157.

Hell, no fish in, 67, 134.
Helps (Sir Arthur), " Essay on War, " 57n, 109n.
Herbert, George, " Church Porch," 62n, 122n.
Highwaymen, old , and modern merchant ; their forms of rob-
bery, 43, 70.
Holiness, right of the poor to, 79, 161.
Holy or helpful, 44, 73.
Home, joy in one's, 83, 169.
Honesty, attainable ? pref. 4, 5, xiiiseq.
"" faith in, must be recovered, pref. 5, xiiiseqq.
"" organisation of labour and, pref. 5, xiiiseqq.
Honorarium, meaning of, 70n, 138n.
Hoopoe, the, typical of the power of riches, 74n, 48n.
Horace on wealth, pref. 2, xi.
Horseshoeing, illustration from, 48, 85.
Housemaids, engagement of, (illustration) , 31n, 47n.
Humanity, the thing to gain, 75, 150.
Hunger, as checking population, 78, 157.
Hunter, fisher and , supposed exchange between, (illustration), 60,
115-16.

Idiot, etymological meaning of, 63, 124-25.

Idleness, positive and negative sides of, 72, 142.
Idlers, how to be made to work, pref. 6 (3) , xviii.
" manufacture of, 31n, 47n.
Imagination in art, 49n , 87n.
Impedimenta, the wealthy as, 64, 126.
Indus, sands of the, 41, 65.
Inequality of wealth, its power, 30, 45-46.
Injustice, a denial of rule, 46, 79.
"in all the earth," 68, 135.
Ink, the blood-red, of starvation , 66, 132.
Interest on money, principle of, 48, 8251qq.
Intermittent work, its evils, 15-16, 21 seqq.
Investigation, teaching and, distinct, pref. 2n ; xi.
Island, castaways on a desert, (illustration), 33seqq.; 49seqq.
Ixion and Juno, 74, 147.
 INDEX. 187

Ixion, banquet of, ib. ib.

wheel of, 74, 149.

Jewellery, pride of, 72, 142.

"" work on cutting, nugatory, ib. ib.
Joys, unpurchaseable, 39, 62.
Judge, respect for, on what based , 18, 21 ; 26 , 31.
Juno, Ixion and, 74, 147.
Justice, absolute, is unattainable, but practical is, 47, 80.
healing power of, 44, 72-73.
"" essence of true wealth, 38, 59seqq.
11 result of, certain ; that of expediency uncertain, 7, 7-8.
"" the true basis of conduct, ib. ib.
Jurisprudence, human and divine, 46, 77.
Kings, modern idea of, 46, 79.

Labour, agricultural, its dignity, pref. 6 (4), xix.

"" aim of, and kinds of (constructive, nugatory, destructive),
72 , 141-42.
" cheapness of, a misnomer for dearness of thing , 71 , 140.
" demand for commodities is demand for, 57n , 107n.
"" divinity of true, 70n , 138n.
"" divisions of, into positive and negative, 72, 142.
"} employment of, less important than production of life,
77, 155.
"" exchangeable value of, and commodities, 47n, 8in.
"" high and low, good and bad, 70, 137–38.
market price of, and money, 47n, 81n.
" national prosperity and, 72, 143.
nature of, as life contest, 76, 137.
" nugatory, 72 , 141.
organisation of, pref. 2, x.
" made easy by honesty, pref. 5, xiv.
"" payment of. See s. Price, Value, Wages.
"" price determined by, 69seqq., 137seqq.
19 of, how to estimate, 70n , 139n.
"1 profit the fruit of, 66 , 130.
" quality of, fixed, its quantity variable, 70n , 139n.
 188 UNTO THIS LAST.

Lawyers, respect for, on what based, 18-21 ; 26n, 31.

