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 L162
 
 REFLECTIONS 
 
 FORMATION AND DISTRIBUTION 
 
 WEALTH. 
 
 BY M. TURGOr, 
 
 COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE FINANCES OF 
 FRANCE, 
 
 IN 17749 1775, AND 1776. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM TH£ FRENCH. 
 
 THIS ESSAY MAY BE CONSIDERED AS THE GERM OF THE TREA- 
 
 " TISE ON THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, WRITTEN BY THE 
 
 •' CELEBRATED SMITH." 
 
 ConderceVs Life ofTurgot. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY E. SFRAGG ; 
 
 And Sold by 
 J. RIDGWAY, BOOKSELLER, YORK STREET, ST. JAMES'* SQUARE. 
 
 795<
 
 M. TURCOT, the Author of this Effay, who, for 
 three years held the important office of Intendant or 
 Comptroller of the finances of France, was, without 
 exception, one of the firft political chara6lers which the 
 prefent century has produced: In the various employ- 
 ments of Mafter of Requefts, Intendant of the province 
 of Lifmoges, Minifter of the French marine, and Comp- 
 troller General of the finances of France, he laboured 
 affiduoufly to benefit his country. This, however, is his 
 leaft eulogium : his writings entitle him to a higher 
 praife; and he there fhines in the revered chara6ler 
 of a friend of mankind. 
 
 An author who fends into the world detached pieces 
 will feldom have the good fortune to reach that degree 
 of celebrity which attends a more voluminous compilers 
 although his works may at the fame time poflefs a 
 greater degree of intrinfic merit. Such has been the 
 fate of M. Turgot: his writings, being in detached 
 pieces, are little known beyond the limits of his own 
 country; nor even there have his countrymen paid the 
 tribute due to his excellent produftions, by collefting 
 and publifhing them together. 
 
 His
 
 Mis Eflays on the Commerce of Grain, on Loans, oil 
 Mines and Quarries, the preambles to the arrets iffued 
 during his adminiftration, and the various important ar- 
 ticles in the Encyclopedaea on Etymology, Exiftence, 
 Expanfibility, Fair, and Foundation, are all pieces of 
 great merit j but in no one does his capacious mind fhine 
 forth with greater luflre than in the work, of which a 
 tranflation is now offered to the public ; a work, on the 
 foundation of which was formed, one of the moll ap- 
 proved and juftly celebrated treatifes in the Englifti lan- 
 guage, Dr. Adam Smith's Effay on the Wealth of 
 Nations. 
 
 This little piece fell by chance into the hands of 
 the tranflator fome time fmce, and his admiration of it 
 could only be equalled by his furprize, at finding that no 
 tranflation had appeared in the Englifti language. — In 
 order, therefore, that fuch of his countrymen as have not 
 perufed this admirable treatife in the original, may not 
 be deprived of the important knowledge it contains, he 
 has ventured to give it to the public in an Englifti drefs, 
 in which he has been ftudious to retain the Author*s fenfe 
 and meaning. 
 
 REFLECTIONS
 
 REFLECTIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FORMATION AND DISTRIBUTION 
 
 OF 
 
 WEALTH. 
 
 Oftendent tcrris hunc tantum, fata. JEu. 6. 
 
 § 1. The impcjfihility of the exijlence of Commerce 
 upon the fuppoftion of an equal divifion of lands, 
 where every man fliould poffefs only what is necef-^ 
 fary for his own fupport^ 
 
 TF the land was divided among all the inhabitants 
 of a country, fo that each of them poflefled 
 precifely the quantity neceffary for his fupport, 
 and nothing more ; it is evident that all of them 
 being equal, no one ^vould work for another. 
 Neither would any of them poflefs wherewith 
 to pay another for his labour, for each perfon 
 B having
 
 ( 2 ) 
 
 having only fuch a quantity of land as was necef- 
 fary to produce a fubfiftence, would confume all 
 he fhould gather, and would not have any thing 
 to give in exchange for the labour of others. 
 
 § 2. The above hypothefis neither has exijled nor could 
 continue. The divtrjity of foils and inultiplicity 
 of wants, compel an exchange of the produBions of 
 the earthy againfl other produBions, 
 
 This hypothefis never can have exifled, becaufe 
 the earth has been cultivated before it has been 
 divided; the cultivation itfelf having been the 
 only motive for a divifion, and for that law which 
 fecures to every one his property. For the firll 
 perfons who have employed themfelves in culti- 
 vation, have probably worked as much land as 
 their ftrength vi^ould permit, and confequently 
 more than was necefTary for their own nourifli- 
 ment. 
 
 If this ftate could have exifted, it could not 
 poffibly be durable ; each one gathering from his 
 field only a fubfiftence, and not having wherewith 
 to pay others for their labour, would not be en- 
 abled
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 abled to fupply his other wants of lodging, cloath- 
 ing, &c. Sec. except by the labour of his hands, 
 which would be nearly impoflible, as every foil 
 does not produce every material. 
 
 The man whofe land was only fit to produce 
 grain, and would neither bring forth cotton or 
 flax, would want linen to cloath him. Another 
 would have ground proper for cotton, which 
 would not yield grain. One would want wood 
 for his fire, and another be deftitute of corn to 
 fupport him. Experience would foon teach every 
 one what fpecies of productions his land was bei| 
 adapted to, and he would confine himfelf to the 
 cultivation of it; in order to procure himfelf thofe 
 things he flood in need of, by an exchange with 
 his neighbours, who, having on their part ac- 
 quired the fame experience, would have culti- 
 vated thofe produdions whicK were befl: fuited to 
 their fields, and would have abandoned the culti.- 
 vation of any other. 
 
 § 3. The produElions of the earth require long and 
 difficult preparations^ before they are rendered Jit 
 to fupply the wants of men^ 
 
 B 2 ' The
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 The produftions which the earth fupplies to fa- 
 tisfy the different wants of man, will not, for the 
 moll part, adminifter to thofe wants, in the ftate 
 nature affords them ; it is neceffary they fhould 
 undergo different operations, and be prepared by 
 art. Wheat muft be converted into flour, then 
 into bread; hides mufl be dreffed or tanned; 
 wool and cotton mufl be fpun ; filk mufl be taken 
 from the cod ; hemp and flax mull be foaked, 
 peeled, fpun, and wove into different textures ; 
 then cut and fewed together again to make gar- 
 ments, &C. If the fame man whocultives on his 
 own land thefe different articles, and who raifes 
 them to fupply his wants, was obliged to perform 
 all the intermediate operations himfelf, it is cer- 
 tain he would fucceed very badly. The greater 
 part of thefe preparations require care, attention, 
 and a long experience ; all which are only to be 
 acquired by progreffive labour, and that on a great 
 quantity of materials. Let us refer, for exam- 
 ple, to the preparation of hides : what labourer 
 can purfue all the particular things neceffary to 
 thofe operations, which continue feveral months, 
 fometimes feveral years? If he is able to do it, 
 can he do it with a fingle hide ? What a lofs of 
 
 time.
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 time, of room, and of materials, which might be 
 employed, either at the fame time or fucceflively, 
 to tan a large quantity of (kins ! But fliould he 
 even fucceed in tanning a fingle fkin, and wants 
 one pair of Ihoes, what will he do with the re- 
 mainder? Will he kill an ox to make this pair of 
 fhoes? Will he cut dow^n a tree to make a pair 
 of wooden fhoes? We may fay the fame thing of 
 every other want of every other man, who, if he 
 was reduced to his field, and the labour of his 
 own hands, would wafte much time, take much 
 trouble, be very badly equipped in every refpeO; 
 and would alfo cultivate his lands very ill. 
 
 § 4. The necejfity of thefe preparationSy bring on 
 the exchange of produBions for labour. 
 
 The fame motive which has eftablifhed the ex-, 
 change of commodity for commodity, between 
 the cultivators of lands of different natures, has 
 alfo neceffarily brought on the exchange of com- 
 modities for labour, between the cultivators and 
 another portion of fociety, who fhall have pre- 
 ferred the occupation of preparing and complet- 
 ing the produdions of the earthy to the cultiva- 
 tion
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 tion of it. Every one profits by this arrangement, 
 for every one attaching himfelf to a pecuUar fpe- 
 cies of labour, fuccecds much better therein. 
 The hufbandman draws from his field the greateft 
 quantity it is able to produce, and procures to 
 himfelf, with greater facility, all the other obje6ls 
 of his wants, by an exchange of his fuperflux, 
 than he could have done by his own labour. 
 The Ihoemaker, by making fhoes for the hufband- 
 man, fecures to himfelf a portion of the harveft 
 of the latter. Ever/ workman labours for the 
 wants of the workmen of every other trade, who, 
 on their fide, toil alfo for him. 
 
 § 5. Pre-eminence of the hujhandman who pro^ 
 duces, over the artijicer who prepares. The huf^ 
 landman is the firji mover in the circulation of 
 labour : it is he who caufes the earth to produce 
 the wages of every artijicer^ 
 
 It mull, however, be obferved that the huf- 
 bandman, furnifhing every one with the moil im- 
 portant and the moft confiderable objefts of their 
 confumption (I mean their food, and the mate- 
 rials of almoft all manufactures ) has the ad van-. 
 
 tagQ
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 tage of a greater degree of independence. His 
 labour, among the different fpecies of labour, 
 appropriated to the different members of fociety, 
 fupports the fame pre-eminence and priority, as 
 the procuring of food did among the different 
 works he was obliged, in his folitary ftate, to em- 
 ploy himfelf in, in order to minifter to his wants of 
 every kind. This is not a pre-eminence of honour 
 or of dignity, but of phyjical ntctjjity. The huf- 
 bandman, can, generally fpeaking, fubfift without 
 the labour of other workmen ; but no other work- 
 men can labour, if the hufbandman does not pro- 
 vide him wherewith to exift. It is this circular 
 tion, which, by a reciprocal exchange of wants, * 
 renders mankind neceffary to each other, and 
 which forms the bond of fociety : it is therefore 
 the labour of the hufbandman which gives the 
 firif movement. What his induflry caufes thp 
 earth to produce beyond his perfonal wants, i^ 
 the only fund for the wages, which all the other 
 members of fociety receive in recompence for 
 their toil. The latter, by availing themfelves of 
 the produce of this exchange, to purchafe in their 
 turn the com.modities of the hufbandman, only 
 return to him precifely what they have received. 
 
 There
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 There is here a very effential difference between 
 thefe two fpecies of labour, on which it is necef- 
 fary to refleO;, and to be well affured of the 
 ground on which they ftand, before we trull to the 
 innumerable confequences which flow from them. 
 
 § 6. The wages of the workman is limited by the 
 competition among thoje who work for a fnhjif- 
 knee. He only gains a livelihood. 
 
 The mere workman, who depends only on his 
 hands and his induftry, has nothing but fuch part 
 of his labour as he is able to difpofe of to others. 
 He fells it at a cheaper or a dearer price ; but this 
 high or low price does not depend on himfelf 
 alone ; it refults from the agreement he ha^ made 
 with the perfon w^ho employs him. The latter 
 pays him as little as he can help, and as he has the 
 choice from among a great number of workmen> 
 he prefers the perfon who works cheapeft. The 
 workmen are therefore obliged to low^er their 
 price in oppofition to each other. In every fpe- 
 cies of labour it muft, and, in effeft, it does hap- 
 pen, that the wages of the workman is confined 
 
 merely
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 merely to what is neceflary to procure him a fub- 
 fiftence. 
 
 § 7. The hujhandman is the only one whofe indujlry 
 produces more than the wages 0/ his labour. He, 
 thereforey is the only fource of all Wealth, 
 
 The fituation of the hufbandman is materially 
 different. The foil, independent of any other 
 man, or of any agreement, pays him immediately 
 the price of his toil. Nature does not bargain 
 with him, or compel him to content himfelf with 
 what is abfolutely neceffary. What Ihe grants is 
 neither limited to his wants, nor to a conditional 
 valuation of the price of his day's work. It is a 
 phyfical confequence of the fertility of the foil, and 
 of juftice, rather than of the difficulty of the means, 
 which he has employed to render the foil fruitful. 
 As foon as the labour of the hufbandman produces 
 more than fufficient for his necefTities, he can, with 
 the excefs which nature affords him of pure free- 
 will beyond the wages of his toil, purchafe the la- 
 bour of other members of fociety. The latter, in 
 felling to him, only procures a livelihood j but the 
 hufbandman, befides his fubfiftence, collefts an in- 
 dependent
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 dependent wealth at his difpofal, which he has not 
 purchafcd, but which he can fell. He is, therefore, 
 the only fource of all thofe riches which, by their 
 circulation, animates the labours of fociety ; be- 
 caufe he is the only one whofe labour produces 
 more than the wages of his toil. 
 
 § 8. Firjl divifion of fociety into two claffcs, the one 
 produdive, or the citltivators, the other flipendia- 
 ry, or the artificer s* 
 
 Here then is the whole fociety divided, by a 
 neceffity founded on the nature of things, into 
 two claffes, both induftrious, one of which, by its 
 labour, produces, or rather draws from the earth, 
 riches continually renewing, which fupply the whole 
 fociety with fubfiftence, and with materials for all 
 its wants; while the other is employed in giving 
 to the faid materials fuch preparations and forms 
 as render them proper for the ufe of man, fells his 
 labour to the firft, and receives in return a fub- 
 fiftence. The firft may be called x}[iQ produBive^ 
 the latter i\\Q fipendiary clafs. 
 
 § 9. ^n
 
 ( 11 ) 
 
 § 9' -^^ thejirjl ages offocitty^ the proprietors could 
 not be dijlinguijlud from the cultivators. 
 
 Hitherto we have not diftinguiflied the hufband- 
 man from the proprietor of the land ; and in the 
 firft origin they were not in fa8: fo diftinguifhed. 
 It is by the labour of thofe who have firft culti- 
 vated the fields, and who have inclofed them to 
 fecure their harveft, that all land has ceafed to be 
 common, and that a property in the foil has been 
 eftabliflied. Until focieties have been formed, 
 ajid until the public ftrength, or the laws, becoming 
 fuperior to the force of individuals, have been able 
 to guarantee to every one the tranquil pofTefTion 
 of his property, againft all invafion from without 5 
 the property in a field could only be fecured as it 
 had been acquired, by continuing to cultivate it; 
 the proprietor could not be affured of having his 
 field cultivated by the help of another ; and that 
 perfon taking all the trouble, could not eafily have 
 comprehended that the whole harveft did not be- 
 long to him. On the other hand, in this early 
 age, when every induftrious man would find as 
 much land as he wanted, he would not be tempted 
 to labour for another. It neceffarily follows, that 
 
 everv
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 every proprietor muft cultivate his own field or 
 abandon it entirely. 
 
 § lO. Progrejs of Jocicty, all lands have an owner. 
 
 But the land begins to people, and to be cleared 
 more and more. The beft lands are in procefs of 
 time fully occupied. There remains only for 
 ihofe who come lafl, nothing but barren land, re- 
 jeQ:ed by the firft occupants. But at laft, every 
 fpot has found a mafter, and thofe who cannot 
 gain a property therein, have no other refource 
 but to exchange the labour of their hands in fome 
 of the employments of the ftipendiary clafs, for 
 the excefs of commodities pofTefled by the culti- 
 vating proprietor. 
 
 §11. The proprietors begin to be able to eafe them^ 
 Jelves of the labour of cultivation^ by the help of 
 hired cultivators. 
 
 Mean time, fincethe earth produces to the pro- 
 prietor w^ho cultivates it, not a fubfiftence only. 
 Dot only wherewith to procure himfelf by way of 
 exchange, what he otherwife wants, but alfo a con- 
 
 fiderable
 
 ( i3 } 
 
 fiderable fuperfluity; he is enabled with this fu- 
 perfluity, to pay other men to cultivate his land. 
 For among thofe who live by wages, as many are 
 content to labour in this employment as in any 
 other. The proprietor, therefore, might then be 
 eafed of the labour of culture, and he foon was fo. 
 
 § 12. Ineqiiality in the dlvijion of property : caufes 
 which render that inevitable. 
 
