The expositors of any science are in general desirous of calling into their service definite and appropriate terms; and for this purpose their main object is to look for characteristic differences, not partial resemblances. Mr. Macculloch, on the other hand, seems to be only looking out for resemblances: and proceeding upon this principle, he is led to confound material with immaterial objects; productive with unproductive labour; capital with revenue; the food of the labourer with the labourer himself; production with consumption; and labour with profits.
That this is not an exaggerated view of what has been stated by Mr. Macculloch, in his Principles of Political Economy, any person who reads the work with attention may satisfy himself.
Mr. Macculloch’s definition of wealth, which he considers as quite unexceptionable, is, “those articles or products which possess exchangeable value, and are either necessary, useful, or agreeable.”[[28]]
It is not, perhaps, quite unexceptionable to use the term value in a definition of wealth. It is something like explaining ignotum per ignotius. But independently of this objection, the definition is so worded, that it is left in doubt whether immaterial gratifications are meant to be included in it. They are not in general designated by the terms articles or products; and it is only made clear that it is intended to include them by a collateral remark on my definition of wealth, which I confine specifically to material objects, and by a subsequent definition of productive labour, which is made to include every gratification derived from human exertion.
Mr. Macculloch, in the article on Political Economy which he published in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, had excluded these kinds of gratification from his definition of wealth, and had given such reasons for this exclusion, as would fully have convinced me of its propriety, if I had not been convinced before. He observes that, “if political economy were to embrace a discussion of the production and distribution of all that is useful and agreeable, it would include within itself every other science; and the best Encyclopædia would really be the best treatise on political economy. Good health is useful and delightful, and therefore, on this hypothesis, the science of wealth ought to comprehend the science of medicine: civil and religious liberty are highly useful, and therefore the science of wealth must comprehend the science of politics: good acting is agreeable, and therefore, to be complete, the science of wealth must embrace a discussion of the principles of the histrionic art, and so on. Such definitions are obviously worse than useless. They can have no effect but to generate confused and perplexed notions respecting the objects and limits of the science, and to prevent the student ever acquiring a clear and distinct idea of the inquiries in which he is engaged.”[[29]]
On these grounds he confined wealth to material products; but, in the same treatise, he included, in his definition of productive labour, all those sources of gratification which he had, with such good reason, excluded from his definition of wealth. When he had done this, however, he could not but be struck with the inconsistency of saying that wealth consisted exclusively of material products, and yet that all labour was equally productive of wealth, whether it produced material products or not. To get rid of this inconsistency, he has now altered his definition, by leaving out the term material products; and it remains to be seen, whether in so doing he has not essentially deviated from the most obvious rules which should direct us in defining our terms.
His definition of wealth, as explained by what he subsequently says of productive labour, now includes all the gratifications derived from menial service and followers, whatever may be their number.
Now let us suppose two fertile countries with the same population and produce, in one of which it was the pride and pleasure of the landlords to employ their rents chiefly in maintaining menial servants and followers, and in the other, chiefly in the purchase of manufactures and the products of foreign commerce. It is evident that the different results would be nearly what I described in speaking of the consequences of the definition of the Economists. In the country, where the tastes and habits of the landlords led them to prefer material conveniencies and luxuries, there would, in the first place, be in all probability a much better division of landed property; secondly, supposing the same agricultural capital, there would be a very much greater quantity of manufacturing and mercantile capital; and thirdly, the structure of society would be totally different. In the one country, there would be a large body of persons living upon the profits of capital; in the other, comparatively a very small one: in the one, there would be a large middle class of society; in the other, the society would be divided almost entirely between a few great landlords and their menials and dependents: in the one country, good houses, good furniture, good clothes, and good carriages, would be in comparative abundance; while in the other, these conveniencies would be confined to a very few.
Now, I would ask, whether it would not be the grossest violation of all common language, and all common feelings and apprehensions, to say that the two countries were equally rich?
Mr. Macculloch, however, has discovered that there is a resemblance between the end accomplished by the menial servant or dependent, and by the manufacturer or agriculturist. He says, “The end of all human exertion is the same; that is, to increase the sum of necessaries, comforts, and enjoyments; and it must be left to the judgment of every one to determine what proportion of these comforts he will have in the shape of menial services, and what in the shape of material products.”[[30]]