"" their function, 46n , 73n.
"" word derivation, ib. ib.
Lex, etymology of, 45n, 72n.
Life, all substance means some human, 84, 171.
art of lovely, 82, 168.
"" consumption aims at, 77, 155.
" creating (by training), as great as saving it (by courage),
72n , 1427 .
" meaning of, as applied to labour, 70, 137.
17 means body and soul, 72n, 142n.
production of, the National question, 77, 155.
quiet, its loveliness , 83, 170.
the only wealth, 77, 156.
" virtue and, the maximum of each co- essential, 78, 157.
Light, God's, 44, 71.
Literature, payment of, 52n , 94n.
Livy, ii. 16, on Valerius Publicola, pref. 6 (4), xx.
vii. 6, quo plurimum posset, 62, 123.
Loss, temporary, often a necessary result of our duty, 16, 23-24.
Luxury, crime, a costly, pref. ôn, xvin.
impossible if we think of co- existent misery, 85, 173-74 .
"" wealth and, 37, 58.

Madonna della Salute, meaning of, 61 , 120.

Maintenance of labourers, but of what kind ? 80, 163.
Manliness despises wealth and is undermined by it, 65, 127.
Manufactories, government, pref. 6 (n), xvii.
Marah, waters of, 45, 75..'
Marriage, restraint of, and over-population, 80, 162.
Market, " buy in cheapest , sell in dearest, " 19, 29 ; 38, 60 ;
49, 89.
Masters, workmen and, reciprocal interests of, 6seqq., 6seqq.
Meat, badness of, in London markets, 60, 115.
Mercantile and political economy distinct, 26, 38 ; 28, 41.
Merchant, duty of, in times of hardship , 24, 35-36.
" "} to his employés, as sons, 24, 35–36 .
"" functions of, as a purveyor, 22seqq., 32seqq.
 INDEX . 189

Merchant, functions of, as employing labour, 24, 35-36.

" 68, 134.
25 selfish abuse of his duty, 36, 55-56.
supposed selfishness of, reason why he is despised ,
17 24; 19seqq., 28seqq.
μεριστής, 44η, 727.
Middlemen, 84n, 172n.
Milan Cathedral, St. Carlo Borromeo's tomb, 62, 121.
Mill- owner. See s. Cotton spinner.
Mill , J. S. , inconsistency of, shown , 58seqq. , 109seqq.; 76n , 53n.
Mill, J. S., quoted :-
on capital, 56, 106.
as necessary, though purchasers are not. 76 , 15IN.
,, comparative estimate ofthe moralist, 57, 108.
,, consumption, 75n, 142n.
}" "J and labour, demand for, 76, 151.
", hardware merchant , (illustration) , 76, 153,
,, labour, definition, 49n, 87n.
natural scenery, its value, 81, 165.
"" political economy, its aim, 59, III.
,, poor, future ofthe, 81, 165.
22 self-interest, 77n, 156n.
22 thought, 492, 87n.
,, usefulness, 58-59, 110-12.
,, value, 59, III.
,, wealth, no definition attempted, pref. 2, xi.
99 "" 59, 112.
"" 29 61, 121.
velvet as an article of production, 76 , 151n.
Millionaires, some no more wealthy than their own strong boxes,
64, 126.
Mines, work in, who to do it, pref. 6 (3), xviii.
Money -bags are not wealthy, 64, 126.
11 difficulty of expressing value in it, does not affect the true
principle of value, 49, 86.
"" -gain, and mouth-gain, 75 , 150.
make always much of it, but not more of it, 84, 171.
spending of, not making, the question, 72, 144,
"" power of, imperfect and doubtful, 30, 44 ; 39, 62-64.
190 UNTO THIS LAST.

Money, true nature of, defined, 34n , 53n ; 47 and n, 81 and n.

Monopoly , effect of, 60n , 116N.
Moralist, comparative estimate of, and political economy, 57,
108.
Mother, and starving children, 5, 6.
Motives, high and low, pref. 5 and n, xiiiseqq.
Mouth-gain and money-gain, 75, 150.
Murder, the negative labour, 72, 142.

Natural scenery, value of (Mill) , 81 , 165.

Need, desire and, what we want and wish for, distinct, 69, 136.
Needles, diamonds and, supposed exchange of, 67, 132-33.
Nobleness, the greatest, of the greatest number, 78, 157.

Occupation, a necessary luxury, 54n, 100n.

Old, provision for the, pref. 6 (4), xix.
Oppression recoils on the oppressor, 53, 99.
όπωρα, 72η, 142".
ὅσον ἐν ἀσφοδέλῳ γέγ᾽ ὄνειαρ, 84, 173.
Over-population, local only, as yet, 53, 99.