 The original proprietors would (as I have al- 
 ready mentioned) occupy as much land as their 
 ftrength would permit them with their families to 
 cultivate. A man of greater ftrength, more la- 
 borious, more attentive about the future, would 
 occupy more than a man of a contrary charaQ;er« 
 He, whofe family is the moft numerous, having 
 greater wants and more hands, extends his pof- 
 feffions further; this is a firii caufe of inequality. 
 — Every piece of ground is not equally fertile; 
 two men with the fame extent of land, may reap a 
 very different harveft ; this is a fecond fource of 
 inequality. — Property in defcending from fathers 
 to their children, divides into greater or lefs por- 
 tions, according a3 the defcendants are more or left 
 , numerous,
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 numerous, and as one generation fucceeds another, 
 fometimes the inheritances again fubdivide, and 
 fometimes re-unite again by the extinction of fome 
 of the branches ; this is a third fource of inequali- 
 ty. The difference of knowledge, of aftivity, and, 
 above all, the ccconomy of (ome, contrafted with 
 the indolence, ina6lion, and diflipation of others, 
 is a fourth principal of inequality, and the mod 
 powerful of all : the neghgent and inattentive 
 proprietor, who cultivates badly, who in a fruit- 
 ful year confumcs in frivolous things the whole of 
 his fuperfluity, finds himfelf reduced on the leaft 
 accident to requeft affiflance from his more pro- 
 vident neighbour, and to live by borrowing. If 
 by any new accident, or by a continuation of his 
 negligence, he finds himfelf not in a condition to 
 repay, he is obliged to have recourfe to new loans, 
 and at lafl has no other refource but to abandon 
 a part, or even the whole of his property to his 
 creditor, who receives it as an equivalent ; or to 
 alTign it to another, in exchange for other valu- 
 ables with which he difcharges his obligation to his 
 creditor. 
 
 § 13. Confeqiiences
 
 ( 15 ) 
 
 $ 13. Confequcnces of this inequality: The culti^ 
 vator dijlinguijlied from the proprietor. 
 
 Thus is the property in the foil made fubj e6l to 
 purchafe and fale. The portion of the diflipating 
 or unfortunate, increafes the fhare of the more 
 happy or induftrious proprietor ; and in this in^ 
 finite variety of pofleflions, it is not poffible but a 
 great number of proprietors muft poflefs more than 
 they can cultivate. Befides, it is very natural for 
 a rich man to wifh for a tranquil enjoyment of his 
 property, and inftead of employing his whole time 
 in toilfome labour, he rather prefers giving a part 
 of his fuperfiuity to people to work for him. 
 
 § 14. Divijion of the produce between the cuUivaior 
 and the proprietor. Net produce, or revenue. 
 
 By this new arrangement, the produce of the 
 land divides into two parts. The one compre- 
 hends the fubfiflence and the profits of the huf- 
 bandman, which are the rewards for his labour, 
 and the conditions on which he agrees to cultivate 
 the field of the proprietor ; the other which re- 
 mains, is that independent and difpofabk part, 
 
 which
 
 (16) 
 
 which the earth produces as a free gift to the pro- 
 prietor over and above what he has difburfed ; 
 and it is out of this fharc of the proprietor's, or 
 what is called the revenue, that he is enabled to 
 live without labour, and which he can carry where- 
 ever he will. 
 
 §15. A nezu divijion of fociety into three elates. 
 Cultivators^ Artificers, and, Proprietor s, or the fro^ 
 duBivfy fiipendiary, and difpojable clajjes. 
 
 We now behold fociety divided into three 
 branches ; the clafs of hufbandmen, whom we 
 may denominate cultivators ; the clafs of artificers 
 and others, who work for hire upon the produc- 
 tions of the earth ; and the clafs of proprietors, 
 the only one which, not being confined by a want 
 of fupport to a particular fpecies of labour, may 
 be employed in the general fervice of fociety, as 
 for war, and the admin iftration of juftice, either 
 by a perfonal fervice, or by the payment of a part 
 of their revenue, with which the ftate may hire 
 others to fill tbefe employments. The appellation 
 which fuits the beft with this divifion, for this rea- 
 fon, is that of the difpofablc clafs. 
 
 § 16. Refemhlancc
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 § i6. Refemblance between the two laborious clajfes. 
 
 The two clafles of cultivators and artificers, re- 
 femble each other in many refpefts, and particu- 
 larly that thofe who compofe them do not poflefs 
 any revenue, and both equally fubfift on the wages 
 which are paid them out of the produ6lions of 
 the earth. Both have alfo this circumftance in 
 common, that they only gain the price of their 
 labour and their difburfements, and that this price 
 is nearly the fame in the two clafles. The pro- 
 prietor agreeing with thofe who cultivate his 
 ground to pay them as fmall a part as poflible of 
 its produce, in the fame manner as he bargains 
 with the fhoemaker to buy his fhoes as cheap a$ 
 he can. In a word, neither the cultivator nor 
 the artificer receive more than a bare recompencc 
 for their labour. 
 
 § 17. EJfential difference between the two laborious 
 claffes. 
 
 But there is this difference between the two 
 
 fpecies of labour ; that the work of the cultivator 
 
 produces not only his own wages, but alfo that 
 
 C revenue
 
 ( i8 ) 
 
 revenue which ierves to pay all the different claffcs 
 of artificers, and other Itipendiaries their falaries ; 
 whereas the artificers receive finiply their falary, 
 that is to fay, their part of the productions of the 
 earth, in exchange for their labour, and which does 
 not produce any increafe. The proprietor en- 
 joys nothing but by the labour of the cultivator. 
 He receives from him his fubfiftence, and where- 
 with to pay for the labour of the other ftipendi- 
 arics. He has need of the cultivator by the ne- 
 ceffity arifing from the phyfical order of things, 
 by which neceffity the earth is not fruitful with- 
 out labour; but the cultivator has no need of the 
 proprietor but by virtue of human conventions, 
 and of thofe civil laws which have guaranteed to 
 the firft cultivators and their heirs, the property 
 in the lands they had occupied, even after they 
 ceafed to cultivate them. But thefe laws can only 
 fecure to the idle man, that part of the produc- 
 tion of his land which it produces beyond the re- 
 tribution due to the cultivators. The cultivator, 
 confined as he is to a itipend for his labour, Itill 
 preferves that natural and phyfical priority which 
 o-enders him the firll mover of the whole machine 
 of fociety, and which caufes both the fubfiftence 
 and wealth of the proprietor, and the falaries paid 
 
 for
 
 ( 19 ) ^ 
 
 for every other fpecies of labour, to depend on 
 his induftry. The artificer, on the contrary, re- 
 ceives his wages either of the proprietor or of the 
 cultivator, and only gives them in exchange for 
 his ftipend, an equivalent in labour, and nothing 
 more. 
 
 Thus, although neither the cultivator and 
 artificer gain more than a recompence for 
 their toil; yet the labour of the cultivator pro- 
 duces befides that recompence, a revenue to the 
 proprietor, while the artificer does not produce 
 any revenue either for himfelf or others. 
 
 § 1 8. This difference aiithorifes another diJlinBion 
 into the produftive and barren clajfes. 
 
 We may then diftinguifh the two clafTes not 
 difpojahle into the produUive clafs, which is that 
 of the cultivators, or the barren clafs, which 
 comprehends all the oihtx Jlipendiary members of 
 fociety. 
 
 § 19. Ho-w the proprietors may draw a revenue 
 from their lands. 
 
 C 2 The
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 The peoprietors who do not cultivate their lands 
 themfelves, may adopt different methods of cul- 
 tivating them, or make different agreements with 
 thofe who cultivate them. 
 
 § 20. Firjl method y or cultivation hy labourers 
 on wages. 
 
 They may, in the firfl place, pay men by the 
 day or the year, to work their fields, and referve to 
 themfelves the whole of the produce ; this includes 
 a fuppofition that the proprietor pays all advances, 
 both for feed and the wages of the labourers, un- 
 til after the harveft. But this method requires 
 great labour and affiduity on the part of the pro- 
 prietor, who alone can dire6l his men in their la- 
 bour, fee that they employ their time well, and 
 watch over their fidelity, that they fhall not carry 
 away any part of the produce. It is true that he 
 may pay a man of more knowledge, and whofe 
 fidelity he knows, who, in quality of manager 
 and conduftor, may direft the workmen, an4 
 keep an account of the produce ; but he will be 
 always fubje6l to fraud. Befides, this method is 
 extremely expenfive, unlefs a large population, 
 
 or
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 or want of employ in other fpecies of labour, 
 forces the workmen to content themfelves with 
 very low falaries, 
 
 §21. Second method, cultivation by Jlaves, 
 
 In times not very diftant from the origin of fo- 
 ciety, it was almoft impoflible to find men willing 
 to work on the lands of another, becaufe all the 
 land not being as yet occupied, thofe who were 
 willing to labour, preferred the clearing of new 
 lands, and the cultivating them on their own ac- 
 count : this is pretty much the cafe in all new 
 colonies. 
 
 In this fituation violent men then conceived 
 the expedient of obliging other men by force to 
 labour for them. They employed flaves. Thefe 
 latter have had no juftice to look for, from the 
 hands of people, who have not been able to re- 
 duce them to flavery without violating all the 
 laws of humanity. Meantime, the phyfical law 
 of nature fecures to them their part of the pro- 
 duftions which they have raifed • for the mafter 
 muft neceflarily nourifh them, in order to profit by 
 C 3 their
 
 ( 42 ) 
 
 their labour. But this fpecies ofrecompence is 
 confined to mere neceffaries for their fubfiftence. 
 
 This abominable cuftom of flavery has formerly 
 been univerfal, and has fpread over the greateft 
 part of the globe. The principal objcft of the 
 wars carried on by the ancients was, to carry oft 
 {laves, whom the conquerors either compelled to 
 work for them, or fold to others. This fpecies of 
 thieving, and this trade, ftill continues, attended 
 with all its cruel circumftances, on the coaft of 
 Guinea, where the Europeans encourage it by 
 going thither to purchafe negroes for the cultiva- 
 tion of their American colonies. 
 
 The exceffive labour to which the greedy maf- 
 ters force their flaves, caufes many of them to 
 perifh ; and it becomes neceffary, to keep up the 
 number requifite for cultivation, that this trade 
 fhould fupply annually a very large number. 
 And as war is the principal fource which fupplies 
 this commerce, it is evident that it can fubfift no 
 longer than the people continue divided into very 
 fmall nations, who are inceffantly plundering 
 each other, and every diftrid is at continued war 
 
 with
 
 { 23 ) 
 
 'with its neighbours. Let England, France, and 
 Spain carry on the moft cruel hoftilities, the fron- 
 tiers alone of each (late will be the only part in- 
 vaded, and that in a few places only. All the 
 reft of the country will be quiet, and the fmall 
 number of prifoners they could make on either 
 lide, would be but a weak refource for the cul- 
 tivation of each of the three nations. 
 
 § 2 2. Cultivation hy Jlavcs cannot exijl in great 
 focieties. 
 
 Thus when men are formed into great focities, 
 the .recruits of flavcs are not fufficiently numer^ 
 ous to fupport the confumption which the culti- 
 vation requires. And although they fupply the 
 labour of men by that of beafts, a time will come, 
 when the lands can no longer be worked by flaves. 
 The practice is then continued only for the interior 
 work of the houfe, and in the end it is totally 
 abolifhed ; becaufe in proportion as nations be- 
 come polifhed, they form conventions for the ex- 
 change of prifoners of war. Thcfc conventions 
 are the more readily made, as every individual is 
 
 very
 
 { 24 ) 
 
 very much interefted to be free from the danger 
 of falling into a ftate of flavery. 
 
 § 23. Slavery annexed to the land, Jucceeds to 
 Jlavery properly jo called. 
 
 The defcendants of the firft (laves, attached at 
 firfttothe cultivation of the ground, change their 
 condition. The interior peace among nations, 
 not leaving wherewithal to fupply the confump- 
 tion of flaves, the mafters are obliged to take 
 greater care of them. Thofe who were born in 
 the houfe, accuftomed from their infancy to their 
 fituation, revolt the lefs at it, and their mafters 
 have lefs need to employ rigour to reftrain them. 
 By degrees the land they cultivate becomes their 
 country, they become a part of the nation, and 
 in the end, they experience confidence and hu- 
 manity on the part of their mafters. 
 
 § 24. Vajfalage Jucceeds to Jlavery^ annexed to the 
 land, and the Jlave becomes a proprietor^ Third 
 method ; alienation of the land for a certain Jer- 
 vice. 
 
 Th(
 
 ( 25 j 
 
 The adminiftration of an eftate, cultivated by 
 flaves, requires a careful attention, and an irk- 
 fome refidence. The mailer fecures to himfelf a 
 more free, more eafy, and more fecure enjoy- 
 ment of his property, by interefting his flaves in 
 the cultivation of it, and by abandoning to each 
 of them a certain portion of land, on condition of 
 their paying him a portion of the produce. Some 
 have made this agreement for a time, and have 
 only left their ferfs, or flaves, a precarious and 
 revocable pofleflion. Others have afligned them 
 lands in perpetuity, retaining an annual rent pay- 
 able either in provifions or in money, and requir- 
 ing from the pofleflbrs certain fervices. Thofe - 
 who received thefe lands, under the condition 
 prefcribed, became proprietors and free, under 
 the name of tenant, or vaflal ; and the ancient 
 proprietors, under the title of lords, referved 
 only the right of exacting payment of the rent, 
 and other fl:ipulated duties. Thus it has hap- 
 pened in the greater part of Europe. 
 
 § 25. Fourth method. Partial colonization, 
 Thefe lands, rendered free at the expence of 
 rent, may yet change mailers, may divide or re- 
 unite
 
 ( 26 j 
 
 unite by means of fucceflion andfalc; and fuch 
 a vafTal may in his turn have more than he can 
 cultivate himfclf. In general the rent to which 
 thofc lands are fubjeft, is not fo large, but that, 
 by cultivating them well, the cultivator is ena- 
 bled to pay all advances, and expenccs, procure 
 himfelf a fubfiftence, and befides, an excefs of 
 produftions which form a revenue. Henceforth 
 the proprietary vaffal becomes defirous of enjoy- 
 ing this revenue without labour, and of having 
 his lands alfo cultivated by others. On the other 
 hand, the greater part of the lords grant outthofe 
 parts of their pofTeflions only, which are the leaft 
 within their reach, and retain thofe they can cul- 
 tivate with the leaft expence. The cultivation by 
 (laves not being prafticable, the firft method that 
 offers, and the moft fimple to engage free men to 
 cultivate lands which do not belong to them, was, 
 to refign to them fuch a portion of the produce, 
 as would engage them to cultivate better than 
 thofe hufbandmen who are employed at a fixed fa- 
 lary. The moft common method has been to di- 
 vide it into equal parts, one of which belonged 
 to the cultivator and the other to the proprietor. 
 This has given place to the name (in France) of 
 
 metayer
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 7netayer (medietarius) or cultivator for half pro- 
 duce. In arrangements of this kind, which take 
 place throughout the greateft part of France, the 
 proprietor pays all contingencies ; that is to fay, 
 he provides at his expence, the cattle for labour, 
 ploughs, and other utenfils of hufbandry, feed, 
 and the fupport of the cultivator and his family, 
 from the time the latter enters into the metairie un- 
 til the firft harveft. 
 
 § 26. Fifth method. Renting, or letting out the 
 land. 
 
 Rich and intelligent cultivators, who faw to 
 what perfe8:ion an adive and well dire.Qed culti- 
 vation, for which neither labour or expence were 
 fpared, would raife the fruitfulnefs of land, judged 
 with reafon that they would gain more, if the pro- 
 prietors fiiould confent to abandon, for a certain 
 number of years, the whole of the harveft, on 
 condition of receiving annually a certain revenue, 
 and to be free of all expences of cultivation. By 
 that they would be afTured that the incrcafe of 
 produdions, which their difburfements and their 
 labour procured, would belong entirely to them- 
 
 felves-
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 felves. The proprietor, on his fide, would gain 
 thereby, ift, a more tranquil enjoyment of his 
 revenue, being freed from the care of advances, 
 and of keeping an account of the produce ; 2d, a 
 more equal enjoyment, fince he would receive 
 every year the fame and a more certain price for 
 his farm : becaufe he would run no rifle of lofing 
 his advances; and the cattle and other effeds 
 with which the farmers had flocked it, would be- 
 come a fecurity for his payment. On the other 
 hand, the leafe being only for a fmall number of 
 years, if his tenant paid him too little, he could 
 augment it at the expiration thereof. 
 
 §27. The lajl method is the mojl advantageous^ 
 hut it fuppofes the country already rich. 
 
 This method of fecuring lands is the moll ad- 
 vantageous both to proprietors and cultivators. 
 It is univerfally eftabliflied where there are any 
 rich cultivators, in a condition to make the ad- 
 vances neceflary for the cultivation. And as the 
 rich cultivators are in a fituation to bellow more 
 labour and manure upon the ground, there re- 
 
 fults
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
 fults from thence a prodigious augmentation in 
 the produdions, and in the revenue of the land. 
 
