Especially when natural science begins to be “a practical science.” (L. Stein).185.The difference between the broader and narrower sense of production, corresponds essentially with that of gross and net income (§ 145). Compare also §§ 206, 211 ff.186.Von Mangoldt distinguishes the coming into existence of free values of the production undertaken for an economic purpose. (Grundriss, 9.)187.Gioja, Nuovo Prospetto delle Scienze economiche (1815), I, 49 ff. Besides positive production, there is a latent production, which prevents the decay of goods. It is not possible to make as exact an estimate of the latter as of the former; and much more depends in the latter case than in the former on continuity and proper extension. Hence, latent production is especially a state concern. (Knies, Telegraph als Verkehrsmittel, 1857, 232.)188.See Schäffle, in the Tübinger Univ. Programm, September 27, 1862, on the disastrous effect on the community of idleness. The leading of a happy life the Greeks called very appropriately, εὐπράττειν (Garve).189.We use the expression “external nature” through the whole of this work in contradistinction not only to the soul, but also to man's body, designating his entire physico-intellectual activity by the term “labor-force” (Arbeits kraft).190.By the expression “natural forces,” we designate the economically useful changes of matter, changes of place as well as of composition, which are made without man's cooperation; for instance, the gigantic machinery which supplies the greater part of mankind with water to drink, for domestic and other purposes—the evaporation of the sea, the formation of clouds, rain, springs, rivers etc. See Bastiat, Harmonies, 277. Thus the sun's rays are indirectly the cause, not only of vegetation, but also of all wind and steam forces.191.Spite of this “freedom,” it may well happen that these gifts of nature can be utilized, in many cases, only on condition of some expenditure. The photographer can compel the sunlight to work for him only by means of a camera obscura, and the smithy the atmosphere, only by means of a bellows. But neither will ever successfully make an item, in their accounts with their customers, of the services of the sun or air.192.The most important ocean currents may be explained by two causes: the flowing of the water from the polar seas to the equator (polar current), and the revolution of the earth about its axis (equinoctial current); besides which, there are the reflex currents produced by the horizontal form of the coast-lands. Thanks to these natural ocean highways, England is nearer to almost all the important mercantile coasts of the world by 300 geographical miles than the Eastern States of the American Union. The only exception is the Atlantic coast of America north of the Equator. North Americans to pass the line, or to double one of the two great capes, are obliged first to traverse the ocean as far as the Azores. On the other hand, the western coast of South America is very widely separated from Mexico, for instance, by its ocean currents. The colonization of America by Europe, instead of by China, is a consequence of the direction of ocean currents, as is also the fact that America has now the fairest prospect of influencing the civilization of China and Japan. What an influence the warm gulf stream has on the mild climate of north-western Europe!193.While the Mississippi has no ebb or flow whatever, the influence of the ocean is felt in the Hudson, which is 60 geographical miles long, a distance of 29 miles from its mouth.194.Thus, A. Young, Travels in France I, 293 ff., has defined, with approximate accuracy, the limits within which the vine, maize and the olive grow. And so von Cancrin, Dorpater Jahrbuch IV, 1, distinguishes the ice zone, the reindeer-moss (a lichen on which the reindeer live in winter) zone, the forest zone, the zone within the limits of which cattle are raised; that in which the culture of rye begins, that in which it becomes permanent; the wheat, fruit-tree, vine, maize, olive, sugar cane and silk-worm zones. The United States are divided into cattle-raising, wheat-raising, cotton-raising, rice-raising and sugar-raising zones. Even in Europe, beyond the 60th parallel of north latitude, wheat can scarcely be cultivated; the polar limits of rye raising extend, at most, six or seven degrees farther. Towards the north, barley extends sometimes as far as the 70th degree. Here agriculture almost ceases, and the inhabitants are compelled to confine themselves to animal substances for food. On the other hand, these three cereals are not adapted to a tropical climate, while the bread-fruit tree, for instance, does not thrive at more than 22 degrees from the Equator, nor the banana at more than 35. Compare Grisebach, Die Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung. II, 1871.195.Thus rye and wheat thrive in many parts of Siberia (Iakutzk) at an annual temperature of - 7.50, while in Iceland no cereals ripen at an annual temperature of + 4°. But in the former place the summer heat is + 16.2°; the winter cold, - 39.2°; in Iceland, + 12° and - 1.6°. In England, the myrtle, laurel, camelia and fuchsia stand the winter well; while the vine no where ripens. On the other hand, Astrakan and Hungary are vine growing countries, although the former is as cold in winter as North Cape, and although the cold is more intense in Hungary than in the Faroe Islands, where neither the oak nor the beech grow any longer. No good wine is produced on the western coast of France, north of 47° 20' north latitude; in Champagne, north of 49°, or in the Rheingau, north of 51°. In Norway, the average heat is greater on the coast than in the heart of the country where, however, grain ripens, while it does not on the coast; for the mildness of the winter, no matter how great, can make no compensation for the want of heat. On the other hand, the cattle on the coast can remain much longer out of doors, and the sea seldom freezes in such a way as to interfere with the fisheries. Blom, Norwegen I, 39. Boussingnault (Economie rurale considérée dans ses Rapports avec la Chimie, II) has made some interesting attempts to calculate by a mathematical process the amount of heat necessary to vegetable, during the period of vegetation. Thus, for instance, wheat requires about 12° (Réaumur) of heat during 140 days; that is, nearly 140 x 12° = 1680° Réaumur. In Venezuela, the sugar cane requires a longer time to grow in a higher and therefore cooler position than in a lower and warmer, and the length of time required is in proportion to the height.196.Hence it is that the isothermal lines are not parallel with the equator or with one another. The greater number of these have two northern and two southern summits; the former on the western coasts of Europe and America, and the latter in eastern North America, and in the interior of Asia.197.The quantity of rain which falls every year is, at St. Petersburg and Pesth, from 16 to 17 inches; at Berlin 19, Mannheim 21, Tübingen 26: in the interior of France 16-24; on the French coast 25, on the eastern coast of England 24, on the western coast 35, in Milan 36, Genoa 44, on the coast of most tropical lands 70-120. On the political-economical influences of most climates, see Gobbi, Ueber die Abhängikeit der Populationskräfte von den einfachen Grundfstoffen, 1842.198.The snow limit at Mageröe in Norway is 2,200, in Iceland 2,900, in the northern Ural 4,500, in the Alps 8,200, in the Caucasus 10,400, and Quito 14,850 feet high. Hence it is that mountainous countries which produce nothing in the north, make magnificent vineyards in warmer countries.199.In central Germany, even a second crop can be produced after the corn harvest. In Arabia, the same seed produces three harvests, because the grain which falls at the time of harvesting to the ground, germinates immediately and suffices for new seed. (Niebuhr, Beschreibung, 154.)200.Thus in the northern states of the American union, wheat yields a return of only from four to five times the amount sown; in France, 5-6 times (Lavoisier): in Chili, 12 times; in northern Mexico, 17 times; in Peru, 18 and 20 times; in southern Mexico, 25 and even 35 times; in Germany, maize seed yields at best one hundred fold, while in the torrid zone there is a return of from three hundred to four hundred fold, generally.201. Andalusian corn produces in the mill only one-half as much bran-waste as Baltic wheat produces. Bourgoing, Tableau de l'Espagne, II, 155. Baltic wheat contains 6-7 per cent, of azote, and Algerian, 20-25 Per cent. (Kabsch, Pflanzenleben der Erde, 1865.)202.In Europe the blossoming season is retarded four days for each degree of northern latitude. (Schübler.) As we advance towards the north, the difference becomes less noticeable, but more so as we go towards the south. In mountainous