Paisley, correspondent from, 53n , 96n.

Passion, author's use of the word, 49n, 87n.
"" overlooked by modern political economists, ib. ib.
Patience, value of, in labour, 49n , 87n.
Patronage ofthe rich , 30, 45 ; 39 , 62 ; 51 , 92.
Payment, just, true principles of, 48seqq. , 8oseqq.
over- and under-, 47, 81.
Peace, beauty of, 83, 170.
" large families only possible in times of, 72, 143.
-maker, 82, 170.
Peaches or bombs ? (illustration) , 76 , 153.
Pensions, state for old and destitute, pref. 6 (4), xix-xx.
φυτάλια, 72η, 142η.
Physicians, all paid alike, 13-14, 18seqq.
" respect for, its true ground, 18-21 , 26seqq.
Pictures, price of, on what dependent, 60n, 11бN.
Plague, as checking over-population, 78, 157.
 INDEX. 191

Plans, success of, less than truth of principle, pref. 7, xxi.

Plato, wealth defined by, pref. 2, xi.
Ploughshare, a type of capital, 57, 108 ; 73, 145.
Ploughs or furrows, which most important ? 73, 146.
Plutus. See s. Dante.
Pocket-picking, 45, 76.
πωλεῖν, 83, 170.
Political Economy :
author's creed in, summarised, pref. 6, xviseqq.
" is not socialistic, 54, 100.
definition essential to, 62, 121.
mercantile distinct from , 26-28, 39seqq.
popular, a soi-disant science, 1 , 1.
# its basis plausible but fallacious, 1-3,
Iseqq.
its conclusions true but its basis false, 3,
3seqq.
"the science of getting rich, " 26, 38.
" " 17 justly is not,
45-46, 74seqq.
self-interest the one motive of, 77n , 156n.
unconcerned with ethics or philosophy,
57, 108-9.
reductio ad absurdum of this view, 59,
113-14,
true, defined, 28, 41.
final aim of, noble use of everything, 76, 150–51 .
practical and eternal truths of, 25, 37.
real lessons of, 61 , 119.
of Art. See s. Author. Books of, quoted.
Poor, claim on the rich of, 79, 161.
degraded, will they insist on being ? 79, 158–59.
disobedient children, 79n, 159n.
" distress and wages of, 53, 98-99.
"" education of, 79, 159.
"} justice, not alms or sermons most needed by, 41, 72.
"" keeping others, is the art of getting rich oneself, 27–30,
40seqq.
192 UNTO THIS LAST .

Poor, kind of character that remains, 65, 127seqq.

39 not unredeemable, 79, 159.
"" may be holy, perfect, and pure, 79, 161 .
"" oppressed by misuse of riches, 79n , 159n.
"" probable future of, 81 , 165.
"" remain poor by their own fault, 79n, 159n.
robbing the, 43, 69-70 ; 54, 103.
See s. Rich.
Pope, moral standard of, pref. 5, xiii.
quoted :-
"An honest man's the noblest work of God," pref. 4, xiii.
"Each does but hate his neighbour as himself," 53, 99.
66 More go to ruin fortunes than to raise," 65, 127.
Population, checks on, 78, 157.
"" increase of, in men and beasts, 78, 157.
"" over-, only local as yet , 78-79, 157–59.
" "" remedies usually suggested for, 80 , 162.
" wealth and, 40, 64-65.
Possession, what is, 62, 121.
wealth alone is not, 62 , 123.
" Pot of the smallest ale," 59, 112.
Poverty, affected by wages, 52, 96.
Powder, consummation in, 73 , 145.
πρᾶσις, 83, 170.
Preaching, justice more needed by the poor than, 44, 72.
Price, always calculable in labour, 69seqq., 137seqq.
" bulk and weight as affecting, 60n, 116n.
nature of, 66, 129.
on what dependent, 69, 136.
"" 27 psychical and metaphysical, ib. ib.
what a man gives or takes not a true test of just, 49, 89.
Prince Rupert's drops, (tulip, illustration), 73, 145.
Principles, truth of, more than success of plans, pref. 7, xxi.
Prisons, good schools mean empty, 31n, 47π .
Production, consumption crowns , 75 , 150.
"" " tests, 77, 155-
definition of, 56ṣeqq. , 105seqq.
 INDEX. 193

Production, nature of, 72seqq., 141seqq.