 In Picardy, Normandy, the environs of Paris, 
 and in moft of the provinces in the north of 
 France, the lands are cultivated by farmers ; in 
 thofe of the fouth, by the metayers. Thus the 
 northern are incompariably richer and better cul- 
 tivated than the fouthern provinces, 
 
 §28. Recapitulation of the fevcral methods of 
 making lands produBive, 
 
 I have juft mentioned five different methods by 
 which proprietors are enabled to eafe themfelves 
 of the labour of the cultivation, and to make their 
 land produdive, by the hands of others. 
 
 1. By workmen paid at a fixed falary, 
 
 2. By flaves. 
 
 3. By ceding their lands for rent. 
 
 4. By granting to the cultivator a determined 
 
 portion.
 
 ( 3° ) 
 
 portion, which is commonly half the produce, 
 the proprietor paying the advances neceflary for 
 the cultivation. 
 
 5. By letting their land to farmers, who under- 
 take to make all the neceffary advances, and who 
 engage to pay to the proprietors, during the 
 number of years agreed on, a revenue equal to 
 its value. 
 
 Of thefe five methods, the firfl is too expen- 
 five, and very feldom pradifed; the fecond is 
 only ufed in countries as yet ignorant and barba- 
 rious ; the third is rather a means of procuring a 
 value for, than abandoning of the property for 
 money, fo that the ancient proprietor is no longer 
 any thing more than a mere creditor. 
 
 The two laft methods of cultivation are the moft 
 common, that is, the cultivation by 7neiayers in 
 the poor, and by farmers in the richer countries. 
 
 § 29. Of capitals in general, and of the revenue 
 of vioney. 
 
 There
 
 ( 31 ) 
 
 There is another way of being rich, without la- 
 bour and without pofTeffing lands, of which I have 
 not yet fpoken, and of which it is neceffary to 
 explain the origin and connexion with other parts 
 of the fyflem of the diftribution of riches in fo- 
 ciety, of which I have jufl drawn the outlines. 
 This confifts in living by what is called the re- 
 venue of money, or of the intereft which is paid 
 for the loan thereof. 
 
 § 30. Of the lift of gold and fihcr in commerce. 
 
 Gold and filver are two fpecies of merchandize, 
 like others, and lefs valuable than many of them, 
 becaufe they are of no ufe for the real wants of 
 life. To explain how thefe two metals are become 
 the reprefentative pledges of every fpecies of 
 riches ; how they influence the commercial 
 markets, and how they enter into the conipofitioa 
 of fortunes, it is neceflary to go back again and 
 return to our firft principles. 
 
 §31. Rife of Commerce. Principle of the valu'- 
 ation of commercial things. 
 
 Reciprocal
 
 ( 32 ) 
 
 Reciprocal wants firil introduced exchanges of 
 what we pofleffed, for what we flood in need of; 
 one fpecies of provifion was bartered for another, 
 or for labour. In exchanging, it is neceffary that 
 each party is convinced of the quality and quan- 
 tity of every thing exchanged. In this agree- 
 ment it is natural that every one ftiould defire to 
 receive as much as he can, and to give as little ; 
 and both being equally mailers of what they have 
 to barter, it is in a man*s own bread to balance 
 the attachment he has to the thing he gives, with 
 the defire he feels to pofTefs that which he is wil- 
 ling to receive, and confequently to fix the 
 quantity of each of the exchanged things. If the 
 two perfons do not agree, they mud relax a little 
 on one fide or the other, either by offering 
 more or being content with lefs. I will fuppofe 
 that one is want of corn and the other of wine ; 
 and that they agree to exchange a bufhel of corn 
 for fix pints of wine. It is evident that by both 
 of them, one bufhel of corn and fix pints of wine 
 are looked upon as exa6lly equivalent, and that 
 in this particular exchange, the price of a bufhel 
 of corn is fix pints of wine, and the price of fix 
 pints of wine is one bufhel of corn. But in an- 
 other
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 Other exchange between other men, this price 
 will be different, accordingly as one or the other 
 of them fliall have a more or lefs preffing want of 
 one commodity or the other; and a bufhel of corn 
 maybe exchanged againft eight pints of wine, while 
 another bufhel fhall be bartered for four pints 
 only. Now it is evident, that not one of thefe 
 three prices can be looked on as the true price of 
 a bufhel of corn, rather than the others ; to each 
 of the dealers, the wine he has received was equi- 
 valent to the corn he had given. In a word, fo 
 long as we confider each exchange independent of 
 any other, the value of each thing exchanged has 
 no other meafure than the wants or defires of one* 
 party weighed with thofe of the other, and is fixed 
 only by their agreement, 
 
 § 32, How the current value of the exchange of 
 merchandize is eJiabliJJied. 
 
 Meantime it happens that many individuals 
 have wine to difpofe of to thofe who poffefs corn. 
 If one is not willing to give more than four pints 
 for a bufhel, the proprietor of the corn will not 
 exchange with him, when he fliall know that an- 
 other will give fix or eight pints for the fame 
 
 D bufhel
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 bufhel. If the former is determined to have the 
 corn, he will be obliged to raife his price equal to 
 what is offered by others. The fellers of wine 
 profit on their fide by the competition among the 
 fellers of corn. No one refolves to part with his 
 property, before he has compared the different of- 
 fers which are made to him, of the commodity he 
 (lands in need of, and then he accepts of the bell 
 offer. The value of the wine and corn is not fixed 
 by the two proprietors with refpe8; to their own 
 wants and reciprocal abilities, but by a general ba- 
 lance of the wants of all the fellers of corn, with 
 thofe of all the fellers of wine. For thofe who 
 will willingly give eight pints of wine for a hujhtl 
 of corn, will give but four when they fhall know 
 that a proprietor of corn is willing to give two 
 buJJuls for eight pints. The medium price be- 
 tween the different offers and the different de- 
 mands, will become the current price to which 
 all the buyers and fellers will conform in their 
 exchanges ; and it will be true if we fay, that fix 
 pints of wine will be to every one the equivalent, 
 for a bufhel of corn, that is, the medium price, 
 until a diminution of fupply on one fide, or of 
 demand on the pther, caufes a variation. 
 
 § 33. Cm-
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 § 33* Commerce gives to all merchandize a current 
 value with refpeB to any other merchandize ; from 
 whence it follows that all merchandize is the equi- 
 valent for a certain quantity of any other merchandize, 
 and may he looked on as a pledge to reprefent it. 
 
 Corn is not only exchanged for wine, but alfo 
 for any obje8: which the proprietors of the corn 
 may ftand in need of; as wood, leather, woollen, 
 cotton, &:c. it is the fame with wine and every 
 other particular fpecies. If a hufJiel of corn is 
 equivalent to^^: pints of wine, and zflieep is equi- 
 valent to three bufJiels of corn, the fame fheep will 
 be equivalent to eighteen pints of wine. He who 
 having the corn, wants the wine, may, without 
 inconvenience, exchange his corn for a fheep, in 
 order afterwards to exchange the fheep for the 
 wine he Hands in need of. 
 
 § 34. Every merchandize mayferve as a f cole or 
 common meafure, by which to compare the value of 
 any other • 
 
 It follows from hence, that in a country where 
 -the commerce is very briik, where there are ma- 
 
 D 2 ny
 
 { 36 ) 
 
 ny produftions and much confumption, whcrer 
 there are great fupplies and a great demand for all 
 forts of commodities, every fort will have a cur-< 
 rent price, having relation to every other fpecies ; 
 that is to fay, that a certain quantity of one will 
 be of equal value to a certain quantity of any 
 others. Thus the fame quantity of corn which is 
 worth eighteen pints of wine, is alfa the value of 
 a fheep, a piece of leather, or a certain quantity 
 of iron ; and all thefe things have, in the tranf- 
 aftions of trade an equal value. To exprefs or 
 make known the value of any particular thing, it 
 is evident, that it is fufficient to announce the 
 quantity of any other known production, which 
 will be looked on as an equivalent for it. Thus,, 
 to make known what a piece of leather of a cer- 
 tain fize is worth, we may fay indifferently, that 
 it is worth three bufliels of corn, or eighteen pints^ 
 of wine. We may by the fame method exprefs 
 the value of a certain quantity of wine, by the 
 number of flieep, or bufhels of corn it will bring, 
 in trade. 
 
 We fee by this, that every fpecies of comnK)- 
 dity that can be an object .of commerce, may be 
 
 meafured.
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 meafured, as I may fay, by each other, that every 
 one may ferve as a common meafure, or fcale of 
 comparifon to defcribe the value of every other 
 fpecies, and in Hke manner every merchandize 
 becomes in the hands of him who polfefTes it, a 
 means to procure all others— a fort of univerfal 
 pledge. 
 
 § ^^, Every fpecies of merchandize does not pre " 
 fent a fcale equally commodious » It is proper to pre- 
 fer the xfe of fuch as are not fufceptihk of any great 
 alteration in quality ^ and have a value principally 
 relative to the number and quantity. 
 
 But although all merchandize has effcntially 
 this property of reprefenting any other, is able to 
 ferve as a common meafure, to exprefs its value, 
 and to become ^ univerfal pledge to procure any 
 of them by way of exchange, yet all cannot be 
 employed with the fame degree of facility for thefe 
 two ufes. The more fufceptible any merchandize 
 is to change its value by an alteration in its qua- 
 lity, the more difficult it is to make it a fcale of 
 reference for the value of others. For example, 
 if eighteen pints of wine of Anjou are equivalent 
 
 D ^ in
 
 ( 3S ) 
 
 in value to a fheep, eighteen pints of Cape wine 
 may be equivalent to eighteen fheep. Thus he 
 who to exprefs the value of a fheep, v^^ould fay it 
 is worth eighteen pints of wine, would employ an 
 equivocal language, and would not communicate 
 any precife idea, at leaft until he added fome ex- 
 planation, which would be very inconvenient. 
 We are, therefore, obliged to choofc for a fcale 
 of comparifon, fuch commodities as being more 
 commonly in ufe, and confequently of a value 
 more generally known, are more like each other, 
 and of which confequently the value has more re-, 
 lation to the quantity than the quality. 
 
 § 36. For want of an exaB correfpondence be- 
 tween the value and the number or quantity^ it isfup- 
 plied by a mean valuation, which becomes a /pedes of 
 real money ^ 
 
 In a country where there are only one race of 
 fheep, we may eafily take the value of a fleece or 
 of a fheep by the common method of valuation^ 
 and we may fay that a barrel of wine, or a piece 
 of ftuff, is worth a certain number of fleeces or 
 of fheep. There is in reality fome inequality in 
 
 fheep.
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 fheep, but when we want to fell them, we take 
 care to eftimate that inequality, and to reckon 
 (for example) two lambs for one Iheep. When 
 it is neceffary to treat of the relative value of 
 other merchandize, we fix the common value of 
 a fheep of middling age and quality, as the fym- 
 bol of unity. In this view the enunciation of the 
 value of flieep, becomes an agreed language, and 
 this word onejlieepy in the language of commerce, 
 fjgnifies only a certain value, which, in the mind 
 of him who underftands it, carries the idea not 
 only of ailieep, but as a certain quantity of every 
 other commodity, which is efleemed equivalent 
 thereto, and this expreflion is more applicable to 
 a fiftitious and abftraft value, than to the value 
 of a real fheep; that if by chance a mortality 
 happens among the fheep, and that to purchafe 
 one of them, you mufl give double the quantity of 
 corn or wine that was formerly given, we fhall 
 rather fay, that one fheep is worth two fheep, 
 than change the expreflion we have been accuf- 
 tomed to for all other valuations. 
 
 § 37. Example of thofe mean valuations which 
 become an ideal exprejjionfor value. 
 
 D 4 There
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 There exifts, in the commerce of every nation, 
 many examples of fiditious valuations of mer- 
 chandize, which are, as we may fay, only a con- 
 ventional language to exprefs their value. Thus 
 the cooks of Paris, and the fifhmongers who fur- 
 nifti great houfes, generally fell by the piece. A 
 fat pullet is efteemed one piece, a chicken half a 
 piece, more or lefs, according to the feafon : and 
 io of the reft. In the negro trade in the Ameri- 
 can colooies, they fell a cargo of negroes at the 
 rate of fo much per negro, an Indian piece. The 
 women and children are valued, fo that, for ex- 
 ample, three children, or one woman and two 
 children are reckoned as one head of negro. 
 They increafe or diminifh the value on account 
 of the ftrength or other quality of the flaves, fo 
 that certain flaves are reckoned as two heads of 
 negroes. 
 
 The Mandingo negroes, who carry on a trade 
 for gold duft with the Arabian merchants, bring 
 all their commodities to a fiftitious foale, which 
 both parties call macutes, fo that they tell the mer- 
 chants they will give fo many macules in gold. 
 They value thus in viacutes the merchandize they 
 
 receivej
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 receive, and bargain with the merchants upon that 
 evaluation. Thus in Holland they reckon by 
 bankjlorins, which is only a iiftitious money, and 
 which in commerce is fometimes of a greater, 
 fometimes of a lefs valiwe than the coin which i& 
 denominated dijlorin, 
 
 § 38. All merchandize is a reprefentative pledge 
 of every objeEl of commercey but more or lefs commo^ 
 diousfor ufe, as it poffeffes a greater or lefs facility 
 to be tranfportedy and to be preferved without alter^ 
 ation. 
 
 The variation in the quality of merchandize, 
 and in the different prices in proportion to that 
 quality, which renders them more or lefs proper 
 than others to ferve as a common meafure, is alfo 
 more or lefs an impediment to their being a repre- 
 fentative pledge of every other merchandize of 
 equal value. Neverthelefs there is alfo, as to this 
 laft property, a very effential difference between 
 the different fpecies of merchandize. It is (for 
 example) evident, that a man who poffeffes a 
 piece of linen, is more certain, of procuring for 
 
 it.
 
 ( 4« ) 
 
 it, when he pleafes, a certain quantity of corn, 
 than if he had a barrel of wine of equal value ; 
 the wine being fubjc6l to a variety of accidents^ 
 which may in a moment deprive him of the whole 
 property. 
 
 § 39. All merchandize has the two ejfential fro^ 
 perties oj moneys to meafure and to reprefent all V(;ilue : 
 and in thisfenfe all merchandize is money. 
 
 Thefe two properties of ferving as a common 
 fneafure of all value, and of being a reprefentative 
 pledge of all other commodities of equal value, 
 comprehend all that conftitute the eflence and 
 ufe of what is called money : and it follows from 
 the details which I have juft now given, that 
 all merchandize is, in fome refpeQ:, money; and 
 participates more or lefs, according to its parti- 
 cular nature, of thefe two effential properties* 
 All is more or lefs proper to ferve as a common 
 meafure, in proportion as it is more or lefs 
 in general ufe, of a more fimilar quality, and 
 more eafy to be divided into aliquot parts. All 
 is more or lefs applicable for the purpofe of a 
 
 general
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 general pledge of exchange, in proportion as it 
 is the lefs fufceptible of decay or alteration in 
 quantity or quality. 
 
 § 40. Reciprocally all money is ejfentially mer- 
 chandize. 
 
 We can take only that which has a value for 
 a common meafure of value, that which is re- 
 ceived in commerce in exchange for other pro- 
 perties ; and there is no univerfal reprelentative 
 pledge of value, but fomething of equal value. 
 A money of convention is therefore a thing im- 
 poflible. 
 
 §41, Different matters are able to Jerve and have 
 fervedfor current money. 
 
 Many nations have adopted in their language 
 and in their trade, as a common meafure of value, 
 different matters more or lefs precious. There 
 are at this day, fome barbarous nations, who 
 make ufe of a fpecies of little fliells, called cowries. 
 I remember to have feen when at college, fome 
 /apricot ftones exchanged and pafifed as a fpecies 
 
 of-
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 of money among the fcholars, who made ufe of 
 them at certain games. I have already fpoken 
 of a valuation by heads of cattle; fome of thefe 
 arc to be found in the veftiges of the laws of the 
 ancient German nations, who over-ran the Ro- 
 man empire. The firft Romans, or at lead the 
 Latins, their anceftors, made ufe of them alfo. 
 It is pretended that the firft money they ftruck 
 in brafs, reprefented the value of a fheep, and 
 bore the im.age of that animal, and that the name 
 Q^ pecunia has obtained from peacs. This conjec- 
 ture carries with it a great probability. 
 
 § 42. Metals y and particularly gold and Jilven 
 ere the mojl proper for that purpofe, and why. 
 
