[From "The Monetary and Mining Gazette," November 13, 1875.]
THE DEFINITION OF WEALTH.
Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
9th November, 1875.
To the Editor of "The Monetary Gazette."
Sir: I congratulate you with all my mind on the sense, and with all my heart on the courage, of your last Saturday's leading article, which I have just seen.[66] You have asserted in it the two vital principles of economy, that society cannot exist by reciprocal pilfering, but must produce wealth if it would have it; and that money must not be lent, but administered by its masters.
You have not yet, however, defined wealth itself, or told the ingenuity of the public what it is to produce.
I have never been able to obtain this definition from economists;[67] perhaps, under the pressure of facts, they may at last discover some meaning in mine at the tenth and eleventh pages of "Munera Pulveris."
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
J. Ruskin.
FOOTNOTES:
[66] The article was entitled, "What shall we do with it?"
[67] At the meeting of the Social Science Association already alluded to (p. 4, note), Mr. Ruskin said that in 1858 he had in vain challenged Mr. Mill to define wealth. The passages referred to in "Munera Pulveris" consist of the statement and explanation of the definition of Value. See ante, p. 63, note.