As exchanges, and afterwards sales and purchases, were voluntary, it might be inferred that all values were given for values completely equal. It is more correct, however, to say, that bargains were never made without advantages to both parties. The seller found a profit in selling, the buyer in buying. The one drew more advantages from the money which he received, than he would have done from his merchandise ; the other more advantage from the mer chandise which lie acquired, than he would have done from his money. Both parties had gained, and hence the nation gained doubly by their bargain. On the same principle, when a master set any workman to labour, and gave him in exchange for the work expected to he done, a wage which corresponded to the workman's maintenance during his la bour;—both those contractors gained; the workman, be cause lie had received in advance the fruit of his labour, before it was accomplished ;—the master, because this workman's labour was worth more than his wages. The nation gained with both ; for as the national wealth must, at the long run, be realized in enjoyment, whatever aug ments the enjoyment of individuals, must be considered as a gain for all.
Thus the labour of man created wealth ; but wealth, in its turn, created the labour of man. Wherever wealth of fered a profit, a wage, a subsistence, it produced a class of men, eager to acquire them. The accumulation of prima ry labour had created the value of land, by unfolding its productive power. This power, as it seconded the labour of man, henceforth became a species of wealth ; and a person possessed of land might, without himself labour ing, obtain payment for surrendering the use of it to such as laboured. Hence the origin of sales and leases of land. The farmer again might hire workmen to labour, and thus might acquire the advantages attached to exchanging pre sent subsistence against distant produce. He incurred all the charges of cultivation, he drew all its profits, and left to his workmen nothing but their wages. Thus the reve nues of land, all comprised in the annual crop, were divi ded among three classes of men, under the name of rent, profit, and wages; whilst a surplus included the seed and the farmer's advance.
The manufacturer again possessed machinery and ma terials: he offered to his labourers an immediate subsistence for the fruit of a labour which required time and long ad vances. He enabled them to live, he furnished them with lodging, tools, machinery, and paid himself with interest by their work. If, in his own hand, he had not enough of accumulated wealth, or enough of the money which repre sents it, to provide his workmen with all the advances which their enterprise required, and to wait for the sale of their labour, he borrowed money, and paid the lender an interest, analogous to the rent which a farmer pays his landlord. The labour of the workmen employed by him annually produced a certain quantity of goods, in the va lue of which were to be included 'he interest of capital for the mooey-lender, the rent of implements, machines, immovables, and all kinds of fixed capital ; the profits of the head manufacturer, the wages of his workmen, and, lastly, the capital expended in raw materials, together with the whole of that capital which, as it circulates an nually in the manufactory, must be deducted from its an nual produce, in order to leave the net revenue.
The produce of the soil and of manufactories belonged often to climates very distant from those inhabited by their consumers. A class of men undertook to facilitate all kinds of exchange, on condition of sharing in the pro fits which it yields. These men gave money to the produ cer, at the time when his wank was finished and ready for sale; after which, having transported the merchandize to the place where it was wanted, they waited the consumer's convenience, and retailed to him in parcels what he could not purchase all at once. They did service to every one,
and repaid themselves for it by the share which is named profits of trade. The advantage arising from a judicious management of exchanges was the origin of those profits.
In the north, a producer reckoned two measures of his merchandize equivalent to one of southern merchandize. In the south, on the other hand, a producer reckoned two measures of his intichandize equivalent to one of north ern merchandize. Between two equations so different there was room to cover all the expenses of transport, all the profits of trade, and Interest for all the money ad vanced to carry it on. In fact, at the sale of such com modities transported by commerce, there must be realized, first the capital repaid to the manufacturer; then the war gcs of the sailors, carriers, clerks, and all persons em ployed by the trader ; next the interest of all those funds to which he gives movement; and lastly, the mercantile profit.
Society requires something more than wealth; it would not be complete if it contained nothing but productive labourers. It requires administrators, judges, lawgivers; men employed about its general interests; soldiers and sailors to defend it. No,one of those classes produces any thing; their labour never assumes a material shape; it is not susceptible of accumulation. Yet without their assist ance all the wealth arising front productive labour would be destroyed by violence; and work would cease, if the labourer could not calculate on peaceably enjoying its fruits. To support this guardian population, a part mist be deducted lions the funds created annually by labour. But as the service done to the community, by such per sons, how important soever it be, is felt by no one in par ticular; it cannot, like other services, be an object of ex change. The community itself was uncler the necessity of paying it by a forced cone 'button from the revenues of all. It was not long, indeed, till this contribution came to be regulated by the parsons destined to profit from it; and hence the contributors were loaded without measure; civil and military offices were multiplied far beyond what the public weal required ; there was too much government, too much defence of men, who were forced to accept those services, and to pay them, superfluous or even burdensome as they might be; and the rulers of nations, established to protect wealth, were often the main authors of its dilapi dation.
Society needs that kind of labour which produces men tal enjoyments; and as mental enjoyments are, nearly all, immaterial, the objects destined to satisfy them cannot be accumulated. Religion, science, the arts, yield happi ness to man ; their origin is labour, their end enjoyment; but what belongs only to the soul is not capable of being treasured up. if a nation, however, does not reckon lite rature and the arts among its wealth, it may reckon litera ry men and artists; the education they receive, the dis tinction they acquire, accumulate a high value on their heads; and the labour which they execute being often bet ter paid than that of the most skilful workmen, may thus contribute to the spread of opulence.
Society, in the last place, needs those kinds of labour, the object of which is to take care of the persons, not the fortunes of men. Such labour may be of the most ele vated, or of the most servile kind ; according as it re quires either the knowledge of nature and the command of her seer ts, like the physician's labour, or merely com plaisance and obedience to the will of a master, like the footman's labour. All of them are species of labour in tended for enjoyment, and differing from productive la bour, only in so far as their effects are incapable of accu mulation. Hence, though they add to the well-being of a state, they do not add to its wealth; and such as are em ployed in them must live on voluntary contributions drawn from the revenue formed by other kinds of labour.