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

Def. [2.] I have already alluded to the manner in which M. Say has applied the term Utility. His language cannot be considered as consistent, when he says that the price of an article is the measure of its utility, although it might be, according to his own expression, la chose la plus inutile.[^[96]] It is much better for the science of political economy that the term should retain its natural and ordinary meaning. All wealth is no doubt useful, but there are so very many immaterial, and some material objects which are highly useful, and yet not wealth, that there can be no excuse for confounding them. M. Storch has not escaped the same kind of error.

Def. [5.] Two articles are never exchanged with each other without a previous estimation being formed of the value of each, by a reference to the wants of mankind and the means of production. This general and most important relation to the means of production, and the labour which represents these means, seems to be quite forgotten by those who imagine that there is no relation implied when the value of a commodity is mentioned without specific reference to some other commodity.

M. Say, under the head Valeur des Choses, observes, “c’est la quantité d’autres choses évaluables qu’on peut obtenir en échange d’elle.”[^[97]] This is a most vague and uncertain definition, and much less satisfactory than the general power of purchasing.

M. Storch says, that “la valeur des choses, c’est leur utilité relative;” but this certainly cannot be said unless we completely change the natural and ordinary meaning either of utility or value.

Neither M. Say nor M. Storch has sufficiently distinguished utility, wealth, and value.

Def. [6.] The term creation is not here meant to apply to the creation of matter, but to the creation and production of the objects which have been defined to be wealth.

Defs. [11] and [12]. If wealth be confined to material objects, it must be allowed to be peculiarly convenient and useful, in explaining the causes of the wealth of nations, to have some appropriate term for that species of labour which directly produces wealth; and as the principal founder of the science of political economy has used the terms productive labour in the restricted sense necessary for this special purpose, perhaps few objections would have been made to it, if it had not involved all other kinds of labour, however useful and important, under the apparently disparaging designation of unproductive. This is a consequence, no doubt, to be regretted: yet, when it has been repeatedly stated that the term unproductive, as applied by Adam Smith, in no degree impeaches the utility and importance of such labour, but merely implies that it does not directly produce gross wealth, the mere name ought not to decide against a classification for which it appears from experience that it is very difficult to find a satisfactory substitute.

In M. Storch’s “Considérations sur la Nature du Revenu National,” he does not appear to me to give a correct view of what Adam Smith means by productive labour.[^[98]] The difficulty of classification above alluded to appears strikingly in this treatise. There is some plausibility in the system, and it is explained with ingenuity and ability; but I think that the adoption of it would destroy all precision in the science of political economy.

Defs. [19] and [20]. I have never been able to understand how the accumulation of capital and the difference between saving and spending can be distinctly explained, if we call all labour equally productive.

Def. [23.] It is this gross surplus of the land which furnishes the means of subsistence to the inhabitants of towns and cities. Besides the rents of land, which are powerfully effective in this respect, a large part of what, in the division of the produce of land, would fall to the shares of the farmers and labourers, is exchanged by them for other objects of convenience and gratification, thus giving the main necessaries of life to a great mass of persons not immediately connected with the soil. The proportion which this mass of persons may bear to the cultivators will depend upon the natural fertility of the soil, and the skill with which it has been improved, and continues to be worked.