 We are now arrived at the introduftion of the 
 precious metals into trade. All metals, as they have 
 been discovered, have been admitted into ex- 
 change, on account of their real utility. Their 
 fplendor has caufed them to be fought for, to 
 ferve as ornaments ; their du8:ility and their foli^ 
 dity have rendered them proper for utenfils, more 
 durable and lighter than thofe of clay. But thefe 
 fubflances cannot be brought into commerce with, 
 
 out
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 out becoming almoft imniediateiy a univerfal mo- 
 ney. A piece of any metal, of whatever fort, has 
 exaftly the fame qualities as another piece of the 
 fame metal provided they are both equally pure. 
 Now the eafe with which we can feparate, by dif- 
 ferent chemical operations, a metal from other 
 metals with which it is incorporated, enables us to 
 bring it to a degree of purity, or, as they call it^ 
 to what ftandard we pleafe ; then the value of 
 metal differs only as to its weight. In exprefling, 
 therefore, the value of any merchandize by the 
 weight of metal which may b^ had in exchange^ 
 we fhall then have the cleareft, the molt commo- 
 dious, and moft precife expreffion of value ; and 
 hence it is impoffible but it mufl be preferred in 
 praQice to all other things. Nor are metals lefs- 
 proper than other merchandize for becoming the 
 univerfal token of all value that can be meafured : 
 as they are fyfceptible of all imaginable divifion.sv 
 there is not any obje6l of commerce, great or 
 fmall, whofe value cannot be exactly paid by a 
 certain quantity of metal. To this advantage of 
 accommodating itfelf to every fpecies of divifion, 
 they join that of being unalterable, and thole 
 which are fcar.ce, as gold and lilver, have a great 
 
 Valilc:\
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 value, although of a weight and fize little con- 
 fiderable. 
 
 Thefe two metals are then, of all merchandize, 
 the moll cafy to afcertain their quality, to divide 
 their quantity, and to convey to all places at the 
 eafieft expence. Every one, therefore, who has 
 a fuperfluity, and who is not at the time in want 
 of another ufeful commodity, will haften to ex- 
 change it for filver, with which he is more certain, 
 than with any thing elfe, to procure himfelf the 
 commodity he fhall wifh for at the time he is in 
 want. 
 
 § 43. Gold and filver are conjlitutedy hy the na- 
 ture of things, money, and univerfal money, inde^ 
 pendent of all convention, and of all laws. 
 
 Here then is gold and filver conftituted money, 
 and univerfal money, and that without any arbi- 
 trary agreement among men, without the inter- 
 vention of any law, but only by the nature of 
 things. They are not, as many people imagine, 
 •figns of value ; they have an intrinfic value in 
 'themfelves, if they are capable of being the mea- 
 
 fure
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 fure and the token of other vaUies, This pro- 
 perty they have in common with all other com- 
 modities which have a value in commerce. They 
 only differ in being at the fame time more divif- 
 able, more unchangeable, and of more eafy con- 
 veyance than other merchandize, by which they 
 are more commodioufly employed to meafure 
 and reprefent the value of others. 
 
 § 44. Other metals are only employed for ihefc 
 ufes^ in afecondary manner. 
 
 All metals are capable of being employed as 
 money. But thofe which are too common have* 
 too little value in a large bulk to be employed in 
 the current ufes of commerce. Copper, filver, 
 and gold, are the only ones which have been 
 brought in conftant ufe. And even copper, ex- 
 cept among people to whom neither mines nor 
 commerce have fupplied a fufficient quantity of 
 gold or (liver, has never been ufed but in ex- 
 changes of fmall value. 
 
 § 45. The ufe of gold andfiher, as money, has 
 
 It 
 
 mipnmtcd their value as materials*
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 It is not poflible, but the eagernefs with which 
 every one has fought to exchange their fuper- 
 fluous commodities for gold and filver, rather 
 than for any other commodity, mull have aug- 
 mented the value of thefe two materials in com- 
 merce. Thefe arc only thereby rendered more 
 commodious for their employment as tokens, or 
 common meafure. 
 
 § 46. Variations in the vahe of gold andjilvtry 
 compared with the other objeBs of commerce ^ and with 
 each other ^ 
 
 This value is fufceptible of change, and in 
 truth is continually changing; fo that the fame 
 quantity of metal which anfwered to a certain 
 quantity of fuch or fuch a commodity, becomes 
 no longer equal thereto, and it requires a greater 
 or lefs quantity of filver to reprefent the fame 
 commodity. When it requires more, it is faid 
 die commodity is dearer; when it requires lefs, 
 that it is become cheaper ; but they may as well 
 fay, that the filver is in the firft cafe become 
 cheaper, and in the latter dearer. Silver and gold 
 not only vary in price, compared with all other 
 
 <:ommodities.
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 commodities, but they vary alfo with each other, 
 in proportion as they are more or lefs abundant. 
 It is notorious, that we now give in Europe from 
 fourteen to fifteen ounces of filver for sjne ounce 
 of gold ; and that in former times we gave only 
 ten or eleven ounces* 
 
 Again, that at prefent in China, they do tiot give 
 more than twelve ounces of filver for one ounce 
 of gold, fo that there is a very great advantage 
 in carrying filver to China, to exchange for gold, 
 to bring back to Europe. It is vifible, that, in 
 procefs of time, this commerce will make gold 
 more common in Europe, and lefs common in 
 China, and that the value of thefe two materials 
 muft finally come in both places to the fame pro- 
 portion* 
 
 A thoufand different caufes concur, to fix and 
 to change inceffantly the comparative value of 
 commodities, either with refped to each other, or 
 with refped to filver. The fame caufes confpire 
 to fix and vary the comparative value, whether 
 in refpe6t to the value of each commodity in 
 particular, or with refpe6t to the totality of the 
 
 E other
 
 { 50 ) 
 
 other values which are aBually in commerce. It 
 is not pofliblc to inveftigate thefe different caufes, 
 or to unfold their effects, without entering into 
 very extenfive and very difficult details, which I 
 fhall decline in this difcuflion. 
 
 § 47. The life of payments in money, has given 
 room for the diflinBion of feller and buyer. 
 
 In proportion as mankind became familiarized 
 to the cuilom of valuing all things in filver, of 
 exchanging all their fuperfluous commodities for 
 filver, and of not parting with that money but 
 for things which are ufeful or agreeable to them 
 at the moment, they become accuflomed to con- 
 fider the exchanges of commerce in a different 
 point of view. They have made a diflinftion of 
 two perfons, the buyer and the feller : the feller 
 is him who gives commodities for money ; and 
 the buyer is him who gives money for commo- 
 dities. 
 
 § 48. The ufe of money has much facilitated the 
 feparation of different hhours among the different or- 
 ders of fociety^ 
 
 The
 
 ( 51 ) 
 
 The more money becomes a univerfal medium, 
 the more every 0ne is enabled, by devoting him- 
 felf folely to tliat fpecies of cultivation and in- 
 duflry, of which he has made choice, to diveft 
 himfelf intirely of every thought for his other 
 wants, and only to think of providing the mod 
 money he can, by the fale of his fruits or his la^ 
 hour, being fure with that money to pofTefs all the 
 reft. It is thus, that the ufe of money has pro- 
 digioufly haftened the progrefs of fociety. 
 
 § 49. Of the excefs of annual produce accumu- 
 lated to form capitals, , 
 
 As foon as men are found, whofe property in 
 land affures them an annual revenue more than 
 fufficient to fatisfy all their wants, among them 
 there are fome, who, either uneafy refpeQ:ing the 
 future, or, perhaps, only provident, lay by a por- 
 tion of what they gather every year, either with 
 a view to guard againft poffible accidents, or to 
 augment their enjoyments. When the commodi- 
 ties they have gathered are difficult to preferve, 
 they ought to procure themfelves in exchange, 
 fuch objeds of a more durable nature, and fuch 
 
 E 2 as
 
 ( 52 ) 
 
 as will not decreafe in their value by time, of 
 thofe as may be employed in fuch a manner, as to 
 procure fuch profits as will make good the de- 
 creafe with advantage. 
 
 § 50. Pcrfonal property, accu7nulation of money. 
 
 This fpecies of poffeflion, refulting from the 
 accumulation of annual produce, not confumed, 
 is known by the name o^ per final property. Houf- 
 hold goods, houfes, merchandize in ftore, uten- 
 fils of trade, and cattle are under this denomi- 
 nation. It is evident men muft have toiled hard 
 to procure themfelves as much as they could of 
 this kind of wealth, before they became acquain- 
 ted with the ufe of money ; but it is not lefs evi- 
 dent but, as foon as it was known, that it was the 
 leaft liable to alteration of all the objefts of com- 
 merce, and the moft eafy to preferve without 
 trouble, it would be principally fought after by 
 whoever wifhed to accumulate. It was not the 
 proprietors of land only who thus accumulated 
 their fuperfluity. Although the profits of in- 
 dullry are not, like the revenue of lands, a gift 
 of nature ; and the induftrious man draws from 
 
 his
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 his labour only the price which is given him by 
 the perfons who pay him his wages ; although the 
 latter is as frugal as he can of his falary, and that 
 a competition obliges an induftrious man to con- 
 tent himfelf with a lefs price than he otherwife 
 would do, it is yet certain that thefe competitions 
 have neither been fo numerous or ttrong in any 
 fpecies of labour, but that a man more expert, 
 more active, and who practices more oeconomy 
 than others in his perfonal expences, has been 
 able, at all times, to gain a little more than fuffi- 
 cient to fupport him and his family, and refervc 
 his furplus to form a little hoard. 
 
 § 51. Circulating wealth is an indijpenjiblc rt^ 
 quijite for all lucrative works. 
 
 It is even necefl'ary, that in every trade the 
 workmen, or thofe who employ them, poflbfs a 
 cer^din quantity of circulating wealth, colle6ted 
 before-hand. We here again are obliged to go 
 back to a retrofpett of many things which have 
 been as yet only hinted at, after we have fpoken 
 of the divifion of different profeflions, and of the 
 different methods by which the proprietors of ca- 
 E 3 pitals
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 pitals may render them of value ; becaufe, other- 
 wife, we fhould not be able to explain them pro- 
 perly, without interrupting the connexion of our 
 ideas. 
 
 § 52. Necejfity of advances for cultivation. 
 
 Every fpecies of labour, of cultivation, of in- 
 duftry, or of commerce, require advances. When 
 people cultivate the ground^ it is necefTary to fow 
 before they can reap ; they muft alfo fupport them- 
 felves until after the harveft. The more culti- 
 vation is brought to perfeftion and enlivened, 
 the more confiderable thefe advances are. Cattle, 
 utenfils for farming, buildings to hold the cattle, 
 to ftore the productions, a number of perfons, 
 in proportion to the extent of the undertaking, 
 muft be paid and fubfifted until the harveft. It 
 is only by means of confiderable advances, that 
 we obtain rich harvefts, and that lands produce a 
 large revenue. In whatever bufmefs they en- 
 gage, the workman muft be provided with tools, 
 muft have a fufficient quantity of fuch materials 
 as the objeft o£ihis labour requires : and he muft 
 fubfift until the fale of his goods. 
 
 § 53- Firfl
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 § 53* ^^'^J^ advances furniJJied hy the land aU 
 though uncultivated. 
 
 The earth was ever the firft and the only fource 
 of all riches : it is that which by cultivation pro- 
 duces all revenue ; it is that which has afforded 
 the firft fund for advances, anterior to all culti- 
 vation. The firft cultivator has taken the grain 
 he has fown from fuch produdions as the land 
 had fpontaneoufly produced ; while waiting for 
 the harveft, he has fupported himfelf by hunting, 
 by fifhing, or upon wild fruits. His tools have 
 been the branches of trees, procured in the fo- 
 refts, and cut with ftones fharpened upon other 
 ftones ; the animals wandering in the woods he 
 has taken in the chace, caught them in his traps, 
 or has fubdued them unawares. At firft he has 
 made ufe of them for food, afterwards to help 
 him in his labours. Thefe firft funds or capital 
 have increafed by degrees. Cattle were in early 
 times the moft fought after of all circulating pro- 
 perty J and were alfo the eafieft to accumulate ; 
 they perifh, but they alfo breed, and this fort of 
 riches is in fome refpeds unperifhable. This ca- 
 pital augmemts by generation alone, and affords 
 E 4 an
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 an annual produce, either in milk, wool, leather, 
 and other materials, which, with wood taken in 
 the foreft, have eflPefted the firft foundations for 
 works of indultry. 
 
 § 54. Cattle a circulating wealth, even before 
 the cultivation of the earth. 
 
 In times when there was yet a large quantity of 
 uncultivated land, and which did not belong to any 
 individual, cattle might be maintained without 
 having a property in land. It is even probable, 
 that mankind have almoft every where began to 
 colleft flocks and herds, and to live on what they 
 produced, before they employed themfelves in the 
 more laborious occupation of cultivating the 
 ground. It feems that thofe nations who firft 
 cultivated the earth, are thofe who found in their 
 country fuch forts of animals as were the moft 
 fufceptible of being tamed, and that they have by 
 this been drawn from the wandering and reftlefs 
 life of hunters and fifliers, to the more tranquil 
 enjoyment of paftoral purfuits. Paftoral life re- 
 quires a longer refidence in the fame place, affords 
 more leifure, more opportunities to ftudy the dif- 
 
 ence
 
 { 57 ) 
 
 ference of lands, to obferve the ways of nature in 
 the produ6iions of fa ch plants as ferve for the 
 fupport of cattle. Perhaps it is for this reafon, 
 that the Afiatic nations have firft cultivated the 
 earth, and that the inhabitants of America have 
 remained fo long in a favage (late. 
 
 § 55. Another /pedes of circulating wealthy and 
 advances necejfary for cultivatiouy Jlaves. 
 
 The flaves were another kind of perfonal pro- 
 perty, which at firft were procured by violence, 
 and afterwards by way of commerce and ex- 
 change. Thofe that had many, employed them 
 not only in the culture of land, but in various 
 other channels of labour. The facility of accu- 
 mulating, almoft without meafure, thofe two 
 fources of riches, and of making ufe of them ab- 
 ftraftedly from the land, caufed the land itfelf to 
 be eftimated, and the value compared to move- 
 able riches. 
 
 § 56. Perfonal property has an exchangeable 
 value, ewnfor land itfelf 
 
 A man
 
 ( 58 ) 
 
 A man that would have been pofTefTed of a 
 quantity of lands without cattle or flaves, would 
 undoubtedly have made an advantageous bargain, 
 in yielding a part of his land, to a perfon that 
 would have offered him in exchange, cattle and 
 flaves to cultivate the reft. It is chiefly by this 
 principle that property in land entered likewife 
 into commerce, and had a comparative value with 
 that of all the other goods. If four bufhels of 
 corn, the net produce of an acre of land, was 
 worth fix flieep, the acre itfelf that feeds them 
 could have been given for a certain value, greater 
 indeed, but always eafy to fettle by the fame way, 
 as the, price of other wares. Namely, at firft by 
 debates among the two contractors, next, by the 
 current price eftablifhed by the agreement of 
 thofe who exchange land for cattle, or the con- 
 trary. It is by the fcale of this current fpecie 
 that lands are appraifed, when a debtor is pro- 
 fecuted by his creditor, and is conftrained to 
 yield up his property. 
 
 § 57. Valuation of lands by the proportion oj 
 their revenue^ with the fum of perjonal property , or 
 
 the
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 the value for which they are exchanged: this pro* 
 portion is called the price of lands. 
 
 It is evident, that if land, which produces a 
 revenue equivalent to fix fheep, can be fold for a 
 certain value, which may always be exprefled by 
 a number of fheep equivalent to that value ; this 
 number will bear a fixed proportion with that of 
 fix, and will contain it a certain number of times. 
 Thus the price of an eftate is nothing elfe but its 
 revenue multiplied a certain number of times ; 
 twenty times if the price is a hundred and twenty 
 fheep ; thirty times if one hundred and eighty flieep. 
 And fo the current price of land is reckoned by the 
 proportion of the value of the revenue ; and the 
 number of times, that the price of the fale contains 
 that of the revenue, is called fo many years pur- 
 chafe of the land. They are fold at the price of 
 twenty, thirty, or forty years purchafe, when on 
 purchafing them we pay twenty, thirty, or forty 
 times their revenue. It is alfo not lefs evident, that 
 this price muft vary according to the number of 
 purchafers, or fellers of land, in the fame manner 
 as other goods vary in a ratio to the different pro- 
 portion between the offer and the demand. 
 
 Let
 
 ( 6o ) 
 
 § 58. All capitalin money y and all valiU whatever, 
 is equivalent to land producing a revenue equal to a 
 determined Jum. Firjl^ employ of capitals^ pur chafe 
 of lands. 
 