countries a similar difference is observable, produced by a like climatic influence. It is from about 10 to 12 days, for a height of from 500 to 600 feet. (Wolff, Naturgesetzliche Grundlagen des Ackerbaues I, p. 332 ff.) In the cantons, in which the Swiss confederation had its origin, the pasturage of the Alps lasts generally thirteen weeks, but in the higher Alps it lasts only from six to seven weeks. (Businger, C. Unterwalden., p. 52.)203.In central Italy, winter wheat may be sown in October, November or December; summer wheat, in February or March. (Sismondi, Tableau de l'Agriculture Toscane, p. 35.) In Judæa, it was possible to harvest figs ten months in the year. (Joseph, Bell. Jud., Ill, p. 10.) On the other hand, there is Jemtland, where the peasant in many places surrounds the northern portion of his cornfield with fagots, and lights them in August when the north wind blows, to protect his land from the frost; and where the expression “green years” is used to designate those in which the harvest has to be reaped before it is ripe. (Forsell, Statistik von Schweden, 24.) In the valuation made of the lands of the kingdom of Saxony, for assessment purposes, the cost of supporting a yoke of oxen in the lowest country is estimated at only three-fourths of what it is in the highest localities, because in the former, 200 work days can be calculated upon in the year, in the latter only 159. In central Russia, the greater part of the labor of agriculture, sowing and harvesting, has to be finished within the space of four months. In central Germany, they are spread over seven months. Other things being equal, seven horses and ploughmen are needed in Russia where only four are called for in central Germany, (von Haxthausen, Studien I, 174.) On the impediments put in the way of agriculture by the climate of eastern Prussia, see Meitzen, Boden und landwirthsch. Verhältnisse des preussichen Staats, 1868, I, Abschn., 6.204.“In both hemispheres, the zone in which the temperature decreases most rapidly lies between the 40th and 50th degrees of north latitude. This circumstance must have a happy influence on the culture and industry of the nation inhabiting the neighborhood of that zone. Here is the point where the regions of the vine touch upon those of the olive. Nowhere in the world, do the products of the vegetable kingdom, and the most varied wonders of agriculture, follow with such rapidity on one another. The great variety of products enlivens the commerce and increases the industrial activity of agricultural nations.” (Humboldt.) It is true, however, that tropical countries possess, also, in their mountainous parts, the tierra fria, templada and caliente, superimposed the one on the other.205.The aggregate coal supply of Great Britain (1869) was 2,180 millions cwt.; of Belgium (1862), 207 millions; of France (1868) 256 millions; of Prussia (1870), 600 millions, of Austria (1870), including brown lignite coal, 158 millions; of Russia (1868), only a little over 9 millions. The great English coal field, in the counties of Durham and Northumberland, embraces 732 English square miles; that of South Wales, 1,200, with a depth of 95 feet, so that the geographical square mile contains here 679 millions of tons, each of twenty cwt. To obtain the same quantity of combustible material as was furnished to Prussia, in 1865, by its coal, it would be necessary to use up 6,331 square miles of forest, (von Dèchen, in Engel's Zeitschrift, 1867, 258.) The supply of coal is, of course, exhaustible while, for instance, turf-fields replace themselves by slow degrees. Compare Griesbach, über die Bildung des Torfs, in the Göttinger Studien, 1845, vol. I. The importance of the coal-fields of the United States, which are twenty-two times as large as those of Great Britain, in the distant future, cannot be over-estimated.206.I need only call attention to the earth-fire (Erdbrand) for the purpose of forcing the growth of garden plants in the neighborhood of Zwickau, which is said to have existed since 1505.207.Thus, in Watt's steam engines of the larger kind, an hourly consumption of ten pounds of coal is needed to produce a force equivalent to that of one horse, while in the smallest machines of only one horse power, twenty-two pounds are needed. See Prechtl, Technolo. Encyklopädie, III, 669.208.It is easy to see that it is the most important substances needed in industry which are mentioned in this section. Many political economists have considered the principal difference between agriculture and the industries and economies of towns to lie in the contrast here referred to. Thus, A. Sena, Sulle Cause che possono far abbondare li Regni d'oro e d'argento, dove non sono miniere, 1613, I, 3. See the description of the difference between land and machines in Malthus, Principles, III, 5; Senior, Outlines, 86. But it is nothing more than a difference of gradation. Even in the most active of businesses there is a limit which the accumulation of means of production cannot pass without a relative diminution of the income. This boundary is imposed by the limited nature of those organic beings which must contribute to production either actively or passively. Thus, for instance, a manufacturing establishment or commercial business can be enlarged with advantage only so long as it is still possible for one superintendent to conduct it. And so, when cattle are furnished with very abundant and substantial food, a pound of meat costs the producer a much higher price than when they are more moderately supplied: sometimes in the ratio of 1.95:0.98. Boussingault, Economie rurale, II. Where there is absolute over-feeding, the producer must suffer loss. But, even inorganic nature imposes its own limits here; as, for instance, when ships, machines etc., on account of the insufficient strength of the materials of which they are made, cannot be constructed beyond a certain size. But all these limits are much narrower than those imposed by the quality of immovability.209.Senior, Outlines, 26, 81 ff. See Stewart, Principles, II, ch. 11; Ortes, E. N., I, 18, II, 18 ff. This most important principle in Political Economy is thus illustrated by John Stuart Mill, Principles, book I, ch. 12. “The limitation to production from the properties of the soil is not like the obstacle opposed by a wall, which stands immovable in one particular spot, and offers no hindrance to motion short of stopping it entirely. We may rather compare it to a highly elastic and extendible band, which is hardly ever so violently stretched, that it could not possibly be stretched any more, yet the pressure of which is felt long before the final limit is reached, and felt more severely the nearer that limit is approached.” This is, if possible, more obvious in building than in agriculture, both as to the construction of new stories and the excavation of deeper cellars.210.Ad. Mayer, Das Düngerkapital und der Raubbau (Heidelberg, 1869), sees the only conditions of production which man cannot increase at will exclusively in the sun's rays, the employment of which also depends on the quantity of land. Thus would he explain Senior's law.211.See the tables of increase in Cotta, Anweisung zum Waldbau, p. 228. Count Buquoy, Theorie der N. Wirthschaft, p. 54, ridicules the absurd procedure of a great many farmers, as if by forcing the ploughshare deeper into the soil, they could compel it to produce a double return, and asks: if one should dig a square foot of land to the center of the earth and manure it, who would take it off his hands? As to the effect of manure, Kuhlmann's investigations have shown that 300 kilogrammes of guano produced in three years an increase per hectare in the yield, of 2,469 kilogrammes of hay; while 600 kilogrammes produced an increase of only 2,870 kilogrammes. Schübler, found that where salt had been used for manuring purposes, 40 kilogrammes produced a maximum of fertility from which point forward every increase in the amount of salt was attended by diminished returns, and finally led to complete barrenness. See Wolff, Naturgesetzliche Grundlagen, I, 408, 412, 502. Constantly increased irrigation would convert the land into a swamp instead of indefinitely adding to its fertility. Nor can abundant sowing be of any use when it reaches such a point that the plants stand so closely together as to interfere with their proper development.212.These differences correspond with the differences in the kinds of deterioration to which land is liable from rivers, floods, lava, etc., soil-exhaustion, and the growing wild of the land.213.From a technic point of view, it would, perhaps, be practicable, in most instances, to obtain the phosphoric acid immediately from the land and transfer it to other land; but the relation of the cost to the result makes it impossible from an economical point of view.214.
