Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

value; and, on referring to a former definition to explain the present one, we do not find much light thrown on the subject. We are merely told of a value in use, and a value in exchange. If we take the latter of these, and apply it to the subject under consideration, we shall find that the one kind of labor produces a value just as much as the other; -for the musician receives his subsistence in return for his labor in playing tunes; just as much as the tailor does, in return for his labor, in making clothes. But it may be said, that Dr. Smith terms a certain kind of labor unproductive because it produces no value in use. But this cannot have been the cause of the distinction; for, while on the one hand this objection does not apply to all the kinds of labor which he has termed unproductive, it, on the other hand, does apply to some of those which he has denominated productive. The terms wealth and value seem to us to be very indefinite; and to depend very much on the circumstances and the taste of the individual in reference to whom they are mentioned. The clothing which is so valuable to the inhabitant of Europe, would add nothing to the comfort of the naked inhabitant of New Zealand, and would consequently be of little value to him. And the antique vase which would be so highly valued by the curious antiquarian, may be thoughtlessly destroyed by the less refined peasant who digs it up.

Thirty or forty years ago, a stock of shoebuckles would have been an addition to the real wealth of this, country; at present, they would be valuable only for the material which composes them; and those who should now be employed in working them up, instead of adding, would, in fact, detract from the value of the subject on which

their labor was bestowed. We have therefore the definition of value or wealth confined between two limits, and we shall come to a sufficiently correct, if not a sufficiently comprehensive notion of what that is which constitutes wealth or value, if we can but discover what that is which existed in these shoe-buckles thirty or forty years ago, and which does not exist at present. They are as substantially material now as they were before. Were they manufactured there would be as much labor wrought up in them as ever, and the only change that we know of, that has taken place with regard to them is, that they were in fashion then, and they are so no longer;-they cannot now minister to the enjoyment of the community. So that we must conclude, that these commodities, or any other commodities whatever, which are the produce of labor, form a part of the wealth of a country, just because they minister, in some way or other, to the convenience or enjoyment of its inhabitants; and because, since they are the produce of the labor of man, they must have an exchangeable value, if there be any demand for them.

Now it seems to us remarkably unfair, that of two men, whose labor has precisely the same effects on the wealth of the society: the one should be denominated a productive, and the other an unproductive laborer, merely because the labor of the former is realized in some material commodity, while that of the latter is not;-that, of two men, for example, the object of both of whom it isto minister to the enjoyment of the society, by furnishing them with music, he who makes a musical instrument should be called a productive laborer, while he who performs upon that instrument, and

but for whom it could have no value whatever, is stigmatized with the epithet of unproductive.

By Dr. Smith it is asserted, that the former of these individuals produces a value, while the other does not. Now, if in this respect there be any difference at all between them, it seems to us to be, that the one needs materials to work upon, while the other does not; that the one merely adds to the value of what was valuable before, while the other creates a value altogether; that the maker of the instrument merely increases by his labor the value of brass and wood, and other exchangeable commodities, while the performer on the instrument gives a value to the unbought air of Heaven; and on this account, were we to make any distinction, should we deem the labor of the latter to be much more productive than that of the former.

But it may be said that this is a mere cavilling about words. It must be remembered, however, that words are the symbols of ideas, and that the sign necessarily affects the thing signified. The very distinction against which we have been arguing, seems to have confused the views of our great author through the whole of his chapter on labor. After having once associated, with a certain kind of labor, the idea of unproductiveness, he seems ever after to have contemplated it with an evil eye, and to have loaded it with the burden not only of its own faults, but also of those which did not belong to it.

Through the whole chapter there seems to run a confused notion of a subsisting connexion between expenditure and the support of unproductive labor, and a connexion, on the other hand, between the employment of productive labor and

the accumulation of stock. And thus it is that Dr. Smith attributes to the supporting of unproductive labor all those evils which are the result of prodigality and extravagance.

It is some indistinct idea of a connexion between the employment of productive laborers and the accumulation of capital which Dr. Smith entertains, where he tells us, that "a man grows rich by employing a multitude of manufacturers, while every body knows that a man may waste his whole fortune in the purchase of manufactured commodities; and thus, far from growing rich, may ruin himself,-just by employing a multitude of manufacturers."

The same confused ideas seem to have clouded our author's understanding, when he wrote the following sentences:

"Whatever part of his stock a man employs as a capital, he always expects it to be replaced to him with a profit. He employs it, therefore, in maintaining productive hands only. Whenever he employs any part of it in maintaining unproductive hands of any kind, that part is from that moment withdrawn from his capital, and placed in his stock received for immediate consumption."

If a person worth £1000, can employ it in two ways, he can either on the one hand, employ it as a capital, either directly, or through the medium of the bank; or, on the other hand, he can use it as a stock reserved for immediate consumption. In either of these ways I can employ it in supporting indifferently either productive or unproductive hands; and it does not appear that my success or my failure will be at all necessarily influenced by this circumstance. If I use it as a capital I may choose to embark it in some manu

his own aphorism, that "every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of life;" and had he, by his usual train of reasoning, generalized this proposition, by applying to the whole community what may be said of every one of its members, we should in all probability never have heard of productive or unproductive labor.

Every one must admire the acuteness and talent displayed in this Essay. More than common discernment was necessary to catch the author of the wealth of nations tripping; but still greater talent was required to detect the fallacy and expose the mistaken reasonings by which it was supported. A discovery, when made often, appears very simple and easy; but the mind which makes that discovery, and the process which leads to it, belong not to the common order, and may be far removed from vulgar apprehension.

Among his papers which were written about this time, are several fragments, on subjects of great importance; and while I feel deep regret that they are imperfect, I cannot throw aside even the fragments of such a mind. The first on Written Language, in which his object appears to have been to prove that it is of divine origin. This is a view of the subject not peculiar indeed to him, but still not usually adopted by philosophers, and philologists; though I confess it has long appeared to me the only tenable hypotheses. The employment of hieroglyphics, and the use of them to record facts of a certain kind, are easily accounted for; but the discovery of alphabetic writing is a

« ПредишнаНапред »