The bread which I consume myself, or give to a menial servant, is a part of the general produce of the country, and may not be different from that which is advanced to a manufacturer or agriculturist. When I or my servant consume the bread, it performs a most necessary and important service, no less than the maintenance of life and health; but in obtaining this service my wealth is pro tanto diminished. On the other hand, if I give the same kind of bread as wages to a manufacturer or agricultural labourer, it will not, with regard to me, perform so necessary an office as before, but it will perform an essentially different one with regard to my wealth, it will increase my wealth instead of diminishing it. In an inquiry into the causes of the wealth of nations, does not this difference in the functions which the same advances perform require to be marked by a particular appellation?
Accordingly, both in the language of common conversation and of the best writers, revenue and capital have always been distinguished; by revenue being understood, that which is expended with a view to immediate support and enjoyment, and by capital, that which is expended with a view to profit. But in the language of Mr. Macculloch, in the passage above quoted, it is the capacity to perform particular functions, and not the habitual performance of them, that justifies particular designations. A coach-horse, drawing a chariot in the Park, has the capacity of being employed in a brewer’s dray or a farmer’s waggon: “whatever difference may really obtain in the two cases, the identity of the horse is not affected; he is equally possessed, in the one case as in the other, of the capacity to assist in production; and so long as he possesses that capacity, he ought to be viewed, independently of all other considerations, as a portion of the capital of the country.”
This appears to me to be very little different from saying that a man who is capable of being made to perform the functions of a judge ought to be denominated a judge; because, whether he sits on the bench or in the court below, the identity of the man is the same; he is equally possessed, in the one case as well as the other, of the capacity to assist in the decision of causes, and so long as he possesses that capacity he ought to be viewed, independently of all other considerations, as one of the judges of the country. It is said, that the French are astonished at the small number of judges in England. If this kind of comprehensive nomenclature were adopted, their wonder would soon cease.
The whole of the incomes of every person in a society, in whatever way they may be actually employed, might be employed, as far as they would go, directly in the support of man. Consequently, according to the definitions of Mr. Macculloch, all incomes are capital. But he is not satisfied even with this very unusually-extended meaning of the term. He can trace a resemblance between a working man and a working horse, and is, consequently, led to say, “However extended the sense previously attached to the term capital may at first sight appear, I am satisfied that it ought to be interpreted still more comprehensively. Instead of understanding by capital all that portion of the produce of industry extrinsic to man, which may be applicable to his support, and to the facilitating of production, there does not seem to be any good reason why man himself should not, and very many why he should, be considered as forming a part of the national capital. Man is as much the produce of labour as any of the machines constructed by his agency; and it appears to us, that in all economical investigations he ought to be considered in precisely the same point of view.”[[35]]
That there is some resemblance between a working man and a working horse cannot for a moment be doubted; but is that sufficient reason why they should be confounded together under the name of capital? The question is not whether there is a partial resemblance between these two objects, but whether there is a characteristic difference; and surely there is a sufficient distinction in all economical investigations between a free man, and the horse, the machine, or the food which he uses, to warrant a different designation, especially when one of the greatest objects of all economical investigations, and certainly the most worthy, has been how to secure at all times a full sufficiency of the produce of industry extrinsic to man as compared with man himself.
It has been hitherto usual to say, that the happiness of the labouring classes of society depends chiefly upon the rate at which the capital of the country increases, compared with its population; but if the capital of the country includes its population, there is no meaning in the statement. Yet hardly any writer that I know of has more frequently made this statement than Mr. Macculloch himself. Nothing, indeed, can show more strikingly the extreme difficulty of maintaining consistently new and unusual definitions, than the frequency with which he seems to be compelled to use terms in their old and accustomed sense, notwithstanding the different definitions which he has given of them.
Thus, in his very peculiar and most untenable argument on the effects of absenteeism in Ireland, one of the reasons which he gives, why the absence of the landlords does not diminish the wealth of that country is, that they do not remove any capital from it, but merely what they would spend on their own gratifications. If, however, the definition of the capital of a country, as stated by Mr. Macculloch, be “that portion of the produce of industry existing in it which can be made directly available either to the support of human existence or to the facilitating of production,” it follows necessarily that they remove a considerable quantity of capital, as it will hardly be denied that the corn, cattle, and butter produced from their estates (which, after all the mystery about bills of exchange is done away, are practically the main articles exported to England for the payment of their rents) may be made directly available to the support of human existence.
Mr. Macculloch is also disposed to recommend emigration as one of the best means of relieving the distress of Ireland, by altering the proportion between capital and labour; but if, according to him, in all economical discussions, man is to be considered as capital, precisely like the machine which he uses or the food which he consumes, the emigration of a portion of the population will be to deprive the country of a portion of its capital, which has always been considered as most pernicious. Whatever, therefore, may be the merits or demerits of Mr. Macculloch’s reasoning on these subjects, independently of his definitions, it is obvious that the application of his definitions at once destroys it.
It need hardly be repeated, that in all the less strict sciences, definitions and classifications are seldom perfect and complete; but no reasonable man will refuse to take advantage of an imperfect instrument which is essentially useful, if no other more perfect one can be obtained. If it be found useful, with a view to an explanation of the causes of the wealth of nations, to make a distinction between the labours of agriculturists and manufactures, as compared with menial servants, followers, and buffoons, the utility of this distinction is not destroyed, though its perfect accuracy may be impeached, because, in a few instances, the labour of the menial servant is very similar to that of the productive labourer. The classification is formed upon the general character and general effects of one sort of industry as compared with another; and if, in these respects, the line of distinction is sufficiently marked, it is mere useless cavilling to dwell upon particular instances.[[36]]
But even in the very case on which Mr. Macculloch lays his principal stress, the difference is such as fully to warrant a different classification. It is, no doubt, true that, to have a fire in an attic in London, it is equally necessary that the coals should be brought up stairs from the cellar, as that they should be brought up from the bottom of the coal-mine to the surface: it is equally true that there is some resemblance between carrying coals from the bottom of a house to the top, and carrying them from the bottom of a mine to the top; but there is still a most decided and characteristic difference in the two cases.