Вильгельм Рошер
«Принципы политической экономии, том 1»
It most certainly is always an uncommon advantage that certain kinds of soil, rich in kali and decayed vegetable matter, yield a long series of harvests without the addition of manure, provided, always, that a short interval is allowed to the process of decay to replace the exhausted plant-food. Thus in many volcanic regions. Compare on similar districts in the Deccan: Rilter, Erdkunde, V, 714.215.According to Schübler, the absorption of water by 100 parts of earth is, in the case of quartz-sand, 25 per cent. of its weight; for clay, 70 per cent.; for calcareous earth, 85 per cent.; humus, 190 per cent.; and for 100 parts of their value, respectively, 37.9, 66.2, and 69.2 per cent. The consistency of the four kinds of earth, in a dry state, is in the proportion of 0.100, 5, 8.7; their adhesion in a moist state, to iron agricultural implements, is in that of 0.17, 1.12, 0.65, 0.40. Of 100 parts of water mixed with these kinds of earth, the evaporation in four hours, at a temperature of 18° 75' (centigrade) is 88.4, 31.3, 28 and 20.5 per cent, respectively. The diminution of volume when the moist earth dries, under the same degree of temperature, is, 0, 18.3, 5 and 20. Their relative absorption of atmospheric moisture for 48 hours is as 0, 24, 17.5 and 55; their absorption of oxygen in 30 days is respectively 1.6, 15.3, 10.8 and 2.03 per cent.; and, lastly, their heat-holding power is in the ratio of 95.6, 66.7, 61.8, 49.216.In Austria, below the Enns, only 3.8 per cent. of the soil is barren; in the Tyrol, 29 per cent.; in Dalmatia, 48.1 per cent. (Springer). In the French Pyrenees, 43 per cent. is considered incapable of cultivation; in the Alps, in Landes and Morbihan, 42 per cent.; in the departments of Nord and Somme, 1.3 per cent. (Schnitzler). Franscini considers 36 per cent. of Switzerland unfit for tillage. The idea “barren” is a very vague one, and hence a comparison of different countries on this point should not be made without great caution.217.Wolff, loc. cit., 353 ff. As to the manner in which soil and climate mutually improve or injure one another, see Schwerz, Prackt. Ackerbau I, 12.218.In this respect, also, the fundamental difference between agriculture and industry is very important, inasmuch as the products of the former, equal in value to those of the latter, require a very large supporting or bearing surface; those of industry, a very small one. If Nobbe's “water-cultivation” should ever come to assume any great practical importance, agriculture would approach to industry in this respect.219.Wolkoff has called special attention to mere emplacement: Lectures d'Economie polítique rationelle (1861), pp. 90 seq., 157 seq. Bastiat's rather broad and enthusiastic assertion, that no mere product of nature possesses value (in contradistinction to utility), an exaggeration of his very honorable contest with the socialists (1848!), is refuted by daily experience, as when, for instance, discoveries are made accidentally of metallic veins, coal-fields etc., which immediately acquire great exchange value.220.Aristotle distinguishes between ἀπολαυστικὰ and κάρπιμα. (Rhet., I, 5.)221.Humboldt, Essai politique, súr la N. Espagne, IV, 9, in which he estimates the relation of the culture of the banana to that of wheat, in respect of mere quantity, to be as 4,000 to 30,—“probably the best gift of nature to awakening man, and the object of the most ancient cultivation.”222.It was said that in Easter Island, three days' labor sufficed for a man's maintenance through the whole year. A similar gift of nature to tropical lands is the date tree. It is turned to so many different uses that the Arabs of the coast of the Persian Gulf say that it is possible to construct a ship, rig it, supply and freight it, from date trees. Houses are built of palm wood, covered with palm leaves, furnished with palm mats, lighted with palm chips, and heated with palm coals. The whole architecture of these countries is fashioned by the date tree. Date wine is the favorite intoxicating beverage. There is a proverb current there that a good housewife can vary the preparation of the date for her guests every day in the month. Even the pulp is eaten. Each tree yields an average of 50-250 lbs. of dates; and a tree may last over 200 years. An acre may contain more than 200 trees. The labor of cultivation is very slight, although it demands more care than the banana. Compare Ritter, Erdkunde, XII, 763. An acre planted with the sago-palm yields as much nourishment as 163 acres of wheat land. (Reise der Frigatte Novara, II, 113.)223.See D. Hume, Discourses No. I (On Commerce). While in hot countries “the sun does more work for man, it diminishes human strength itself.” (M. Wirth.) That, however, such people, to their surplus of the natural means of enjoyment and the consequent laziness and absence of care, add the bright side of a joyous disposition, is well shown by Goethe, Werke (16 mo., 1840), XXIII, 246.224.Noticed even by Thucyd., I, 2. See also Euripides' comparison of Sparta and Messina, in Strabo, VIII, 366.225.We find, in a great many countries, that their northern portions are endowed more sparingly by nature with means of enjoyment (Genussmitteln) than southern portions, but more abundantly with means of acquisition. (Erwerbsmitteln.) Hence, the former are latest to develop; but once developed, they assume a much higher place in civilization than the latter. This is true of Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and the United States, and of North America in general, as compared with South America. Something similar may be seen in the contrast between Austria and Prussia. The latter is colder and less fertile, but far superior to the former in extent of coast, in rivers, and fossilized combustible matter.226.The rule is not without its exceptions. Thus, for instance, Borneo and New Guinea are physically very like each other, but zoölogically two different worlds; the former belonging to India and the latter to Australia.227.Even language, which is the most general and most accurate expression of the intellectual genius of a people, presents a strikingly analogous contrast in mountainous and coast countries. Thus, compare the Ionic, Latin, Low German, Danish and Portuguese, with the Doric, Oscan, High German, Swedish and Spanish.228.See Strabo, II, 126. seq.229.The most striking instance, illustrative of the manner in which the nature of a country influences the character of a people is afforded by the difference in the development of the Aryans in India and Persia, especially when their sojourn in the territory of the Indus before that near the Ganges is looked upon as an intermediate stage.230.French writers, especially, have exaggerated the influence of nature over man. Thus, Bodin. de Repub. (1584), V, I; Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, XVII, 6. XVIII, 1, 18. Cabanis, Rapport du Physique et du Moral de l'Homme (1805), IX, Mémoire, Influence des Climats. Comte, also, Traité de Législation (1827), is of opinion that “the degree of civilization which a people may attain does not depend on the degree of development of which they are capable by nature, but on that which their geographical situation permits them to attain.” See, also, Herodot., III, 106; Hippocr., De Ære etc., 71; Euripid., Medea, 820 ff.; Plutarch, De Exilio, 13. The proper mean has been found by E.M. Arndt, in his Anleitung zu historischen Characterschilderungen (1810), and by Ritter, and his school. See, also, K.S. Zachariæ, Idee einer volkswirthschaftlichen Geographic als Grundlage der praktischen N. Œkonomie fur jedes einzelne Volk: Vierzig Bücher v. Staate, II, 79. See, also, Turgot, Géographie politique, 1750, Œuvres (ed. Daire, II, 611 ff.); Lueder, Nationalindustrie und Staatswirthschaft, III, 1800 ff.231.Malte Brun, Précis. de la Geographie universelle, VI. pr.232.Strabo, IV, 178. On the climate of ancient Germany, see Tacit, Germ, 2.233.Fraser, Travels in Koordistan and Mesopotamia, II, 5. See, also, the description of ancient Susiana in Strabo XV, 731, with that of the new one by M'Kinneir, Geogr. Memoir of Persia, 92.234.Thus, Galenus, De Usu Partium Corporis humani, L. I. The animal nearest to man mentally, the elephant, is also possessed of a member more like the human hand than any other animal. Its trunk was called manus by the Romans. Hence the Indians call the elephant, the animal gifted with a hand. Buffon's view is exaggerated by Helvetius in the interests of materialism. Aristotle, (De partt. anim. IV, 10), opposes the saying of Anaxagoras: διὰ τὸ χεῖρας ἔχειν φρονιμώτατον εἶναι τῶν ζώων ἄνθρωπον. Compare Bell, On the human Hand, 1836.235.As to the imperfection of the ordinary division into agricultural, industrial and commercial labor, see John Stuart Mill, I, ch. 2, 9. The division of all labor into mental and physical, is not more satisfactory; for even the basest labor is not wholly physical. See Buckle, History of Civilization, vol. II.236.Dioscorides and Galen were acquainted with, at most, 600 plants; Linnæus, with 8,000. About 1812, about 30,000 had been described; in 1837, about 60,000; in 1849, about 100,000. Buckle, History of Civilization etc., II, p. 359.237.Industrie extractives, according to Dunoyer. When nature's spontaneous gifts are exhausted, this occupation readily becomes production.238.Industrie voituriére, according to Dunoyer; industria traslocatrice in opposition to trasformatrice, according to Scialoja. Ortes distinguishes only four classes: agricoltori, artefici, dispensatori and administratori, or raccoglitori, manifattori, and difensori di bene (E. N. I, 2; III, 14). A. Walker, Science of Wealth (1867), p. 34, knows only three classes: transmutation, transformation, transportation.239.This is not to be understood in the sense, that there ever was a period in which these sciences were unknown. We need only mention the position occupied by the priest and knight in the middle ages. But, looked upon as economic labor, intended only for purposes of free commerce, they have become very important only within a relatively recent period of time. Thus, for instance, there was in Lower Austria, in 1866, one lawyer or notary to every 6,569 inhabitants; in Bohemia, to every 14,860; in Galicia, to every 22,361; in the whole of Cis-Leithanian Austria, 12,259. In 1865, there was in Prussia, one to every 11,149; in Bavaria, to every 7,350; in Hanover, to every 4,946; in 1862, in Baden, one to every 4,992; in 1867, in Saxony, one to every 3,048. Hildebrand's Tagebuch, 1868, I, 234. There was in Prussia, in 1871, one doctor to every 3,230 inhabitants; in Berlin, to every 1,100; in Heldesheim, to 1,803; in Cologne, to 2,120, in Marienwerder, to 7,240; in Gumbinnen, to 10,047. Engel, Preuss. Statis. Zeitschrift, 1872, 376. The verb “to plow” is, according to comparative philologists, of more recent origin than “to weave.” (Lassen, Indische Alterth. I, 814 ff.) And yet agriculture, in the sense above indicated, undoubtedly precedes industry.240.Observed by Geiler v. Kaisersberg. Compare Schmoller in the Tübinger Zeitschr., 1860, 483. Hour wages occupy a middle place between day wages and piece wages.241.Thus the introduction of piece wages into lower Silesia has increased the daily earnings of workmen by one-third, one-half, and even more. Engel's Stastist. Zeitschr. (1868), p. 327. The investigations of the German agricultural congress on the condition of agricultural laborers in the German empire (report of v. d. Goltz, 1875) show that in all Germany on an average, the daily earnings of a contract workman (Accordlöhner) is to the daily summer wages of a day laborer as 15:10 (1420). On the other hand, Brassey, in the construction of a railway, found that the same workmen engaged in grading, digging, etc., cost 18 pence per yard when paid by the day, and 7 pence when paid by the piece. (Work and Wages, 266.) Swiss experience is, that production became 20 per cent. cheaper under the piece wages system. (Böhmert, Beitr., 109.)242.According to v. d. Goltz's Enquête, the earnings of workmen by the piece, compared with the wages paid workmen by the day in summer, is especially high in middle Franconia (16.5:10); in the Leipzig circle of the German empire (16.6), in the Braunschweig plain (16.8), within the jurisdiction of Hildesheim (18.1), of the Bavarian Palatinate (18.6), in Rhenish Hesse (23.2), especially low in Stettin (13.2:10), in Stralsund (12.4), in Schleswig Holstein (12), in Osnabrück, (11.7.)243.According to v. Flotow, Anleitung zur Fertigung der Ertragsanschlage, I, 80, four days of serf labor are equivalent to only three of a free day laborer. According to v. Jacob, Ueber die Arbeit Leibeigener und freier Bauern (1815), 21, two day laborers are equal to three serfs, and one farm horse is equal to two employed by serfs. It is as impossible to obtain accurate general estimates here, as in the case of slave labor. As a rule, hope is not only a more humane but a sharper spur to action. But if force is employed at all, there is no doubt that the greater it is, the more effectual it is. Wherever the right of corporal punishment has been taken from the masters, the technic value of serfdom has uniformly decreased. In the English West Indies, formerly, philanthropic masters who treated their negroes with unwonted gentleness, obtained from them, as a rule, very poor economic results. While each of the slaves expressed the greatest indignation at the idleness of the others when they had “so good a master,” they were all equally and excessively lazy. The weekly production of a plantation sank rapidly under this system from thirty-three hogsheads to twenty-three, and finally to thirteen. Math. Levis, Journal of a West India Proprietor, 1834; Edinburg Review, XLV, 410. For the same reason, the negroes in the Spanish colonies, who were treated much more gently than those owned by other European nationalities produced much worse work. See, however, Columella, De Re rust., I, 8.244.According to Howlett, The Insufficiency of the Causes to which the Increase of our Poor Rate have been ascribed (1788), piece wages had become usual “a few years ago.” Very recently the trades unions have again restricted the system of piece wages (§ 176).245.This system is inapplicable in the case of domestic servants (Gesinde) who are a part of the household, and who afford to their masters, besides their services, the advantage of having a person at their disposal always about them, and whose wages are therefore in great part their board and lodging. Still less can it apply to the case of the family physician, whose services consist not simply in writing prescriptions, but who is also the professional family friend. The same may be said of the state official, clergyman etc., from whom it is demanded that he should sacrifice his entire life to the service of the public. Against adopting piece wages in the case of state officials, it may be further urged that no