A plough is capital. Is it true to say that not the ploughman but the plough makes the furrow?
A loom is capital. Is it true to say that the loom makes the cloth? It is the weaver who weaves the cloth. He uses the loom, and the loom was made by the miner, the smith, the joiner, and the engineer.
There are wood and iron and brass in the loom. But you would not say that the cloth was produced by the iron-mine and the forest! It is produced by miners, engineers, sheep farmers, wool-combers, sailors, spinners, weavers, and other workers. It is produced entirely by labour, and could not be produced in any other way.
How can capital produce wealth? Take a steam plough, a patent harrow, a sack of wheat, a bankbook, a dozen horses, enough food and clothing to last a hundred men a year; put all that capital down in a forty-acre field, and it will not produce a single ear of corn in fifty years unless you send a man to labour.
But give a boy a forked stick, a rood of soil, and a bag of seed, and he will raise a crop for you.
If he is a smart boy, and has the run of the woods and streams, he will also contrive to find food to live on till the crop is ready.
We find, then, that all wealth is produced from the land by labour, and that capital is only a part of wealth, that it has been produced by labour, stored by labour, and is finally used by labour in the production of more wealth.
Our third question asks, "What becomes of the wealth?"
This is not easy to answer. But we may say that the wealth is divided into three parts—not equal parts—called Rent, Interest, and Wages.
Rent is wealth paid to the landlords for the use of the land. Interest is wealth paid to the capitalists (the owners of tools and stores) for the use of the "capital."