 Let us now go back to the time after the intro- 
 duftion of money. The facility of accumulating it 
 has foon rendered it the moft defirable part of per- 
 fonal property, and has afforded the means of aug- 
 menting, by economy, the quantity of it without 
 limits. Whoever, either by the revenue of his land, 
 or by the falary of his labour or induftry, receives 
 every year a higher income than he needs to fpend, 
 may lay up the refidue and accumulate it ; thefe 
 accumulated values are what we name a capital. 
 The pufillanimous mifer, that keeps his money 
 with the mere view of foothing his imagination 
 againll apprchenfion of diftrefs in the uncertainty 
 of futurity, keeps his money in a hoard. If the 
 dangers he had forefeen fhould eventually take 
 place, and he in his poverty be reduced to live 
 every year upon the treafure, or a prodigal fuc- 
 celTor lavifh it by degrees, this treafure would foon 
 be cxhaufled, and the capital totally loft to the 
 poffcffor. The latter can draw a far greater ad- 
 vantage
 
 ( 6i ) 
 
 vantage from it ; for an eltate in land of a certain 
 revenue, being but an equivalent of a fum of value 
 equal to the revenue, taken a certain number of 
 times, it follows, th at any fum whatfoever of value 
 is equivalent to an eftate in land, producing a re- 
 venue equal to a fixed proportion of that fum. 
 It is perfedly the fame whether the amount of this 
 capital confifts in a mafs of metal, or any other 
 matter, fince money rcprefents all kinds of value, 
 as well as all kinds of value reprefent money. By 
 thefe means the pofleflbr of a capital may at firft 
 employ it in the purchafe of lands ; but he is not 
 without other refources. 
 
 § 59. Another employment for moneyin advances 
 for enterprifes of manufaHure or induflry. 
 
 I have already obferved, that all kinds of la- 
 bour, either of cultivation or induftry, required 
 advances, And I have fhewn how the earth, by 
 the fruits and herbages it fpontaneoufly produces 
 for the nourifhment of men and animals, and by 
 the trees, of which man has firll formed his utcnfils, 
 had furnifhed the firft advances for cultivation ; 
 and even of the firfl manual works a man can per- 
 forms
 
 ( 62 ) 
 
 form for his own fcrvice. For inftance, it is the 
 earth that provides the (lone, clay, and wood, of 
 which the firft houfes were built ; and, before the 
 divifion of profefTions, when the fame man that 
 cultivated the earth provided alfo for his other 
 wants by his own labour, there was no need of 
 other advances. But when a great part of fociety 
 began to have no refource but in their hands, itwas 
 neceffary that thofe who lived thus upon falaries, 
 fhould have fomewhat before-hand, that they 
 might either procure themfelves the materials on 
 which they laboured, or fubfift during the time 
 they were waiting for their falary. 
 
 § 60. Explanation of the ufe of the advances of 
 capitals in enterprifes of induflry ; on their returns 
 and the prof is they ought to produce. 
 
 In early times, he that employed labouring peo- 
 ple under him, furnifhed the materials himfelf, and 
 paid from day to day the falaries of the workmen. 
 It was the cultivator or the owner himfelf that 
 gave to the fpinner the hemp he had gathered, and 
 he maintained her during the time of her work- 
 ing. Thence he paffed the yarn to a weaver, to 
 
 whom
 
 ( 63 ) 
 
 ^vhom he gave every day the falary agreed upon. 
 But thofe flight daily advances can only take place 
 in the coarfeft works. A vaft number of arts, 
 -and even of thofe arts indifpenfible for the ufe of 
 the moft indigent members of fociety, require that 
 the fame materials fhould pafs through many dif- 
 ferent hands, and undergo, during a confiderable 
 fpace of time, difficult and various operations. I 
 have already mentioned the preparation of lea- 
 ther, of which fhoes are made. Whoever has 
 feen the workhoufe of a tanner, cannot help feel- 
 ing the abfolute impoffibility of one, or even fe- 
 veral indigent perfons providing themfelves with 
 leather, lime, tan, utenfils. Sec, and caufing the re- 
 quifite buildings to be erefted to put the tan houfe 
 to work, and of their living during a certain fpace 
 of time, till their leather can be fold. In this art, 
 and many others, muft not thofe that work on it 
 have learned the craft before they prefume to 
 touch the materials, left they fhould wafte them in 
 their firft trials ? Here then is another abfolute 
 neceffity of advances. Who fhall now colle8: the 
 materials for the manufaQory, the ingredients, the 
 requifite utenfils for their preparation ? Who is to 
 conftruQ canals, markets, and buildings of every 
 
 deno-
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 denomination ? How fhall that multitude of work- 
 men fubfdi: till the time of their leather being fold, 
 and of whom none individually would be able to 
 prepare a fingle fkin ; and where the emolument 
 of the fale of a fingle fkin could not afford fubfifl- 
 ence to any one of them? Who fhall defray the 
 expences for the inftruftion of the pupils and ap- 
 prentices ? Who fliall maintain them until they 
 are fufficiently inflruQed, guiding them gradually 
 from an eafy labour proportionate to their age^ 
 to works that demand more vigour and ability ? 
 It mufl then be one of thofe proprietors of capi- 
 tals, or moveable accumulated property that mufl 
 employ them, fupplying them with advances in 
 part for the conflru6lion and purcafe of materials^ 
 and pardy for the daily falaries of the workmen 
 that are preparing them. It i^ he that mufl ex- 
 pe6l the fale of the leather, which is to return 
 him not only his advances, but alfo an emolument 
 fufBcient to indemnify him for what his money 
 would have procured him, had he turned it to the 
 acquifition of lands, and moreover of the falary 
 due to his troubles and care, to his rifque, and 
 even to his flcill ; for furely, upon equal profits, he 
 would have preferred living without folicitude, on 
 
 continual
 
 ( 65 ) 
 
 the revenue of land, which he could have pUr- 
 chafed with the fame capital. In proportion as 
 this capital returns to him by the fale of his works^ 
 he employs it in new purchafes for fupporting his 
 family and maintaining his manufadory ; by this 
 continual circulation, he lives on his profits, and 
 lays by in ftore what he can fpare to increafe his 
 ftock, and to advance his enterprize by augment- 
 ing the mafs of his capital, in order proportion- 
 ably to augment his profits. 
 
 § 61. Subdivijion of the indujlrious Jlipendiary 
 clafsy in undertaking capitalijls andfimple workmen. 
 
 Thus the whole clafs employed in fupplying the 
 different wants of fociety, with an immenfe variety 
 of works of induftry, is, if I may fpeak thus, fub- 
 divided into two claffes. The one, of the under-^ 
 takers, manufacturers and mailers, all proprietors 
 of large capitals, which they avail themfelves of, 
 by furnifhing work to the other clafs, compofed of 
 artificers, deftitute of any property but their hands, 
 who advance only their daily labour, and receive 
 no profits but their falaries* 
 
 F § 62. Another
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 § 62. Another employmmt of capitals ^ in ad-- 
 varices towards undertakings of agriculture. Obfer^ 
 vations on the ufe^and indfpcnfihle profits of capitals 
 in undertakings of agriculture. 
 
 In fpeaking firft of the placing of capitals in 
 manufafturing enterprizes, I had in view to ad- 
 duce a more ftriking example, of the neceffity and 
 efFeQ; of large advances, and of the courfe of their 
 circulation. But I have reverfed the natural or- 
 der, which feemed to require that I fhould rather 
 begin to fpeak of enterprizes of agriculture, which 
 alfo can neither be performed, nor extended, nor 
 afford any profit, but by means of confiderable ad- 
 vances. It is the proprietors of great capitals, who, 
 in order to make them produftive in undertakings 
 of agriculture, take leafes of lands, and pay to the 
 owners large rents, taking on themfelves the whole 
 burthen of advances. Their cafe muft neceffarily 
 be the fame as that of the undertakers of manufac- 
 tures. Like them, they are obliged to make the firft 
 advances towards the undertaking, to provide 
 themfelves with cattle, horfes, utenfils of hufban- 
 dry, to purchafe the firft feeds; like them, they muft 
 Giaintain and nourifh their carters, reapers, threfh-
 
 ( 6? ) 
 
 ers,fervants,and labourers, of every denomination, 
 who fubfift only by their hands, who advance only 
 their labour, and reap only their falaries. Like 
 them, they ought to have not only their capital, I 
 mean, all their prior and annual advances re- 
 turned, but, ift. a profit equal to the revenue they 
 could have acquired with their capital, exclufive 
 of any fatigue ; 2dly. The falary, and the price 
 of their own trouble, of their rifk, and their in- 
 duflry ; sdly. An emolument to enable them to 
 replace the efFefts employed in their enterprize, 
 and the lofs by wafte, cattle dying, and utenfils 
 wearing out, &:c* all which ought to be firft charged 
 on the produQs of the earth. The overplus will 
 ferve the cultivator to pay to the proprietor, 
 for the perraiffion he has given him to make ufe 
 of his field, in the accompli filing of his enterprize 5 
 that is, the price of the leafehold^ the rent of the 
 proprietor and thd clear produ6l ; for all that the land 
 produces, until reimburfement of the advances, and 
 profits of every kind to him that has made thefe 
 advances, cannot be looked upon as a revenue, 
 but only as a reimburfement of the expences of 
 fhe cultivation, fince if the cultivator could not 
 F 2 obtain
 
 ( ^^ ) 
 
 obtain them, he would be loath to rifk his wealth 
 and trouble in cultivating the field of another. 
 
 § 63. The. competition hdtveen the capitalijls, 
 undertakers oj cultivation, Jixes the current price of 
 leajes of lands. 
 
 The competition between rich undertakers of 
 cultivation fixes the current price of leafes, in pro- 
 portion to the fertility of the foil, and of the rate 
 at which its productions are fold, always according 
 to the calculation w^hich farmers make both of 
 their expenditures, and of the profits they ought 
 to draw from their advances. They cannot giv^ 
 to the owners more than the overplus. But when 
 the competition among them happens to be more 
 animated, they fometimes render him the whole 
 overplus, the proprietor leafing his land to him 
 that offers the greateft rent. 
 
 § 64. The default of capilali/ls, undertakers, 
 limits the cultivation of lands to afmall extent. 
 
 When, on the contrary, there are no rich men 
 that poffefs capitals large enough to embark in en- 
 
 terprizes
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 tcrprizes of agriculture ; when, through the low 
 rate of the productions of the earth, or any other 
 caufe, the crops are not fufficient to enfure to the 
 undertakers, befides the reimburfement of their 
 capital, emoluments adequate at leaft to thofe they 
 would derive from their money, by employing it 
 in fome other channel ; there are no farmers that 
 offer to leafe lands, the proprietors are conftrain- 
 ed to hire mercenaries or metayers, which are 
 equally unable to make any advances, or duly to 
 cultivate it. The proprietor himfelf makes mode- 
 rate advances, which only produce him an in~ 
 different revenue : If the land happens to belong 
 to an owner, poor, negligent, and in debt, to ft 
 widow, or a minor, it remains unmanured ; fuch 
 is the principle of the difference I have obferved 
 between provinces, where the lands are cultivated 
 by opulent farmers, as in Normandy and the Ifle 
 de France, and thofe where they are cultivated 
 only by indigent mercenaries, as in Limoufin, An- 
 goumois, Bourbonnois, and feveral others, 
 
 § 6^, Subdivifion of the clafs of cultivators into 
 undertakers, or farmers, and hired fcrfonStfervants, 
 and day-labourers, 
 
 F 3 Hence
 
 ( 70 ) 
 
 Hence it follows, that the clafs of cultivators 
 may be divided, like that of manufa6lurers, into 
 two branches, the one of undertakers or capi- 
 talifts, who make the advances, the other of fimplc 
 ftipendiary workmen. It refults alfo, that capitals 
 alone can form and fupport great enterprizes 
 of agriculture, that give to the lands an unvari- 
 able value, if I may ufe the expreflion, and that 
 fecure to the proprietors a revenue always equal, 
 and the largeft poffible. 
 
 § 66. Fourth employment of capitals, in adva7ices 
 for enterprizes of commerce. Neceffity of the inter^ 
 pofition of merchants, properly fo called, between the 
 producers of tfie fommodities and the confimers. 
 
 The undertakers either in cultivation or manu- 
 fafture, draw their advances and profits only from 
 the fale of the fruits of the earth, or the com- 
 modities fabricated. It is always the wants and 
 the ability of the confumer that fets the price on 
 the fale ; but the confumer does not want the pro- 
 duce prepared or fitted up at the moment of the 
 crop, or the perfeftion of the work. However, 
 the undertakers want their ftocks immediately and 
 
 regularly
 
 ( 7^ ) 
 
 regularly reimburfed, to embark in frefli enter- 
 prizes : the manuring and the feed ought to fuc- 
 ceed the crops without interruption. The work- 
 men of a manufafture are unceafingly to be em- 
 ployed in beginning other works, in proportion 
 as the firft are diftributed, and to replace the ma- 
 terials in proportion as they are confumed. It 
 would not be advifeable to flop fhort in art en- 
 terprize once put in execution, nor is it to be 
 prefumed that it can be begun again at any time. 
 It is then the Itrideft intereft of the undertaker, to 
 have his capital quickly reimburfed by the fale of 
 his crop or commodities. On the other hand, it 
 is the confumer's intereft to find, when and where 
 he wifhes it, the things he ttands in need of; it 
 would be extremely inconvenient for him to be 
 neceilitated to make, at the time of the crop, his 
 provilion for the whole courfe of a year. Among 
 the objeds of ufual confumption, there are many 
 that require long and expenfive labours, labours 
 that cannot be undertaken with profit, except on 
 a large quantity of materials, and on fuch as the 
 confumption of a fmall number of inhabitants of a 
 limited diftrid, may not be fufficient for even the 
 fale of the work of a fingle manufatlory. Under- 
 F 4 takings
 
 { 7^ ) 
 
 takings of this kind mull then neccffarily be in a 
 reduced number, at a confiderable diftance from 
 each other, and confequently very diftant from 
 the habitations of the greater number of confum- 
 ers. ' There is no man, not opprefTed under the 
 extremeft mifery, that is not in a fituation to con- 
 fume feveral things, which are neither gathered nor 
 fabricated, except in places confiderably diftant 
 from him, and not lefs diftant from each other, 
 A perfon that cpuld not procure himfelf the ob- 
 jeds of his confumption but in buying it direftly 
 from the hand of him that gathers or works it^^ 
 would be either unprovided with many commo-, 
 dities, or pafs his life in wandering after them. 
 
 This double intereft which the perfon pro- 
 ducing and the confumer have, the former to find 
 a purchafer, the other to find where to purchafe, 
 and yet not to wafte ufeful time in expefting a 
 purchafer, or in finding a feller, has given the idea 
 to a third perfon to ftand between the one and the 
 other. And it is the obje6l of the mercantile pro- 
 feffion, who purchafe goods from the hands of the 
 perfon who produces them, to ftore them in ware- 
 houfes, whither the confumer comes to make his 
 
 purchafe.
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 purchafe. By thefe means the undertaker, aflured 
 of the fale and the re-acquifition of his funds, 
 looks undifturbed and indefatigably out for new 
 produftions, and the confumer finds within his 
 reach and at once, the obje8: of which he is in want. 
 
 § 67. Different orders of Merchants. They all 
 are alike employed in purchajing to fell again, and 
 their traffic isfiipported by advances which are to re^ 
 vert with a profit.^ to be engaged in new enterprizes. 
 
 From the green-woman who expofes her ware 
 in a market, to the merchants of Nantz or Cadiz, 
 who traffic even to India and America, the profef- 
 fion of a trader, or what is properly called com- 
 merce, divides into an infinity of branches, and it 
 may be faid of degrees. One trader confines 
 himfelf to provide one or feveral fpecies of com- 
 modities which he fells in his (hop to thofe who 
 chufe ; another goes with certain commodities to 
 a place where they are in demand, to bring from 
 thence in exchange, fuch things as are pioduced 
 there, and are wanted in the place from whence 
 he departed : one makes his exchanges in his own 
 neighbourhood, and by himfelf, another by means 
 
 of
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 of correfpondents, and by die interpofition of 
 carriers, whom he pays, employs, and fends from 
 one province to anodier, from one kingdom to 
 another, from Europe to Afia, and from Afia back 
 to Europe. One fells his merchandize by retail to 
 thofe who ufe them, another only fells in large par- 
 cels at a time, to other traders who retail them out 
 to the confumers : but all have this in common that 
 they buy to fell again, and that their firft purchafes 
 are advances which are returned to them only in 
 courfe of time. They ought to be returned to them, 
 like thofe of the cultivators and manufadurers, not 
 only within a certain time, to be employed again in 
 new purchafes, but alfo, i. with an equal revenue 
 to what they could acquire with their capitals 
 without any labour; 2. with the value of their • 
 labour, of their rifle, and of their induftry. With- 
 out bcins affured of this return, and of thefe in- 
 difpenfible profits, no trader would enter into bu- 
 Uneh, nor could any one pofTibly continue there- 
 in: 'tis in this view he governs himfelf in his pur- 
 chafes, on a calculation he makes of the quantity 
 and the price of the things, which he can hope to 
 difpofe of in a certain time : the retailer learns from 
 experience, by the fuccefs of limitted trials igfiade 
 
 with
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 with precaution, what is nearly the wants of thofe 
 confumers who deal with him. The merchanC 
 learns from his correfpon dents, of the plenty or 
 fcarcity, and of the price of merchandize in thofe 
 different countries to which his commerce ex- 
 tends ; he direfts his fpeculations accordingly, he 
 fends his goods from the country where they bear 
 a low price to thofe where they are fold dearer, 
 including the expence of tranfportation in the cal- 
 culation of the advances he ought to be reim- 
 burfed. Since trade is neceffary, and it is im- " 
 poffible to undertake any commerce without ad- 
 vances proportionable to its extent ; we here fee 
 another method of ejuploying perfonal property, 
 a new ufe that the poffeffor of a parcel of com- 
 modities referved and accumulated, of a fum of 
 money, in a word, of a capital, may jnake of it to 
 procure himfelf fubfiftence, and tq augnient, his 
 riches. 
 