case at law, no act of public life is precisely similar to any other. It cannot be applied to that of soldiers, because they are called upon for action only after a long term of peace, during all of which they must keep themselves in readiness for war. (Schäffle, N. Œk., II, 388.) It has also been the practice of courts, until recently, on account of their dignity, to pay their mechanics not by the piece, wherever that was practicable, but by a fixed salary. An able professor in a university is of use to it not only by his lectures, but by his reputation and example etc.; hence, here, a combination of piece wages and of a regular salary is preferred. As to services, the permanency of which constitutes their essential character, remuneration is also wont to be permanent or hereditary, as in the case of very many public officers, while civilization is as yet unadvanced. Later, in proportion as the progress of civilization makes itself felt, this hereditariness is wont to be confined to the sovereign. For an opposite view, see Boxhorn, Institutt. politt. (1663), 41.246.Thus, the Chinese, who, by a ridiculous exaggeration bordering on caricature of many of our recent tendencies, may afford us a warning reflection of ourselves in our present state of civilization, rarely labor efficiently when not watched. Only by means of piece wages or the share-system can they be induced to do good work. R. M. Micking; Recollections of Manilla and the Phillippine Islands, 1851.247.Day laborers, for instance, must be watched over during the harvest, to prevent their idling away their time, and piece-workers to prevent their continuing to work in spite of wet weather, binding sheaves, for instance, which causes the sheaves to rot. In England, it is considered almost an impossibility to induce laborers to cut wheat close enough to the soil. (Sinclair, Code of Agriculture, 102.) The haste of piece-workers, in the harvest of the rape, occasions great loss, by the fall of the seed. In Russia the removing of the hide from animals is paid for by the piece, and the laborers injure a very large number of skins in their haste. Steinhaus, Russlands industrielle und commercielle Verhältnisse, 425. Piece-wages are to be entirely discountenanced in the reeling of silk. See Bernouilli, Technologie, II, 215. A yearly salary is to be recommended in the tending of cattle, because here a certain connection (Anschluss) with individuals is desirable. In building trades, contractors in England prefer a regular salary; but they employ model workmen, the so-called “bell horses,” to whom they pay a large salary, and who keep the others on the strain by their example, and who on that account are very much hated by their colleagues.248.Adam Smith, W. of Nations, I, ch. 8. Howlett, also, l. c., thinks that piece-wages increase the earnings of workmen, but at the expense of their capacity for constant labor.
Count Görtz, in his Reise, 328, relates with what fatal effect piece-work in Demarara tells on white laborers and their horses. After the February Revolution, Parisian workmen demanded the abolition of piece-wages, and obtained it in several manufactories. Revue des deux Mondes, March 15, 1848.249.In several Swiss factories, understrappers receive a salary, while monteurs work by groupe-contract. (Böhmert, Arbeiterverältnisse und Fabrikeinrichtungen der Schw., II, 70.) Sub-contracting, where the contract is generally made with only one person, for the most part of more than average capacity, and this latter contracts with other workmen on his own account entirely, is considered by philanthropic employers of labor as one of the worst kinds of remuneration. The more democratic system of gang-contract is much better, although even here, it is very easy for the weaker members of a good gang to overwork themselves. (Edinburg Review, October, 1873, 365.)250.Especially important in chemical factories. The expense of greasing on the Rhenish railways fell, through premiums offered as rewards for saving, from 27,000 thalers to 5,000, in spite of an increase in the amount of traffic. (v. Mangoldt, Volkswirthschaftslehre, 349.) This was, besides, the most effectual way of controlling the theft of material.251.In the cachelot fishery, the captain receives one-sixteenth, the master, one twenty-fifth, the second master, one thirty-fifth, the boatswain, one-sixtieth, each sailor, one eighty-fifth of the profit. (Humboldt, N. Espagne, IV, 10.) This system is very common in North America. See Carey in J. S. Mill's Principles, V, ch. 9, 7. In heathen Iceland, mariners were always paid a certain quota of the profits. Leo, in Raumer's historischem Taschenbuch, 1835, 524. The same was often the case in China. McCulloch, Comm. Diction. v. Canton. In England, its employment was rendered very difficult by the laws of partnership, which made each individual, except in great chartered societies, responsible for all kinds of debts contracted by the rest of the firm. J. S. Mill, B. IV, ch. 7, 5.252.The house painter Leclaire, in Paris, obtained very high results in this respect. Leclaire, Répartition des Bénéfices du Travail, 1842. He retained for his own services as contractor the sum of 6,000 francs, and paid each workman the salary he had hitherto received. What remained was, at the end of the year, equally divided among all. Leclaire assures us that he was always satisfied with the system. The paying of a proportion of the general profits to laborers is advisable only in case their ability of surveying the whole is not much inferior to that of their employers. Where a special proportion is paid, in special branches of business, it is sufficient if their supervision extends over that particular branch. But a sharing in the profits of business always supposes a corresponding supervision of the business itself, and also the keeping of accounts.253.A very good remedy against indigence among the lower classes. (Umpfenbach, National Œkonomie, 1867, 214.) But whether it will ever be possible to make the remuneration of the navvy or that of a type-setter depend on the final success of his work, qnœre.254.Tournefort, speaking of the fatalism of the Turks, says that they always and everywhere leave the world as they found it. According to their own proverb, no grass grows again where the Osman has set foot.255.The experiments made with the dynamometer in 1800 ff. show that the average force manuelle of an inhabitant of Van Dieman's Land is to that of an inhabitant of New Holland, of Timor, of a French marine, and of an English colonist in Australia, in the ratio of 50, 51, 58, 69, 71 kilogrammes. Péron, Voyage de Découverte aux Terres australes, 2d ed., II, 417. It was found more recently in the American army, that the average lifting-power of white soldiers was 314 to 343 -lbs.; of white marines, 307; students, 308; negroes, 323; mulattos, 348; and Indians, 419. Gould, Investigations in the Military and Anthropolog. Statistics of American Soldiers, 1869, 458, seq. According to English manufacturers, an English laborer accomplishes almost as much again as a French one(?), and the latter in turn more than an Irishman. An English contractor, who had worked in French manufactories, expressed his opinion concerning the French to this effect: “It cannot be called work they do; it is only looking at it and wishing it done.” Senior, Outlines, 149. Thus, for instance, a good English spinner with a machine of 800 spindles could produce 66 lbs. of yarn, No. 40, while a Frenchman could produce