Definitions in Political Economy, / Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings

by T. R. Malthus

57. Prices and values vary as the demand directly and the supply inversely. When the demand is given, prices and values vary inversely as the supply; when the supply is given, directly as the demand.

CONSUMPTION.

58. The destruction wholly or in part of any portions of wealth.

PRODUCTIVE CONSUMPTION.

59. The consumption or employment of wealth by the capitalist, with a view to future production.

UNPRODUCTIVE CONSUMPTION, OR SPENDING.

60. The consumption of wealth, as revenue, with a view to the final purpose of all production—subsistence and enjoyment; but not with a view to profit.

Chapter XI.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEFINITIONS.

Def. [1.] The reader will be aware that, in almost all definitions, the same meaning may be conveyed in different language, and that it is the meaning rather than the mode of expressing it that should be the main object of our consideration. The essential question in the definition of wealth is, whether or not it should be confined to material objects, and the reader is already apprised of my reasons for thinking that it should. Even M. Say, who admits “les produits immatériels,” allows, as I have before stated (p. 93), that the multiplication of them “ne fait rien pour la richesse;” and M. Storch, in his able “Cours d’Economie Politique,” though he justly lays great stress on what he calls les biens internes, with a view to civilization and the indirect production of wealth, confines the term richesses to biens externes, or material objects; and according to this meaning treats of the Théorie de la Richesse Nationale, in the first, and far the largest, part of his work. Altogether, I can feel no doubt that some classification of this kind, or some separation of material from immaterial objects is, in the highest degree, useful in a definition of wealth.

The latter part of the definition is of minor importance. It is intended to exclude such material objects as air, light, rain, &c.—which, however necessary and useful to man, are seldom considered as wealth; and, perhaps, it is more objectionable to exclude them, by the introduction of the term exchangeable value into a definition of wealth, than in the mode which has been adopted. If the latter clause were not added, the only consequence would be, that, in comparing different countries together, such objects as air, light, &c., would be neglected as common quantities.