 § 68. The true idea of the circulation of money ^ 
 
 We fee by what has been juft now faid, how 
 the cultivation of lands, manufaftures of all kinds, 
 and all the branches of trade, depend on a mafs 
 
 of
 
 ( 76 ) 
 
 of capital, or^ the accumulation of perfonal pro.per- j 
 ty, which, having been at firft advanced by the 
 undertakers, in each of thefe different branches, 
 ought to return to them again every year with a 
 regular profit ; that is, the capital to be again invef- 
 ted, and advanced in the continuation of the fame 
 enterprizes, and the profits employed for the greater 
 or lefs fubfiftance of the undertakers. It is this 
 continued advance and return which conftitutes 
 what ought to be called the circulation of money: 
 this ufeful and fruitful circulation, which animates 
 all the labour of fociety, which fupports all the mo- 
 tion, and is the life of the body politic, and which 
 is with great reafon compared to the circulation 
 of the blood in the human body. For, if by 
 any diforder in the courfe of the expences of the 
 different orders of fociety, the undertakers ceafe 
 to draw back their advances with fuch profit as 
 they have a right to expeft ; it is evident they 
 will be obliged to reduce their undertakings ; 
 that the total of the labour, of the confumption 
 of the fruits of the earth, of the productions 
 and of the revenue would be equally diminiflied; 
 that poverty will fucceed to riches, and that the 
 
 common
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 common workman, ceafing to find employ, will 
 fall into the deepeft mifery. 
 
 § 69. All extenjive undertakings^ particularly 
 thofe of manuJaBures and of commerce^ myji indif^ 
 penjibly have been very confined^ before the introduce 
 tion of gold andfilver in trade. 
 
 It is almoft unnecefTary to remark, that under- 
 takings of all kinds, but efpecially thofe of ma- 
 nufaftures, and above all thofe of commerce, muft^ 
 unavoidably be very confined, before the intro- 
 du^ion of gold and filver in trade ; fince it was 
 almoft impoflible to accumulate confiderable ca^ 
 pitals, and yet more difficult, to multiply and di- 
 vide payments fo much as is neceffary, to facilitate 
 and increafe the exchanges to that extent, which 
 a fpirited commerce and circulation require. 
 The cultivation of the land only may fupport it-, 
 felf to a certain degree, becaufe the cattle are the 
 principal caufe of the advances required therein, 
 and it is very probable, there is then no other 
 adventurer in cultivation but the proprietor. As 
 to arts of all kinds, they muft neceflarily have 
 been in the greateft languor before the intro- 
 
 duSipn
 
 ( 78 ) 
 
 duftion of money; they were confined to the 
 coarfeft works, for which the proprietors fup- 
 ported the advances, by nourifhing the workmen, 
 and furnifhing them with materials, or they caufed 
 them to be made in their own houfes by their 
 ferVants. 
 
 § 70. Capitals being as neceffhry to all undertake 
 ings as labour and indujiry, the indujlrious manjliares 
 voluntarily the projit of his enterprize with the owner 
 of the capital, who furniJJies him the funds he is in 
 ^nucd of. 
 
 Since capitals are the indifpenlible foundation 
 of all lucrative enterprizes ; fmce with money we 
 can furnifh means for culture, eflablifli manufac- 
 tures, and raife a commerce, the profits of which be- 
 ing accumulated and frugally laid up, will become 
 a new capital; fince, in a word^ money is the 
 principal means to beget money ; thofe who with 
 induftry and the love of labour are deftitute of 
 capital, and have not fufficient for the undertaking 
 they wifll to embark in, have no difficulty in re- 
 folving to give up to the proprietors of fuch 
 capital or money, who are willing to trull them, 
 
 a portion
 
 { 79 > 
 
 a portion of the profits which they are in expec- 
 tation of gaining, over and above their ad- 
 vances. 
 
 § 71. Fifth employment of capitals^ lending on 
 interejl ; nature of a loan. 
 
 The poffefTors of money balance the rifque their 
 capital may run, if the enterprize does not fuc- 
 ceed, with the advantage of enjoying a conltanl 
 profit without toil ; and regulate themfelves there- 
 by, to require more or lefs profit or intereft foi? 
 their money, or to confent to lend it for fuch an 
 interelt as the borrower offers. Here another 
 opportunity opens to the pofleiTor of money^ 
 viz. lending on intereft, or the commerce of mo-« 
 ney. Let no one miftake me here, lending on 
 intereft is only a trade, in which the lender is 
 a man who fells the ufe of his money, and the 
 borrower one who buys j precifely the fame aa 
 the proprietor of an eftate, or the perfon who 
 farms it, buys and fells refpeftively the ufe of the 
 hired land. The Latin term for a loan of mo- 
 ney or intereft, exprefles it exaftly, ufura pecunict, 
 a word which adopted into the French language 
 
 is
 
 ( 8o ) 
 
 is become odious, by a confequence of falfe 
 ideas being adopted oi> the interell of money. 
 
 § 72. Falfc ideas on lending upon inter ejl. 
 
 The rate of interefl is by no means founded, as 
 may be imagined, on the profit the borrower hopes 
 to make, with the capital of which he purchafesthe 
 ufe. This rate like the price of all other merchan- 
 dize, is fixed by the circumftances of buyer and 
 feller ; by the proportion of the fum offered with 
 the demand. People borrow with every kind of 
 view, and with every fort of motive. One bor- 
 rows to undertake an enterprize that is to make 
 his fortune^ another to buy an eftate, another to 
 pay his loffes at play, another to fupply the lofs of 
 his revenue, of which fome accident has deprived 
 him, another to exift on, in expectation of what he 
 is able to gain by his labour ; but all thefe motives 
 which determine the borrower, are very indifferent 
 to the lender. He attends to two things only, 
 the interefl he is to receive, and the fafety of his 
 capital. He never attends to the ufe the bor- 
 rower puts it to, as a merchant does not care to 
 
 what
 
 ( 8i ) 
 
 vhat ufe the buyer applies the commodities he 
 fells him* 
 
 § 73. Errors of the fchoolmen 7'ejutedi 
 
 It is for want of having e:?tamined the lending of 
 money on intereft in its true point of view, that 
 moralifts, more rigid than enlightened, would 
 endeavour to make us look on it as a crime. 
 Scholaftic theologifts have concluded, that as mo- 
 ney itfelf was not prolific, it was unjuft to require 
 a premium for the loan of it. Full of thefe pre- 
 judices they have fancied their do^rine was fane- 
 tioned by this paflage in the Gofpel, mutuum date 
 nihil indc /per antes : Thofe theologians who have 
 adopted more reafonabe principles on the fubjeCl 
 of intereft of money, have been branded with the 
 harfheft reproaches from thofe who adopt the 
 other fide of the queftion* 
 
 Nevertheless, thete are but few refl^ftioris ne- 
 eeffary to expofe the trifling reafons that are ad- 
 duced to condemn the taking of intereft* A loan 
 of money is a reciprocal contract, free between 
 both parties, and entered into only by reafon of 
 
 G its
 
 ( 82 ) 
 
 its being mutually advantageous. It is evident, 
 if the lender finds an advantage in receiving an in- 
 tcreft for his money, the borrower is not lefs inte- 
 refted in finding that money he itands in need of, 
 iince otherwife he would not borrow and fubmit 
 himfelf to the payment of intereft. Now on this 
 principle, can any one look on fuch an advantage- 
 ous contraft as a crime, in which both parties are 
 content, and which certainly does no injury to 
 any other perfon ? Let them fay the lender takes 
 advantage of the wants of the borrower, to force 
 the payment of interelt, this is talking as abfurd 
 as if we were to fay, that a baker who demands 
 money for the bread he fells, takes advantage 
 of his cuftomer's wants. If in this latter cafe, 
 the money is an equivalent for the bread the 
 buyer receives, the money which the borrower re- 
 ceives to day, is equally an equivalent for the capital 
 and intereft he agrees to pay at the expiration of a 
 certain time; for in fa6l, it is an advantage to the 
 borrower, to have, during that interval, theufe of 
 the money he ftands in need of, and it is a difad- 
 vantage to the lender to be deprived of it. This 
 difadvantage may be eftimated, and it is eftimat^. 
 cd, the intereft is the rate. This rate ought to be 
 
 larger,
 
 ( 83 ) 
 
 larger, if the leader runs a rifk of lofing his capi- 
 tal by the borrower becoming infolvent. The 
 bargain therefore is perfeftly equal on both fides 
 and confcquently, fair and honeft. Money con- 
 fidered as a phyfical fubftance, as a mafs of metal, 
 does not produce any thing ; but money made ufe 
 of in advances in cultivation, in manufacture, in 
 commerce, produces a certain profit ; with money 
 we can acquire land, and thereby procure a re- 
 venue : the perfon therefore who lends his money, 
 does not only give up the unfruitful pofleffion of 
 fuch money, but deprives himfelfofthe profit which 
 it was in his power to procure by it, and the in- 
 tereft which indemnifies him from this lofs can- 
 not be looked upon as unjuft. The fchoolmen, 
 compelled to acknowledge the juftice of thefe con- 
 fiderations, have allowed that intereft for money 
 may be taken, provided the capital is alienated, 
 that is, provided the lender gave up his right to 
 be reimburfed his money in a certain time, and 
 permitted the borrower to retain it as long as he 
 was inclined to pay the intereft thereof only. The 
 reafon of this toleration was, that then it is no 
 longer a loan of money for which an intereft is 
 paid, but a purchafe, which is bought with a fum 
 G 2 of
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 of money, as we purchafe lands. This was a mode 
 to which they had recourfe, to comply with the 
 abfolute necefTity which exifts of borrowing mo- 
 ney, in the courfe of the tranfa6lions of fociety, 
 without fairly avowing the fallacy of thofe prin- 
 ciples, upon which they had condemned the prac- 
 tice : but this claufe for the alienation of the ca- 
 pital, is not an advantage to the borrower, who 
 remains equally indebted to the lender, until he 
 fhall have repaid the capital, and whofe property 
 always remains as a fecurity for the fafety of fucb 
 capital ; — it is even a difadvantage, as he finds it 
 more difficult to borrow money when he is in 
 want of it ; for perfon^s who would willingly con- 
 fcnt to lend for a year or two, a fum of money 
 which they had deftined for the purchafe of an 
 eftate, would not lend it for an uncertain time, 
 Befides, if they are permitted to fell their money 
 for a perpetual rent, why may they not lend it for 
 a certain number of years, for a rent which is 
 only to continue for that term ? If an intereft of 
 looo livres per annum is equivalent to the fum of 
 20000 livres from him to keep fuch a fum in per- 
 petuity, lOOO livres will be an equivalent for the 
 pofleffion of that fum for one year. 
 
 § 74. True
 
 ( 85 ) 
 
 § 74' True foundation of inter ejl of money, 
 
 A man then may lend his money as lawfully as 
 lie may fell it ; and the poffeffor of money may 
 either do one or the other, not only becaufe mo- 
 ney is equivalent to a renenue, and a means to pro- 
 cure a revenue ; not only becaufe the lender lofes, 
 during the continuance of the loan, the revenue 
 he might have procured by it ; not only becaufe 
 he rifks his capital ; not only becaufe the bor- 
 rower can employ it in advantageous acquifitions, 
 or in undertakings from whence he will draw a 
 large profit : the proprietor of money may law- 
 fully receive the intereil of it, by a more general 
 and decifive principle. Even if none of thefe 
 circumftances fhould take place, he will not have 
 the lefs right to require an intereft for his loan, 
 for this reafon only, that his money is his own. 
 Since it is his own, he has a right to keep it, 
 nothing can imply a duty in him to lend it; if 
 then he does lend, he may annex fuch a condition 
 to the loan as he chufes, in this he does no injury 
 to the borrower, fince the latter agrees to the con- 
 ditions, and has no fort of right over the fum lent. 
 The profit which money can procure the bor- 
 G 3 rower.
 
 ( 86 ) 
 
 rower, is doubtlefs one of the moll prevailing 
 motives to determine him to borrow on intereft ; 
 it is one of the means which facilitates his pay- 
 ment of the intereft, but this is by no means that 
 which gives a right to the lender to require it ; 
 it is fufficient for him that his money is his own, 
 and this is a right infeparable from property. He 
 who buys bread, does is for his fupport, but the 
 right the baker has to exaft a price is totally in- 
 dependent of the ufe of bread • the fame right he 
 would poffefs in the fale of a parcel of Hones, a 
 right founded on this principle only, that the bread 
 is his own, and no one has any right to oblige him 
 to give it up for nothing. 
 
 § 75» Anjwer to an ohjeBion, 
 
 This refleftion brings us to the confideration 
 of the application made by an author, of the text, 
 Tniituum date nihil inde fperantes, and fliews how 
 falfe that application is, and how diftant from the 
 meaning of the Gofpel. The pafTage is clear, as 
 interpreted by modern and reafonable divines as 
 a precept of charity. All mankind are bound to 
 affift each other ; a rich man who fhould fee his 
 
 fellow
 
 ( 87 ) 
 
 fellow creature in diftrefs, and who, inftead of gra-- 
 tuitoufly affifting, fhould fell him what he needed, 
 would be equally deficient in the duties of chrif- 
 tianity and of humanity. In fuch circumftances, 
 charity does not only require us to lend without 
 intereft, fhe orders us to lend, and even to give if 
 neceffary. To convert the precept of charity into 
 a precept of ftridjuflice, is equally repugnant to 
 reafon, and the fenfe of the text. Thofe whom 
 I here attack do not pretend that it is a duty of 
 juftice to lend their money ; they muft be obliged 
 then to confefs, that the firft words of the paffage, 
 mutuum datCy contain only a precept of charity. 
 Now I demand why they extend the latter part of 
 this paffage to a principle of juftice. What, is the 
 duty of lending not a ftrid precept, and ft)all its ac- 
 ceffary only, the conditionof the loan, be made one; 
 It would have been faid to man, " It is free for you 
 to lend or not to lend, but if you do lend, take care 
 you do not repuire any intereft for your money, and 
 even when a merchant fhall require a loan of you 
 for an undertaking, in which he hopes to make a 
 large profit, it will be a crime in you to accept the 
 intereft he offers you ; you muft abfolutely either 
 lend to him gratuitoufly, or not lend to him at 
 G 4 all.
 
 ( 88 ) 
 
 all. You have indeed one method to make the 
 receipt of intereft lawful, it is to lend your capital 
 for an indefinite term, and to give up all right to 
 be repaid it, which is to be optional to your debtor, 
 when he pleafes, or when he can. If you find 
 any inconvenience on the fcore of fecurity, or if 
 you forefee you fhall want your money in a cer- 
 tain number of years, you have no other courfe 
 to take but not to lend : It is better for you to 
 deprive this merchant of this moll fortunate 
 opportunity, than to commit a fin by affifting 
 him." This is what they muft have feen in thefe 
 five words, mutuum date nihil inde fperantes, when 
 they have read them under thefe falfe prejudices. 
 
 Every man who fhall read this text unpreju- 
 diced, will foon find its real meaning; that is, 
 ^' as men, as Chriftians, you are all brothers, all 
 friends ; a6t towards each other as brethren and 
 friends ; help each other in your neceflities ; let 
 your purfes be reciprocally open to each other, 
 and do not fell that afTillance which you are mu- 
 tually indebted to each other, in requiring an in- 
 terell for a loan which charity requires of you as a 
 riuty.'* This is the true fenfe of the paffage in 
 
 queftion.
 
 ( 89 ) 
 
 queftion. The obligation to lend without in- 
 tereft, and to lend, have evident relation to each 
 other ; they are of the fame order, and both in- 
 culcate a duty of charity, and not a precept of 
 rigorous juftice, applicable to all cafes of lending. 
 