"" object of, seed and food, 75, 149.
Professions, the five great intellectual, 21 , 31.
Proficio, meaning of, 66, 129.
Profit, acquisition distinct from, 66, 130.
attainable only by labour, not exchange, 66, 131.
etymology of, 66, 129.¨
" is in labour, not in price, 66, 129.
Progress, human, by individual not public effort, 83, 169.
Property, division of, author does not advocate, 79n , 159n.
poor not to steal that of rich, or rich that ofpoor, 54
103.
"} security of, to be enforced , ib. ib.
Prosperity, national, and labour, 72, 143.
Protection, free trade and , 53½ , 96n.
Prudence, jurisprudence and, 46 , 77.
Purse, heart and, their regulation, 69, 136.
Quijudicatis terram, 42, 67 ; 46, 78.
Reap, what we sow we must, 76, 155.
Reciprocity and free trade advocated , 53n , 96n.
Religion, modern, both professed and disregarded , 55 , 104.
Rex, etymology of, 44n, 72n.
Ricardo, error of, on demand for labour and commodities , 76 , 151.
on " the natural rate of wages, " 80-81 , 168seqq.
"" usefulness and value , 60 & n , 114-11бn.
Rich, employment to be sought by the, 547, 100N.
" law of counteraction of poor and, 44 , 71.
oppress the poor by misuse of their wealth, 79n , 159n .
" rob the poor, 43, 69-70 ; 54, 103.
Riches, getting of, is by keeping others poor, 27, 30.
"1 methods of, 45, 76.
race for wealth , 16 , 23.
raging to be rich, 16, 23.
"" "" "" its catastrophe, 74, 147.
relativity of, 27, 40.
"" strength of, 79n , 159n.
"" what man and country the richest, 77 , 156.
13
194 UNTO THIS LAST .

Right, laws of, and those of supply and demand, 46n , 8on.
Righteousness, marked by love of justice and truth, 47 , 80.
justice and equity, true meaning of, 44n, 72n.
Rogues, manufacture of, 31n, 47n.
Rope, hangman's, is it productive ? 57n , 109n.
Royalty, true, 46, 79.
Rule and choice, justice of, 44n, 72n.

Sabbath, the, for the use of wealth, 79n, 159n.

Sailors. See s. Island castaways.
Saints, modern idea of, 46, 79.
Salaries, of all important labour fixed, why not also workmen's
wages ? 13, 18.
Sale, consumption and, distinct, 57 , 107 .
Sanctity, true, or saintliness, 46 , 79.
Sapling, planted in good and poor soil, (illustration) , 71, 139–
140.
Savage, exchanging diamonds for needles (illustration), 67, 132.
Saving life by courage , and forming it by care, 72n, 142n.
"" the Lady of, 61 , 120.
Savings banks, 61 , 120.
Scenery, natural, cannot all be abolished , 81 , 166.
" "" love of, needs change of aspect, 82, 167.
" "" value of, (J. S. Mill) , 81 , 165.
Schools, government, what to teach, pref. 6 and n. , xvi and n.
reform of, before that of prisons, 31n, 77n.
Science, will not make men agree, 5, 5.
See s. Political Economy, Riches.
Scotsman, correspondent of the, referred to, 52n , 94n.
Scribblers of rubbish, not to be employed at all , 52n , 94n.
Sea, streams flowing to, an image of action of wealth, 44-45,
71-73.
Seed, production of, essential to the State, 75, 149.
Self-interest, in political economy, 77n , 156n.
" -possession, the first of possessions , 83, 170.
Selfishness of commerce, the true reason for the contempt of it,
17-19, 24seqq.
Septuagint, referred to on the hoopoe, 74n , 148n.
 INDEX . 195

Sermons, justice better than many, 44, 72.