only 48 lbs. (M. Mohl, Reise durch Frankreich, 535; compare Dingler, Polyt. Journal, I, 63 seq.) That the Americans also are inferior to the English in strength and dexterity is attested by the American Hewitt. See Brentano, Arbeitergilden, II, 231. A Berlin wood-sawyer accomplished as much in ten days as a West Prussian from Labiau in twenty-seven days. J. G. Hoffmann. English farmers on the Hellespont prefer to pay Greek laborers £10 per year “besides their keep,” rather than £3 to Turkish laborers. (Lord Carlisle, Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters, 1854, p. 77 seq.) In Paulo-pinang, the Malayan agricultural laborer receives $2-½ per month, the Malabar, $4, the Chinese, $6; for which compensation they work respectively 26, 28 and 30 days. Ritter, Erdkunde, v, 54.256.Little light can be thrown on this subject by a comparison of different countries. Thus, in France, there are 614 persons in every 1,000 examined fit for military service; in Bavaria, 705; in Denmark, 523; in Austria, 498; in Prussia, 284; in Saxony, 259; in England, where the conscription is from among the lowest classes, 665; and in Württemberg, 490. (Wappäus, Allg. Bevölkerungsstatistik, II, 71, 140.) Massy, Remarks on the Examination of Recruits, 1854. (Memminger, Würt. Jahrb., 1843, 103.) The comparison of different parts of the same state is much more instructive. Thus, in Saxony, cities afford only 197, and the flat country only 265 per 1,000 (Sächs. statist. Ztschr., 1856, No. 4 ff.); and in France there are among those of illegitimate birth a very large number unfit for military service. (Journ. des Econ., 1850, XXV, 69.) According to the Austrian Annual of military statistics, there were in 1870, on an average, throughout the entire monarchy, 211 per 1,000 of those liable to enter the ranks of the military, fit for service; in the Innsbruck command, 325; in Lemberg, 179.257.M. Chevalier, Cours, I, 115. Adam Smith, B. I, ch. 8, noticed the great industry of well paid workmen. Among the uneducated, labor must almost necessarily be repulsive in proportion as it is illy remunerated.258.Thus A. Young remarked that wages in Ireland are wretchedly low, while labor is far from being cheap. In his “Evidence in Respect to the Occupation of Land in Ireland,” II, 135, he says that a Scotch day laborer at 1s. per day is cheaper than an Irish day laborer at ½s. According to McCulloch, “Statis. Account of the British Empire,” I, 666, industrial labor in Germany and France is dearer than in England, because in the former countries there are, ceteris paribus, twice as many laborers employed in most manufactures. See Senior, Lectures on Wages, 1830, 11, and the reports of the committees of parliament, passim on French manufactures (1825). The same has been experienced in the agricultural history of Schleswig-Holstein. See Hanssen, Archiv. der Politisch. Œk. IV, 421. La main d'œuvre est chère en Russie dès qu'il s'agit d'une certaine capacité et d'un certain degré d'instruction professionelle, tandis que celle de l'ouvrier ordinaire n'est nulle part aussi bas. (Tégoborsky.)259.Thus even Columella, R. R. I, 9. J. S. Mill, Principles, I, ch. 7, 5.260.Thus, for instance, the Lex Visigoth., VIII, 4, 16, graduates the fine to be paid by the murderer according to the age of his victim. It increases up to the 20th year in the case of males, and diminishes after the 50th. In the case of females, the maximum is attained between the ages of 15 and 40. Similarly even Moses, Book III, 27.261.As to what concerns the two sexes, the force rénale of adult males is twice that of females in the human species. The difference between them in youth is not so great. The force manuelle of the two sexes at the age of 30 is as 9:5. (Quételet, Sur l'Homme II, p. 73 ff.) The numerical ratio of one sex to the other varies but little among those nations which have attained a certain degree of civilization. See infra, § 245.262.Здесь очень важно рассчитать количество дней в году, в которые рабочий вынужден бездействовать из-за болезни. Фенгер (Quid faciant ætas annique tempus ad frequentiam et diuturnitatem morborum, Hafniæ 1840) получает следующий результат:
От 15 до 19 лет, 7,2 дня. От 35 до 39 лет, 7,8 дня. От 20 до 24 лет, 10,3 дня. От 40 до 44 лет, 8,3 дня. От 25 до 29 лет, 9,5 дня. От 45 до 49 лет, 11,6 дня. От 30 до 34 лет, 7,6 дня. От 50 до 59 лет, 14,1 дня.
Согласно Виллерме, в Annales d'Hygiène, II,
At 60 years, 16 days. At 67 years, 42 days.
At 65 years, 31 days. At 70 years, 75 days.
Последняя таблица является результатом сравнения, сделанного по таблицам семидесяти шотландских обществ взаимной помощи. Сравните Диглер, Polyt. Journal, XXIV, 168. 263.Tacit., Germ., 14. Leo, in Raumer's Taschenbuch, 1835, 418. Maxime sua esse credebant, quæ: ex hostibus cepissent. (Gajus IV, 16.) Roman auction sub hasta! Similar views obtained among the Thracians. See Herodot., V, 6. In Sparta, even in the time of Agesilaus, economic labor was considered unworthy of a free man, (Plutarch, Ages, 26); while the Athenians, from the time of Solon, punished idleness, and from that of Pericles “knew no other festival but attending to their business.” Thucyd., I. 70. For some happy observations on this subject, see Riehl, Die deutsche Arbeit, 1861.264.Compare Erasmus Colloq. (ed. Stallb.), 21 ff., 213 ff., 392 ff.265.Temple learned from the Dutch of his own age that the time of industrious men is the greatest home commodity of a country. (Works I, 129.) “A trader's time is his bread.” (Sir M. Decker, Essay on the Decline etc., 1744, 24.) Walpole, in his Testament politique II, 385, speaks of the inferiority of the Roman Church in this respect. I would allude to the medieaval prohibition “to sell time” as one of the chief grounds of the prohibition of usury. (See Roscher, Gesch. der N. Œk. in Deutschland, 7.) Economia di tempo equivale a prolungamento di esistenza. (Soialeja.)266.Douville, Voyage au Congo I, 239. See v. Haxthausen, Studien, II, 439; W. Jacob, Production and Consumption of the precious Metals, II, 209. The division of the day into hours dates from the time of the sun dials of Alexandria. It was not known in Rome until after the year of the city 491. (Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, I. 301.)267.Pinckard, Notes on the West Indies, 1806, II, 107. In Spain it looks as if no one in the streets was in a hurry. What a contrast between the sans souci gait of persons at bathing places and the resorts of pilgrims and the precipitate haste in commercial centres!268.Meyendorff, Voyage à Boukhara, 246.269.The history of this idea affords a remarkable example of the confusion produced by the employment of scientific terminology in daily life. Until within a short time every possible meaning of the word capital was to be found in the dictionary of the French Academy, its scientific politico-economical meaning alone excepted. During the middle ages, the Latin capitale was used to signify both loaned money and cattle. (Ducange, s.v.) When culture was at its highest in Greece, Demosthenes entertained very good ideas of the nature of capital which he sometimes calls ἀφορμὴ, sometimes ἔρανος, the meaning of which he extends also to the incorporeal capital of a good reputation. (Adv. Mid., 574; pro Phorm, 947.) The same may be said of the Roman in conception of peculium. See Hildebrand's Jahrbb., 1866, I. 338. On the beginnings of the present idea of capital among the later schoolmen, see Funck, Tübinger Ztschr., 1869, 149. The diary of Lucas