 § 76. The rate of inter ejl ought to be Jixed^ as 
 the price of every other merchandize^ by the courfe of 
 trade alone, 
 
 I have already faid, that the price of money 
 borrowed, is regulated like the price of all other 
 merchandize, by the proportion of the money at 
 market with the demand for it : thus, when there 
 are many borrowers who are in want of money, 
 the intereft of money rifes; when there are many 
 poflelTors who are ready to lend, it falls. It is 
 therefore an error to believe that the intereft of 
 money in trade ought to be fixed by the laws of 
 princes. It has a current price fixed like that of 
 all other merchandize. This price varies a little, 
 according to the greater or lefs fecurity which the 
 lender has ; but on equal fecurity, he ought to 
 raife and fall his price in proportion to the abun- 
 dance of the demand, and the law no more ought 
 
 to
 
 ( 90 ) 
 
 to fix the intereft of money than it ought to regu- 
 late the price of any other merchandizes which have 
 St currency in trade. 
 
 $ 77. Money has in commerce two different va^ 
 luations. One exprejfes the quantity of money orfilver 
 we give to procure dfferent forts of commodities ; the 
 ether expreffes the relation a fum 0/ money has^ to the 
 mterejl it will procure in the courje oj trade. 
 
 It feems by this explanation of the manner in 
 which money is either fold or lent for an annual 
 intereft^ that there are two ways of valuing money 
 in commerce. In buying and felling, a certain 
 weight of filver reprefents a certain quantity oF 
 labour, or of merchandize of every ^eciesj for 
 example, one ounce of filver is equal to a certain 
 quantity of corn, or to the labour of a man for a 
 certain number of days. In lending, and in the 
 commerce of money, a capital is the equivalent of 
 an equal rent, to a determinate portion of that 
 capital ; and reciprocally an annual rent repre- 
 fcnts a capital equal to the amount of that rent 
 repeated a certain number of times, according as 
 mterell is at a higher or lower rate. 
 
 § 78. Thtje
 
 ( 9T ) 
 
 § 7^* Thefe two valuations are independent of 
 each other ^ and are governed by quite different prin» 
 ciples. 
 
 Thefe two different methods of fixing a value, 
 have much lefs connexion, and depend much lefs 
 on each other than we fhould be tempted to be- 
 lieve at firft fight. Money may be very common 
 in ordinary commerce, may hold a very low va- 
 lue, anfwer to a very fmali quantity of commodi- 
 ties, and the intereft of money may at the fame 
 time be very high, 
 
 I will fuppofe there are one million ounces of 
 filver in adual circulation in commerce, and that 
 an ounce of lilvcr is given in the market for a 
 bufhel of corn. I will fuppofe that there is 
 brought into the country in fome manner or other, 
 another million of ounces of filver, and this aug- 
 mentation is diftributed to every one in the fame 
 proportion as the firft million, fo that he who had 
 before two ounces, has now four. The filver 
 confidered as a quantity of metal, will certainly 
 diminifh in price, or which is the fame thing, com- 
 modities will be purchafed dearer, and it becomes 
 
 neceffary
 
 ( 92 ) 
 
 Ticceflary in order to procure the fame meafure of 
 corn which he had before with one ounce of lilver, 
 to give more filver, perhaps two ounces inftead of 
 one. But it does not by any means follow from 
 thence, that the intereft of money falls, if all this 
 money is carried to market, and employed in the 
 current expences of thofe who poflefs it, as it i» 
 fuppofcd the firft million of ounces of filver was ; 
 for the intereft of money falls only when there is 
 a greater quantity of money to be lent, in pro- 
 portion to the wants of the borrowers, than there 
 was before. Now the filver which is carried to 
 market is not to be lent ; it is money which is 
 hoarded up, which forms the accumulated capital 
 for lending ; and the augmentation of the money 
 in the market, or the diminution of its price in 
 comparifon with commodities in the ordinary 
 iourfe of trade, are very far from caufing infal- 
 libly, or by a neceflary confequence, a decreafe 
 of the intereft of money ; on the contrary, it may 
 happen that the caufe which augments the quan- 
 tity of money in the market, and which confe- 
 quently increafes the price of other commodities 
 by lowering the value of filver, is precifely the 
 
 fame
 
 { 93 ) 
 
 fame caufe which augments the hire of money, or 
 the rate of intereft. 
 
 In efFeft, I wiil fuppofe for a moment, that all 
 the rich people in a country, inftead of faving from 
 their revenue, or from their annual profits, fliall 
 expend the whole j that, not fatisfied with expend- 
 ing their whole revenue, they dilTipate a part of their 
 capital; that a man who has 100,000 livres in 
 money, inftead of employing them in a profitable 
 manner, or lending them, con fumes them by de- 
 grees in foolifh expences ; it is apparent that on 
 one fide there will be more fiiver employed in 
 common circulation, to fatisfy the wants and hu- 
 mours of each individual, and that confcquently 
 its value will be lowered ; on the other hand there 
 will certainly be lefs money to be lent ; and as 
 many people will in this fituation of things ruin 
 themfelves, there will clearly be more borrowers. 
 The intereft of money will confequently augment, 
 while the money itfelf will become more plenty 
 in circulation, and the valu^ of it will fall^ pre- 
 cifely by the fame caufe. 
 
 We
 
 { 94 ) 
 
 We fhall no longer be furprifed at this apparent 
 inconfiflency, if we confider that the money 
 brought into the market for the purchafeof corn, 
 is that which is daily circulated to procure the ne- 
 cefTaries of life ; but that which is offered to be 
 lent on intereft, is what is aQually drawn out of 
 that circulation to be laid by and accumulated 
 into a capital. 
 
 § 79. In comparing the value of money with 
 that of commoditieSy we confider Jilver as a metal, 
 which is an ohjeB oj commerce. In ejlimating the 
 intei'ejl of money y we attend to the ufe of it during a 
 determinate time. 
 
 In the market a meafure of corn is purchafed 
 with a certain weight of filver, or a quantity of 
 filver is bought with a certain commodity, it is 
 this quantity which is valued and compared with 
 the value of other commodities. In a loan upon 
 intereft, the objeft of the valuation is the ufe of 
 a certain quantity of property during a certain 
 time. It is in this cafe no longer a mafs of filver, 
 compared with a quantity of corn, but it is a por- 
 tion of efFe6ls compared with a certain portion of 
 
 the
 
 ( 95 ) 
 
 the fame, which is become the cuftomary price of 
 that mafs for a certain time. Let twenty thou- 
 fand ounces of lilver be an equivalent in the mar- 
 ket for twenty thoufand meafures of corn, or only 
 for ten thoufand, the ufe of thofe twenty thou- 
 fand ounces of filver for a year is not worth lefs 
 on a loan than the twentieth part of the principal 
 fum, or one thoufand ounces of filver, if intereft 
 is at five per cent. 
 
 § 80. The price t)f inter ejl depends immediaielj 
 on the proportion of the demand of the horrow€rs^ 
 tuith the offer of the lenders, and this proportion cfe- 
 pends principally on the quantity of perfonal property^ ' 
 Gccwmulaied by an excefs of revenue and of the annual 
 j)roduce to form capitals, whether thefe capitals exijh 
 in money or in any other kind of eff'eBs having a valut 
 in commerce. 
 
 The price of filver in circulation has no in- 
 fluence but with refped to the quantity of thi^ 
 metal employed in common circulation ; but the 
 rate of intereft is governed by the quantity of pro- 
 perty accumulated and laid by to form a capital. 
 li is indifferent whether this property is in metal 
 
 or
 
 ( 96 ) 
 
 or other efFeds, provided thefe efFefts, are eafily 
 convertible into moneys It is far from being the 
 cafe, that the mafs of metal exifting in a Hate, is 
 as large as the amount of the property lent on in- 
 tereft in the courfe of a year ; but all the capitals 
 in furniture, merchandize, tools, and cattle, fup- 
 ply the place of filver and reprefent it. A paper 
 figned by a man, who is known to he worth 
 100,000 livres, and who promifes to pay lOO 
 marks in a certain time is worth that fum ; the 
 whole property of the man who has figned this 
 note is anfwerable for the payment of it, in what- 
 ever the nature of thefe efFe6ls confifts, provided 
 they are in value 100,000 livres. It is not there- 
 fore the quantity of filver exifting as merchandize 
 which caufes the rate of intereft to rife or fall, or 
 which brings more money in the market to be 
 lent ; it is only the capitals exifting in commerce, 
 that is to fay, the adual value of perfonal property 
 of every kind accumulated, fucceffively faved 
 out of the revenues and profits to be employed 
 by the poffefTors to procure them new revenues 
 and new profits. It is thefe accumulated favings 
 which are offered to the borrowers, and the more 
 there are of them, the lower the intereft of money 
 
 will
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 will be, at lead if the number of borrowers is not 
 augmented in proportion. 
 
 § 81. The fpirit of aconomy continually aug^ 
 ments the amount of capitals^ luxury continually tends 
 to deflory them. 
 
 The fpirit of oeconomy in any nation tends in- 
 ceflantly to augment the amount of the capitals, 
 to increafe the number of lenders, and to dimi- 
 nifh that of the borrowers. The habit of luxury 
 has precifely a contrary effed, and by what has 
 been already remarked on the ufe of capitals in 
 all undertakings, whether of cultivation, manu- 
 fafture, or commerce, we may judge if luxury 
 enriches a nation, or impoverilhes it. 
 
 § 82, The lowering of inter ejl proves ^ that in 
 Europe oeconomy has in general prevailed over lux^ 
 ury. 
 
 Since the intereft of money has been conftantly 
 diminifhing in Europe for feveral centuries, we 
 muft conclude, that the fpirit of oeconomy has 
 been more general than the fpirit of luxury. It 
 
 H is
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 is only people of fortune who run into luxury, 
 and among the rich, the fenfible part of them con- 
 fine their expences within their incomes, and pay 
 great attention not to touch their capital. Thofe 
 who wifh to become rich are far more numerous 
 in a nation then thofe which are already fo. 
 Now, in the prefent ftate of things, as all the land 
 is occupied there is but one way to become rich, 
 it is either to pofTefs, or to procure in fome way 
 or other, a revenue or an annual profit above 
 what is abfolutely neceffary for fubfiftence, and to 
 lay up every year in referve to form a capital, by 
 means of which they may obtain an increafe of 
 revenue or annual profit, which will again pro- 
 duce another faving, and become capital. There 
 are confequently a great number of men interefted 
 and employed in amafling capitals. 
 
 § 83. Recapitulation of the Jive different me- 
 thods of employing capitals. 
 
 I have reckoned five different methods of em- 
 ploying capitals, or of placing them fo as to pro- 
 cure a profit 
 
 ift. To
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 ift. To buy an eflate, which brings in a cer- 
 tain revenue. 
 
 2d. To employ money in undertakings of culti- 
 vation; in leafing lands whofe produce fhould ren- 
 der back, befides the expences of farming, the in- 
 tereft on the advances, and a recompence for the 
 labour of him who employs his property and at- 
 tention in the cultivation. 
 
 3d. To place a capital in fomc undertakings 
 of induftry or manufaftures, 
 
 4th. To employ it in commerce. 
 
 5th. To lend it to thofe who want it, for an 
 annual intereft. 
 
 § 84. The injluence which the different methods 
 of employing money have on each other. 
 
 It is evident that the annual returns, which ca- 
 pitals, placed in different employs, will produce, 
 are proportionate to each other, and all have 
 H 2 relation
 
 ( lOO ) 
 
 relation to the a6lual rate of the intereft of 
 money, 
 
 § 85. Money invejled in land, necejfarily pro- 
 duce lefs. 
 
 The perfon who invefts his money in land let 
 to a folvent tenant, procures himfelf a revenue 
 which gives him very little trouble in receiving* 
 and which he may difpofe of in the moft agree- 
 able manner, by indulging all his inclinations. 
 There is a greater advantage in the purchafe of 
 this fpecies of property, than of any other, fince 
 the poffeffion of it is more guarded againft acci- 
 dents. We muft therefore purchafe a revenue in 
 land at a higher price, and muft content ourfelves 
 with a lefs revenue for an equal capital. 
 
 § 86. Money on interejl ought to bring a little 
 fnore income, than purchafed with an equal capital. 
 
 He who lends his money on intereft, enjoys it 
 ftill more peaceably and freely than the pofTeflor 
 of land, but the infolvency of his debtor may en- 
 danger
 
 ( 101 ) 
 
 danger the lofs of his capital. He will not there- 
 fore content himfelf with an intereft equal to the 
 revenue of the land which he could buy with an 
 equal capital. The intereft of money lent, muft 
 confequently be larger than the revenue of an 
 eftate purchafed with the fame capital ; for if the 
 proprietor could find an eftate to purchafe of an 
 equal income, he would prefer that. 
 
 § 87. Money employed in cultivation ^ manit-' 
 fadiures, or commerce, ought to produce more than the 
 interejl of money on loan. 
 
 By a like reafon, money employed in agricul-* 
 ture, in manufa6tures, or in commerce, ought to 
 produce a more confiderable profit than the re- 
 venue of the fame capital employed in the pur- 
 chafe of lands, or the intereft of money on loan ; 
 for thefe undertakings, befides the capital ad- 
 vanced, requiring much care and labour, and if 
 they were not more lucrative, it would be much 
 better to fecure an equal revenue, which might be 
 enjoyed without labour. It is neceffary then, 
 that, befides the intereft of the capital, the un- 
 dertaker fhould draw every year a profit to re- 
 
 H 3 corapcncc
 
 ( 102 ) 
 
 compcnce him for his care, his labour, his talents; 
 the rifque he runs, and to replace what his Itock 
 may lol'e by perifhable goods, which he is obliged 
 to invcft at firft in effeds capable of receiving 
 injury, and which are after expofedto all kinds of 
 accidents. 
 
 § 88. Meantime the freedom of theft various 
 employments are limitted by each other ^ and maintain, 
 notwithflanding their inequality, a fpccies of equili^ 
 brium. 
 
 The different ufes oFrhe capitals produce very 
 unequal profits ; but this inequality does not 
 prevent them from having a reciprocal influence 
 on each other, nor from eftablifhing a fpecies of 
 equilibrium among themfelves, like that between 
 two liquors of unequal gravity, and which com- 
 municate with each other by means of a reverfed 
 fyphon, the two branches of which they fill ; there 
 can be no height to which the one can rife or fall, 
 but the liquor in the other branch will be afl['e6led 
 in the fame manner. 
 
 I will fuppoTe, that on a fudden, a great number 
 of proprietors of lands are defirous of felling 
 
 them
 
 ( 103 ) 
 
 them. It is evident that the price of lands will 
 fall, and that with a lefs fum we may acquire a 
 larger revenue; this cannot come to pafs without 
 the interefl of money rifing, for the polfefTors of 
 money would chufe rather to buy lands, than to 
 lend at a lower intereft then the revenue of the 
 lands they could purchafe. If, then, the bor- 
 rowers want to have money, they will be con- 
 ftrained to pay a greater rate. If the intereft of 
 the money increafes, they will prefer lending 
 it, to fetting out in a hazardous manner on enter- 
 prizes of agriculture, induftry, and commerce: 
 and they will be aware of any enterprizes but 
 thofe that produce, befides the retribution for theifc 
 trouble, an emolument by far greater than the 
 rate of the lenders produce. In a word, if the 
 profits, fpringing from an ufc of money, augment or 
 diminifli, the capitals are converted by withdraw- 
 ing them from other employings, or are withdrawn 
 by converting them to other ends, which neceffa- 
 rily alters in each of thofe employments, the pro- 
 portion of profits on the capital to the annual pro- 
 duft. Generally, money converted into property 
 in land, does not bring in fo much as money on inte- 
 reft ; and money on intereft brings lefs than money 
 H 4 ufed.
 
 ( 104 ) 
 
 ufed in laborious enterprizes : but the produce of 
 money laid out in any way whatever, cannot 
 augment or decreafe without implying a propor- 
 tionate augmentation, or decreafe in other em- 
 ployments of money. 
 
 § 89. The current interejl of money is the Jlaru- 
 dard by which the abundance or fcarcity of capitals 
 may be judged ; it is thefcale on which the extent of 
 a nation's capacity for enterprizes in agriculture, 
 manufactures^ aud commerce, may be reckoned. 
 
 Thus the current intereft of money may be 
 confidered as a ftandard of the abundance or 
 fcarcity of capitals in a nation, and of the extent 
 of enterprizes of every denomination, in which 
 file may embark : it is manifeft, that the lower the 
 intereft of money is, the more valuable is the land. 
 A man that has an income of fifty thoufand livres, 
 if the land is fold but at the rate of twenty years 
 purchafe is an owner of only one million ; he has 
 two millions, if the land is fold at the rate of 
 forty. If the intereft is at five per cent, any 
 land to be brought into cultivation would conti- 
 nue fallow, if, befides the recovery of the ad- 
 vances.
 