Servants, domestic :
71 esprit-de-corps of old family, 12, 18.
treatment of, and its results, 8seqq. , 8seqq.
"" willing, how to get, 9, II.
"" worthless , and wealth, 39, 62-4.
Service, direct and indirect, 76 , 151 .
" free gift of, 48, 82.
Shakespeare, Christopher Sly, 69, 113.
Shipwright, duty of a, 28, 41.
Silver vases of Spain, broken into bullion to avoid duty, 57n ,
10gn.
ware and hardware, are they produce ? 57, 106.
Simplicity, beauty of, 83, 170.
Singer, economy of voice by a, 28, 41.
price of, on what dependent, 60n , 116n.
Skill, author's use of the word, 49n , 87n.
Smith, Adam, 44'Wealth of Nations," on motives of honesty,
pref. 5n, xiv.n.
Smith, Elder & Co. , publishers, 52n, 94n.
Socialism, author opposed to, 54, 100 ; 79n , 159n.
" the chaos of, 79n, 159n.
" where more progressive, 54, 10I.
Sodom and Gomorrah, 81, 166.
Soldier, esprit-de-corps of, and affection , 11 , 15.
love of, its true ground, 17, 25.
3) profession of readiness to be slain , 17 , 25 ; 21 , 31.
sword and ploughshare, pref. 6 (4), xix ; 54 , 102.
Solomon, a Gold Coast merchant, 42, 67.
" his proverbs now interesting because so novel, 42, 68.
See s. Bible, quoted.
Souls, noble, an element in national wealth, 41, 65.
Sow, we must reap what we, 76, 155.
Spain, silver vases of, broken to avoid duty, 57n , 109n.
Specific gravity, value compared to, 49, 88.
Spending money, methods of, more important than the amount.
"" "" made , 72, 144.
" " what to consider in, 84, 172-73.
196 UNTO THIS LAST .

σπορητός, 72η, 142n.

Standard government, of all articles of commerce advocated ,
pref. 6 (2), xvii.
Starvation, the " red ink " of, 66, 132.
Starving mother and her children, (illustration), 5, 6.
Streams, flowing to the sea, wealth and. See s. Sea.
Strikes, political economy no check on, 4, 5.
Strong boxes, some millionaires no richer than their own, 64, 126.
Superiority of some men over others, an eternal law, 51 , 102.
Supply and demand. See s. Demand.
Taxation, burden of, and wages, 53, 96.
unjust war and, 76n, 154n.
Teaching, and investigation, distinct, pref. 2n, xin.
Tears, treasures heavy with, 37, 58.
Temptation and riches, 74, 147.
Theft, by rich from poor as well as by poor from rich, 54, 103.
Things are for use, not only for sale, 57, 107.
Thought, value of mere, 49n , 87n .
Ticino, floods of the, 72n , 141N.
Tun, meaning of, 70n, 138n.
Tisiphone, the goddess, 70n , 138n ; 73, 146.
Treasure, heavy with tears, 37, 58.
Truth, absolute, unattainable, 47, 80.
Tulips, (illustration) , 73, 145.
Tuscany, oil of, 53n , 96n.
Tyranny, wealth may indicate, 37, 58.

vycalvo, meaning of, 61 , 118.

Under-pay, result of, shown, 50seqq. , goseqq.
Unemployed, work for the, 54 & n, 100 & n.
Upas tree, 71, 140.
Use and abuse, 63, 124.
"" noble, of everything, the aim of true economy, 76, 150-51.
not sale only, the object of manufacture, 57, 107.
Usefulness, definition of, 58, 110-11 ; 63, 123seqq.
" dependent on opportunity, 59, 112.
Ricardo on, 60, 114.
 INDEX . 197

Valerius Publicola, Livy on, pref. 6 (4), xx.

Valor, meaning of the Latin, 61 , 118.
Valuable, things really, 61 , 119–20.
Value, definition of, Mill , 59 , III.
"" "" "" Ricardo, 60, 114–15.
"" etymology and true meaning of, 61 , 118.
moral elements as affecting, 59N, 113n.
" true, absolute, 61 , 119.
"" weight and bulk as affecting, 60n, 116n.
Vanity, substance and, 61 , 120.
Velvet, manufacture of in grass or silk, walked on, or worn, 76,
151-52.
Venal, meaning of, 83, 171.
Venetians, their respect for Solomon , 42 , 67.
Venice, church in the market, inscription , pref. 5n, xivn.
"" Ducal Palace, Solomon's angle, 42, 67.
Virgil , " splendescere sulco, " 73, 146.
Virtue, and life, the maximum of each co-essential, 78 , 157.
Vulgate, quoted
Prov. xxii. 2, "Dives et pauper, obviaverunt sibi," 44, 70-71
Zech. v. 9, " Habebant alas milvi, " 74 , 148.