Rems, 1491-1541 (ed. Greiff, 1861), calls commercial capital, in most instances, the chief good (Hauptgut) p. 37; also Cavedal. The words money and capital, interest and the price of money are now confounded in daily life, as they were formerly by most writers. In the 17th century, Child and Locke may be mentioned as instances. Hobbes had some faint notion of the productive power of capital. See Roscher, Zur Geschichte der englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre, 49, 60, 102. Thus, also, in the 18th century, Law, Sur l'Usage des Monnaies, 697; Trade and money (1705) 117; Mélon, Essai politique sur le Commerce, 1734, ch. 22; Galiani, Della Moneta, IV, 1, 3; Blackstone, Commentaries, 1764, II, 456; Genovesi, Economia civile, II, 2, 18, 13; Stewart, Principles, IV, 1, ch. IV; Verri, Meditazioni, XIV; Büsch, Geldumlauf, V. 14; A. Young, Political Arithmetics (1774), 1, ch. 7. Hume, on the other hand, Discourses (1752), No. 4 (on interest), shows, that the rate of interest is dependent, not as Locke supposed, on the abundance or scarcity of money, but on the state of profit and on the relation between the demand and supply of capital. Similarly, J. Massie, An Essay on the governing Causes of the Rate of Interest (1750). Quesnay, Dialogue sur le Commerce, 173 (ed. Daire), shows that he had a very clear conception of the operation, and of the principal component parts of capital. Turgot, Sur la Formation et la Distribution des Richesses, § 14, 54-79, came very near the truth, and yet missed it. He recognized the necessity of advances which, as a rule, are the result of saving, in every case of production. He also distinguishes in the product of the soil, besides the produit net and the subsistance du laboureur, the profit of the latter. He likewise points out a great number of differences between the “price of money” considered in its relation to trade, and in its relation to loans. He explains the interest on capital, as Schröder, in his Schatz-und Rentkammer, 231, and Benjamin Franklin, in his Inquiry into the Nature of a Paper Currency (1729) had done before, by the fact that the owner of capital can purchase a piece of land with his capital, and thus draw an income without working. Money, he said, was indeed not productive, but neither was any other thing that could be loaned or leased, with the exception of land and cattle. Adam Smith deserves the greatest credit for his analysis of the idea of capital, although he opposes “capital” to what the Germans call capital-in-use, the “stock for immediate consumption.” When Canard, Principes d'Economie politique (1801) and J. B. Say, Cours pratique, 1828, I, 285, included man's power of labor in capital, they took a retrograde step. “Labour is Capital, primary and fundamental.” Colton, 275. Every grown-up individual, says McCulloch, Principles, 1825, II, ch. 2, may be looked upon as a machine which has cost several years of continued care and a considerable sum for its construction. It is only another side of this same perversity, when McCulloch seeks to force the results produced by animals and machines into the definition of labor. Schlozer, Anfangsgründe (1805), I, 21, goes so far as to call the soul, raw material, which receives productive power from the labor of the teacher! For a calculation of the money value of man in the different ages of life, see Statis. Journ. XVI, 43 ff. See, on the other hand, Malthus, Definitions, ch. 7; and Rossi, in the Journal des Economistes, VI, 113. Nor does the view of Ganilh, Systèmes d'Economie politique (1809), I, 243; of Ad. Müller, Concordia, 93 ff., 211; of Hermann, “Staatswirth” Untersuchungen, No. 3; of Dunoyer, Liberté du Travail, L. VI; of Bastiat, Carey and others, who include pieces of land in themselves under the head of capital, seem to be better founded. Hermann defines capital the durable basis of every utility possessed of value in exchange. Schäffle reckons land as nature offers it to us, among free goods. From the moment that labor and capital are spent upon it, it becomes immovable capital, but he concedes that it still preserves many essential points which distinguish it from other capital. (N. Œk. Theorie der ausschliessenden Absatzverhältnisse, 1867, 65 ff., 89 ff.) These differences appear to me to be still more important than that which land and capital have in common; especially as the historic development of their relations proceeds for the most part in opposite directions. Thus, for instance, as civilization advances, land is wont to become dearer and capital cheaper. How difficult would it be to introduce clearness into the ideas of intensive and extensive agriculture, if land were accounted capital! And it is not only always theoretically, but also very often, in practice, possible to separate the value of a given piece of land from the most durable capital-improvements (Kapitalmeliorationen) made on it. It is only necessary to call to mind the area of buildings.270.Marx makes a very arbitrary assertion when he says that only the capital operating in trade, and even only that operating in trade where money is used as the instrument of exchange, can properly be called capital; and that, therefore, the modern biography of capital dates only from the 16th century, (Das Kapital I, 106 ff.)271.See, on the other hand, Wolkoff, Lectures d'Economie politique rationelle, 167.272.Hermann (II ed., 238 ff.) distinguishes especially preparatory contrivances auxiliary to labor, such as stationary structures etc., vessels, tools, machines and instruments for measuring etc.273.Thus, for instance, the plow and the gun are machines, the spade and the blow-pipe are tools. A hammer may be considered as a hard, insensible fist; the bellows as a pair of very strong and durable lungs. Tongs take the place of fingers, just as a spoon does of the empty hand, and the knife the place of the teeth. A great number of machines, on the other hand, may be compared to a complete workman. Thus, the action of the mill which grinds grain has very little resemblance to the blowing of the wind or the running of the water, whereas the rising and falling of the pestle in the small mortar for throwing grenades corresponds to the motion of the arm. (Rau, Lehrbuch I, § 125.) The infinite number of functions of which our members are capable is related to their inability to attain alone the greater number of their ends. Hence animals which require no tools can undertake to achieve very few things. “Man is a tool-making animal.” (B. Franklin.)274.This is seen most clearly in the history of the grinding of corn. In the time of Moses, and even of Homer, there were only hand-mills, and originally only mortars. Later, mills set in motion by horse-power were employed. Shortly after Cicero's time, mills driven by water-power came into use. Brunck, Analecta, II, 119, Ep. 39. Mills built on pontoons do not date farther back than the time of Belisarius. Wind-mills have been known since the ninth century; Dutch wind-mills, only since the middle of the 16th century. See Beckman, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Erfindungen II, I ff.275.Compare Plato, Polit., 280.276.Thus, Ganilh, Théorie de l'Economie politique I, 133, calls the knowledge, talents and probity of merchants, as well as their reputation, valuable parts of their capital in trade. See, also, Möser, Patriot. Ph. II, 26. See some happy observations on the intellectual capital of nations, as consisting of “known and unknown preparatory labor through their