Wages, competition in , 53, 96seqq.

"" difficult to fix the true amount of, in money, 49, 86–7.
"" equality of all, essential to equality of good work,
13-14, 17-21 ; 52n , 94n.
"" fixed, pref. 2, x ; pref. 6 (3), xviii ; 12seqq. , 17seqq.
just, of advantage to master and workmen, 6, 7.
"" the question for the poor, 53, 96seqq.; 56, 105.
rate of, dependent on steady work, 15, 21seqq.
"" "" " natural," Ricardo on, 80 , 163.
"" rise in, will it raise the poor ? 79, 158-59.
"" unjust, their result as regards labour and workmen,
50seqq., goseqq.
Walking, cheap, (illustration) , 71 , 140.
War, as a check on over-population , 78, 157.
"" unjust, covetousness and , 76n, 154n.
"" " supported by capitalists, ib. ib.

L
198 UNTO THIS LAST .

War, unjust taxation and , ib. ib.

Waste, guard against, 28, 41.
Waste-land and over-population, 80, 162.
Water, price of, 60n , 116n.
Weight, bulk or, as affecting price, 60 , 11бn.
or worth , the same, 70n , 138n.
Wickedness, spirit of, 68, 135.
Wine, use and abuse of, 63, 124.
Witchcraft, 1 , 1 ; 61 , 119.
Wordsworth, quoted , " Excursion," 20, 30.
" Live by admiration, hope, and love," 77, 156.
Work, a necessary luxury, 542 , 100N.
"1 aim of, to avoid idleness or hunger, 54n, IOON.
best, never done for money, 52n, 94n.
government to provide, pref. 6, xviseqq.
"" steadiness of, and the rate of wages, 15-16, 21seqq.
too much of this good thing, possible, 54n , 100N.
Workhouse relief, not to be disgraceful, pref. 6 (4) , xix.
Workshop, England to become one big ? 81, 166.
-s, Government, pref. 6 ( 2) , xvii.
World, the, cannot be all destroyed , 81 , 166.
"1 "" rising in, 83, 170.
Worth, weight or, 70n, 138n.
Wealth, acquisition of, conditions of, pref. 4, xii-xiii .
action of, compared to streams flowing to the sea,
44-45, 71-73.
actual and commercial, 28, 42.
attributes of, 38, 59.
"1 character as affected by, 65, 127seqq.
11 what kind of, acquires it, ib. ib.
}) circulation of blood and of, 32 , 48seqq.
definition of, essential to political economy, pref. 2, 3,
x-xii.
" " Mill, 59, 112.
"" true, 62, 123 ; 64 , 125.
"" dependent on capacity to use it, ib. ib.
" desire for, is desire for power, 30, 44.
 INDEX. 199

Wealth, continued ;—
"" distribution of, must be discriminate, 63, 125.
" health part of, 61 , 120.
ill-gotten or well , 42, 68.
"" results in death , 43, 68-9.
" "' illth " and, 64, 126.
"" inequality of, when bereficial, 31 , 46.
labour essential to realise, 29, 43-44.
,, life the only real , 77 , 156.
mere brutally human, 74, 148.
shadow, 74, 147.
moral sources of, the question about it, 38, 59 -61.
national, depends on abstract justice, 37 , 58.
"" political and mercantile, inverse ratio of, 35sɛqq., 54seqq.
"" possession need not be, 62, 123.
power of, and labour, 28seqq., 42seqq.; 39, 62 ; 55 , 103 ;
74 & n, 147seqq. & n.
useless without labour, 29 , 43-4.
"" veins of true, in flesh or rock ? 40, 64.
what does it indicate ? the question about it, 38, 59seqq.
Wealthy, the, compared to dangerous eddies or their own
money-bags, &c. , 64, 126.

Xenophon, wealth defined by, pref. 2, xi.

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