history,” in Lotze, Mikrokosomos II, 353 seq.277.Compare Dietzel, System der Staatsanleihen (1856), 71 ff. And, earlier yet, Ad. Müller had looked upon taxes not in the light of an insurance premium, but as “the interest of the invisible and yet absolutely necessary intellectual capital of the nation.” (Elemente, III, 75.) Of course, the State is much more than a species of capital; just as a Gothic cathedral is something more than a piece of masonry, but does not on that account cease to be a piece of masonry.278.J. B. Say, Traité d'Economie Politique I, ch. 10. Only think of what is known in physiology as the change or transformation of matter (Stoffwechsel!).279.Productive capital has been rendered into German by the word Erwerbstamm, by the author of “Staatswirthschaft nach Naturgesetzen,” 1819. Malthus, Definitions, ch. 10, and Rau, Lehrbuch, I, § 51, call productive capital alone, capital. According to M. Chevalier, goods lose their quality of capital as soon as they come into the hands of a consumer. Schäffle, N. Œk., II, aufl., 59, calls capital in use Genussvermögen (resources intended for enjoyment) and productive capital, Kapitalvermögen (capital-resources). On the other hand, J. B. Say, Traité, I, 13; McCulloch, Principles, II, 2, 3, Hermann, Staatswirthschaft. Untersuchungen, p. 60 ff., and v. Mangoldt, Volkswirthschaftslehre, 122, divide capital into capital in use and productive capital, according as it provides the possessor with that which he may turn to account directly or indirectly by becoming the owner of goods through its means. Aristotle distinguishes between ὄργανα and κτήματα, the former relating to ποίησις; for instance, a shuttle; the latter to πράξις, as, for instance, bedding and articles of dress. (Polit., I, 2, 5.)280.Thus, for instance, class A embraces parks and forests; B, theaters, churches, manufactories, arsenals, granaries, public walks and roads. Walks can, besides, be used for the cultivation of fruit, and roads for pleasure trips.281.Translated “capital de consommation” by Wolowski, p. 96 of his Roscher's Principles.—Translator's note.282.Dead, or better, dormant capital is such productive capital as, for the time being, remains unused, and which, therefore, does not yield even personal enjoyment. The sum total of this kind of capital is very much diminished by the agency of savings banks. Loaned capital which has been employed unproductively evidently constitutes no longer a part of the wealth of a people. See infra, § 189.283.Wolkoff is so far right, when in his Lectures, p. 142, he calls the return of capital in use not revenu, but déstruction graduelle. Schäffle is right, too, and entirely so, when he says that only such an increase of the property, intended for enjoyment simply, is anti-economic, as does not make the personal capacities of labor (Arbeitsvermögen) as much more productive than they would otherwise be. N. Œk., II, aufl., 224.284.Humboldt, N. Espange, II, ch. 17; v. Schlözer, Anfangsgründe, II, 109. Ausland, 140, No. 313. On the extraordinary wealth of even Russian peasant women in pearls, see v. Haxthausen, Studien, 87, 309.285.Townsend, Journey in Spain, I, 115, 310. In the patriarchal age of the Jews, there was a relatively very large quantity of ornamental objects in gold and silver: Michælis, De Pretiis Rerum apud Hebræos, in the Comm. Soc. Götting., III, 151 ff., 160. Conservative Sparta, in the middle age of its history, was certainly not rich, and yet it had more gold and silver than any other Grecian state: Plato, Alcib., I, 123. According to St. John, The Hellenes, III, 142, the ancients had relatively much more of the precious metals in the form of objects for ornament than the moderns. The Romans, with their usual good sense, did not make use of silver as an article of luxury until they had attained great wealth. See Cato, R. R., ch. 23, and Seneca, De Vita beata, ch. 21. Then the Carthaginian ambassadors railed at their hosts because they found the same pieces of table silver in all the houses to which they were invited. The younger Scipio, even, did not possess more relatively than 32 pounds of silver ware. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, II, 383. The relatively great importance of the stores for domestic use, nevertheless, runs through the whole of Roman history. The title de penu legato, in the Pandects (Digest, XXIII, 9), points to this, during the reign of the emperors, and in earlier times, the derivation of penates from penu. See Rodbertus, in Hildebrand's Jahrbuch, 1870, I, 365. Immense importance of the ring in the old north countries: Weinhold, Altnord. Leben, 184 ff. The age of chivalry was very rich in silver plate, cups, basins, etc. Büsching, Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, II, 137. Anderson, Origin of Commerce, a. 1386. Lord Burleigh, in the age of queen Elizabeth, left after him between fourteen and fifteen thousand pounds sterling in silver ware; that is almost as much as the rest of his whole estate; and, it would seem, that for a man of his rank, even this was not considered a great deal. Collins' Life of B., 44. According to Giustiniani, cardinal Wolsey owned articles of silver to the value of 1,500,000 ducats, and the greater number of the lords of the time were equally well provided with them.286.The Bedouins are fond of decorating their wives and children with all the jewels that they possess, both on holidays and other days, so that they sometimes have four or six bracelets on each arm and fifteen ear-rings in each ear. Burckhardt, Bemerkungen, 188. Wellsted (Roederer's translation), I, 224. In Asia Minor, girls wear their whole dowry in the shape of personal ornaments. Belgiojoso, Revue des deux Mondes, Feb. 1, 1855. In East India even the most wretched towns have their silver workers. The emirs of Scinde, with an annual income of £300,000, had a treasure worth £20,000,000, nearly £7,000,000 of which were in jewels. Ritter, Erdkunde VII, p. 185. On the upper Ganges more jewels and other ornaments are worn than on the lower, where the wealthy prefer to spend their capital on landed estates. Ritter, VI, 1143.287.The first beginnings of this division are to be found in Quesnay (Analyse du Tableau économique, 1758), in which he develops the difference between avances primitives and avances annuelles. See also Adam Smith, W. of N., II, ch. 1, who, however, reduces the difference between them mainly to the relations of possession, and hence includes grain and seed in fixed capital. Hermann, Staatsw. Untersuch., 269 ff.; Ricardo, Principles, ch. 1, sec. 2; Schmitt-henner, Staatswissenschaften, I, 387, divides capital into I, infungible, that is, 1, fixed in the strict sense of the word; 2, transportation-capital; II, fungible, 1, transformable capital; a, material (raw material, auxiliary material etc.), b, formed products; 2, circulating capital; a, wares; b, money. A. Walker, S. of W., 57, calls circulating capital that which may be easily transferred from one branch of production to another; fixed, that which can be used with advantage only for the purpose for which it was originally intended.288.Old wood-work is burned; old iron utensils sold; also houses when pulled down. Emminghaus, Allg. Gewerbelehre, 1868, 175.289.If the Mongols, for instance, should despoil China of all its moveable property with the exception of its buried money, its immovable property would become productive only from the time that that money would be used to secure other moveable articles.