 I 105 ) 
 
 vances, and the retribution due to the care of the 
 cultivator, its produce would not afford five per 
 cent. No manufactory, no commerce can exift, 
 that does not bring in five per cent, exclufively of 
 the falary and equivalents for the rifque and trou- 
 ble of the undertaker. If there is a neighbouring 
 nation in which the intereil ftands only at two per 
 cent, not only it will engrofs all the branches of 
 commerce, from which the nation where an in- 
 tereft at five per cent, is eftablifhed, is excluded, 
 but its manufacturers and merchants, enabled to 
 fatisfy themfelves with a lower intereft, will alfo 
 fell their goods at a more moderate price, and 
 will attract the almoft exclufive commerce of all 
 articles, which they are not prevented . to fell by 
 particular circumftances of exceffive dearth, and 
 expences of carriages, from the nation in which 
 the intereft bears five per cent. 
 
 § 90. Influence of the rate of inter efl of monej 
 on all lucrative enter prizes. 
 
 The price of the intereft may be looked upon 
 as a kind of level, under which all labour, cul- 
 ture, induftry, or commerce, ads. It is like k 
 
 fea
 
 ( 106 j 
 
 fca expanded over a vaft country; the tops of the 
 mountains rife above the furface of the water, and 
 form fertile and cultivated iflands. If this fea 
 happens to give way, in proportion asitdefcends, 
 fioping ground, then plains and vallies appear, 
 which cover themfelves with produ8:ions of every 
 kind. It wants no more than a foot elevation, 
 or falling, to inundate or to reltore culture to 
 unmeafurable trafts of land. It is the abundance 
 of capitals that animates enterprize; and a low 
 intereft of money is at the fame time the effed 
 and a proof of the abundance of capitals. 
 
 § Q I . The total riches of a nation conjijls, i . 
 in the clear revenue of all the real eJlateSy multiplied 
 hy the rate of the price of land. 2. In thefum of all 
 the moveable riches exijling m a nation. 
 
 Real eflates are equivalent to any capital equal 
 to their annual revenue, multiplied by the current 
 rate at which lands arc fold. Thus if" we add the 
 revenue of all lands, viz. th: clear revenue they 
 render to the proprietor, and to all thofe that fhare 
 i;i the property, as the lord that levies a rent, the 
 curate that levies the tythe, the fovereign that le- 
 vies
 
 { 107 ) 
 
 vies the tax : if fay I we fhould add all thefc 
 fums, and multiply them by the rate at which lands 
 are fold, we would have the fum of all the wealth 
 of a nation in real eftates. To have the whole of 
 a nation's wealth, the moveable riches ought to be 
 joined, which confiR in the fum of capitals con- 
 verted into enterprizes of culture, induftry, and 
 commerce, which is never lofl ; as all advances 
 in any kind of undertaking, muft unceafmgly re- 
 turn to the undertaker, to be unceafingly con- 
 verted into enterprizes, which without that could 
 not be continued. It would be a grofs miftake to 
 confound the immence mafs of moveable riches 
 with the mafs of money that exifts in a ftate; the 
 latter is a fmall objeft in comparifon with the other. 
 To convince one's fclf of this, we need only re- 
 member the immenfe quantity of beafts, utenfils, and 
 feed, which conftitute the advance of agriculture- 
 the materials, tools, moveables, and merchandifes 
 of every kind, that fill up the work-houfes, (hops, 
 and warehoufes of all manufafturers, of all mer- 
 chants, and of all traders, and it will be plain, that 
 in the totality of riches either real or moveable of a 
 nation, the fpecie makes but an inconfiderable part j 
 butall riches and moneybeing continually exchange- 
 able.
 
 ( 108 ) 
 
 able, they all reprcfent money, and money repre- 
 fents them all. 
 
 § 92. The fum of lent capitals cannot he under- 
 Jlood without a two-fold employing. 
 
 We muft not include in the calculation of the 
 riches of a nation the fum of lent capitals ; for the 
 capitals could only be lent either to proprietors of 
 lands, or to undertakers to enhance their value in 
 their enterprizes, (ince there are but thefe two 
 kinds of people that can anfwer for a capital, and 
 difcharge the intereft : a fum of money lent to 
 people that have neither efiate nor induftry, would 
 be a dead capital, and not an aftive one. If the 
 owner of land of 400,000 livres borrows 100,000 
 his land is charged with a rent that diminifliej 
 his revenue by that fum. If he fliould fell it; 
 out of the 400,000 livres he would receive, 
 100,000 arc the property of the creditor, ^y 
 thefc means the capital of the lender would always 
 fonn, in the calculation of exifting riches, z 
 double eftimatc. The land is always worth 400^ 
 000/. when the proprietor borrows 100,000/, 
 that docs not make 500^000/. it only follows, 
 
 that
 
 { 109 } 
 
 that in the 400,000/. one hundred thoufand be- 
 longs to the lender, and that there remains no more 
 than 300,000/. to the borrower. 
 
 The fame double eftimate would have place in 
 the calculation, if we fhould comprehend in the 
 total calculation of capitals, the money lent to an 
 undertaker to be employed in advance for his un- 
 dertaking ; it only refults, that that fum, and the 
 part of the profits which reprefents the intereft, 
 belongs to the lender. Let a merchant employ 
 10,000 livres of his property in his trade, and 
 engrofs the whole profit, or let him have thofe 
 10,000 livres borrowed of another, to whom he 
 pays the intereft, and is fatisfied with the overplus 
 of profit, and the falary of his induftry, it ftill 
 makes only 10,000 livres. 
 
 But if we cannot include, without making a 
 double eftimate in the calculation of national 
 riches, the capital of the money lent on intereft, 
 we ought to call in the other kinds of moveables, 
 which, though originally forming an obje6l of ex- 
 dence, and not carrying any profit, become, how-
 
 ( no ) 
 
 ever, by their durability, a true capital, that 
 conftantly increafes; and which, as it may oc- 
 cafionally be exchanged for money, is as if it was 
 a flock in flore, which may enter into commerce, 
 and make good, when neceflary, the lofs of other 
 capitals. Such are the moveables of every kind; 
 jewels, plates, paintings, ftatues, ready money fhut 
 up in chefts by mifers: all thofe matters have a 
 value, and the fum of all thofe values may make 
 a confiderable object among wealthy nations. 
 Yet be it confiderable or not, it muft always be 
 added to the price of real eftates, and to that of 
 circulating advances in enterprizes of every de- 
 nomination, in order to form the total fum of the 
 riches of a nation. As for the reft, it is fuperfluous 
 to fay, though it is eafy to be defined, as we have 
 juft done, in what confifts the totality of the riches 
 of a nation; it is probably impoflible to difcover to 
 how much they amount, unlefs fome rule be found 
 out to fix the proportion of the total commerce of 
 a nation, with the revenue of its land : a feafible 
 thing, but which has not been executed as yet in 
 fuch a manner as to difpel all doubts. 
 
 § 93. In
 
 ( IM ) 
 
 § 93* In which of the three clajfes of fociety the 
 lenders of money are to he ranked. 
 
 Let us fee now, how what we have juft difcuf- 
 fed about the different ways of employing capitals, 
 agrees with what we have before eftabliflied about 
 the divifion of all the members of fociety in three 
 clafles, the one the productive clafs of hufbandmen, 
 the induftrious or trading clafs, and the difpofing 
 clafs, or the clafs of proprietors. 
 
 § 94. The lender of money belongs^ as to his per- 
 fon, to the difpofing clafs. 
 
 We have feen that every rich man is neceflarily 
 poffeflbr either of a capital in moveable riches, 
 or funds equivalent to a capital. Any eftate in 
 land is of equal value with a capital; confequently 
 every proprietor is a capitaliit, but not every ca- 
 pitalift a proprietor of a real eftate ; and the pof- 
 feflbr of a moveable capital may chufe to confer it 
 on acquiring funds, or to improve it in enter- 
 prizes of the cultivating clafs, or of the induftrious 
 clafs. The capitalift, turned an undertaker in 
 culture of induftry, is no more of the difpofing 
 
 clafs.
 
 ( 112 ) 
 
 clafs, than the fimple workmen in thofe two lines ; 
 they are both taken up in the continuation of their 
 cnterprizes. The capitalift who keeps to the lend- 
 ing money, lends it either to a proprietor or to an 
 undertaker. If he lends it to a proprietor, he 
 feems to belong to the clafs of proprietors, and he 
 becomes co-partitioner in the property; the in- 
 come of the land is deftined to the payment of the 
 intereft of histruft; the value of the funds is equal 
 to the fecurity of his capital. 
 
 If the money-lender has lent to an undertaker, 
 it is certain that his perfon belongs to the difpofmg 
 clafs ; but his capital continues deftined to the ad- 
 vances of the enterprizer, and cannot be withdrawn 
 without hurting the enterprife, or without being 
 replaced by a capital of equal value. 
 
 § 95* 1"^^ ^ which the money-lender makes of 
 his interefi. 
 
 Indeed, the intereft he draws from that capital 
 feems to make him of the difpofing clafs, fince 
 the undertaker and the enterprize may ftiift with- 
 out it. It feems alfo we may form an inference, 
 
 that
 
 { 113 ) 
 
 that in the profits of the two laborious dalTes, 
 either in the culture of the earth or induftry, , 
 there is a difpofable portion, namely, that which 
 anfwers to the interelt of the advances, calculated 
 on the current rate of intereft of money lent ; it 
 appears alfo that this conclufion feems to agree 
 with what we have faid, that the mere clafs of 
 proprietors had a revenue properly fo called, 
 a difpofing revenue, and that all the members 
 of the other clafles had only falaries or profits. 
 This merits fome future inquiry. If we confider 
 the thoufand crowns that a man receives annu- 
 ally, who has lent 60,000 livres, to a merchant, in 
 refpe6l to the ufe he may make of it, there is no 
 doubt of this being perfc6lly difpofable, fince the 
 enterprize may fubfifl: without it ; 
 
 § 96. The intcrejl of the 7nonfy is not difpofable 
 in one fenfey ViZ. fo as the jlate may be authorized 
 to appropriate y without any inconvenience^ a part to 
 fupply its wants. 
 
 But it does not enfue, that they are of the difpof- 
 ing clafs in fuch a fence, that the flate can appropri- 
 ate to itfelf with propriety a portion for the public 
 I wants*
 
 ( n4 ) 
 
 wants. Thofe looo crowns are not a retribution, 
 which culture or commerce bellows gratuitoufly on 
 him that makes the advance ; it is the price and the 
 condition of this advance, independently of which 
 the enterprize could not fubfift. If this retri- 
 bution is diminifhed, the capitalift will withdraw 
 his money, and the u-ndertaking will ceafe. This 
 retribution ought then to be inviolable, and enjoy 
 an entire immunity, becaufe it is the price of an 
 advance made for the enterprize, without which 
 the enterprize could not exift. To encroach 
 upon it, would caufe an augmentation in the price 
 of advances in all enterprizes, and confequently 
 diminifh the enterprizes themfelves, that is to fay, 
 cultivation, induftry, and commerce. 
 
 This anfwer fhould lead us to infer, that if we have 
 faid, that the capitalift who had lent money to a pro- 
 prietor, y^dwe^? to belong to the clafs of proprietors, 
 this appearance had fomewhat equivocal in it which 
 wanted \.o be elucidated. In fad, it is ftridly true, 
 that the intereft of his money is not more difpofable, 
 that is, it is not rhore fufceptible of retrenchment, 
 than that of money lent to the undertakers in agri,- 
 culture and commerce. But the intereft is equally 
 
 the
 
 { "5 ) 
 
 the price of the free agreement, and they cannot 
 retrench any part of it without altering or changing 
 the price of the loan. 
 
 For it imports little to whom the loan has been 
 made ; if the price decreafes or augments for the 
 proprietor of lands, it will alfo decreafe and aug- 
 ment for the cultivator, the manufafturer, and 
 the merchant. In a word, thfc proprietor who 
 lends money ought to be confidered, as a dealer in 
 a commodity abfolutely necefTary for the pro- 
 du6lion of riches, and which cannot be at too low 
 a price. It is alfo as unreafonable to charge this 
 commerce with duties, as it would be to lay a 
 duty on a dunghill which ferves to manure the 
 land. Let us conclude from hence, that the per- 
 fon who lends money belongs properly to the dif- 
 pofable clafs as to his perfon, becaufe he has no- 
 thing to do; but not as to the nature of his pro- 
 perty, whether the intereft of his money is paid 
 by the proprietor of Iswid out of a portion of his 
 income, or whether it is paid by an undertaker^ 
 out of a part of his profits defigned to pay the in- 
 tereft of his advances. 
 
 la § 97. Oh-*
 
 ( ii6 ) 
 
 § 97. ObjeBion, 
 
 It may doubtlefs be objefted, tbat the capi- 
 talift may indifferently either lend his money, or 
 employ it in the purchafe of land ; that in either 
 cafe he only receives an equivalent for his mo- 
 ney, and whichever way he has employed it, he 
 ought not the lefs to contribute to the public 
 charges. 
 
 § 98. Anfwcr to this objeBion, 
 
 I anfwer firft, that in faQ, when the capitalift 
 has purchafed an eftate, the revenue will be equal 
 as to him, to what he would have received for his 
 money by lending it ; but there is this effential 
 difference with refpeft to the ftate, that the price 
 which he gives for his land, does not contribute in 
 any refpe^l to the income it produces. It woufld 
 not have produced a lefs income, if he had not 
 purchafed it. This incotne, as we have already 
 explained, confifts in what the land produces, be- 
 yond the falary of the cultivators, of their profits, 
 and the interell of their advances. It is not the 
 fame with the intereft of money ; it is the exprefs 
 
 condition
 
 ( 1^7 ) 
 
 condition of the loan, the price of the advance, 
 without which the revenue or profits, which ferve 
 to pay it, could never exift. 
 
 I anfwer in the fecond place, that if the lands 
 were charged feparately with the contribution to 
 the public expences, as foon as that contribution 
 (hall be once regulated, the capitalift who fh all 
 purchafe thefe lands will not reckon as intereft 
 for his money, that part of the revenue which is 
 afFefted by this contribution. The fame as a man 
 who now buys an eflate, does not buy the tythe 
 which the curate or clergy receives, but the re- 
 venue which remain after that tythe is deducted. . 
 
 § 99. There exijls no revenue JlriBly difpofabk 
 in ajlate, but the clear produce of lands. 
 
 It is manifeft by what I have faid, that the in- 
 tereft of money lent is taken on the revenue of 
 lands, or on the profits of enterprizes of culture, 
 induftry, and commerce. But we have already 
 fhewn that thefe profits themfelves were only a 
 part of the produ6lion of lands; that the produce 
 of land is divided in two portions ; that the one 
 
 was
 
 ( «i8 } 
 
 was dcfigncd for the falary of the cultivator, for 
 his profits, for the recovery and intereftof his ad- 
 vances ; and that the other was the part of the 
 proprietor, or the revenue which the proprietor 
 expended at his option, and from whence he con- 
 tributes to the general expcnces of the ftate. 
 
 We have demonflrated, that what the other 
 clafles of fociety received, was merely the falaries 
 and profits paid, either by the proprietor upon 
 his revenue, or by the agents of the produdive 
 clafs, on the part deflined to their wants, and 
 which they are obliged to purchafe of the induf- 
 trious clafs. Whether thefe profits be now dif- 
 tributed in wages to the workmen, in profits to 
 undertakers, or in interefts of advances, they do 
 not change the nature, or augment the fum of the 
 revenue produced by the productive clafs over 
 and above the price of their labour, in which 
 the induftrious clafs does not participate, but as 
 far as the price of their labour extends. 
 
 Hence it follows, that there is no revenue but 
 the clear produce of land, and that all other pro- 
 fit is paid, cither by that revenue, or makes part 
 
 of
 
 ( 119 ) 
 
 of the expenditure that ferves to produce the 
 revenue. 
 
 § 100. The land has alfo furni/Jied the total of 
 moveable riches^ or exijling capitals, and which are 
 formed only by a portion of its produBions referved 
 every year. 
 
 Not only there does not exiit, nor can exift, 
 any other revenue than the clear produce of land, 
 but it is the earth alfo that has furnifhed all ca- 
 pitals, that form the mafs of all the advances of 
 culture and commerce. It has produced, without 
 culture, the firft grofs and indifpenfible advances 
 of the firft labourers ; all the reft are the accu- 
 mulated fruits of the ceconomy of fucceflive 
 ages, fince they have begun to cultivate the 
 earth. This ceconomy has efifed not only on the 
 revenues of proprietors, but alfo on the pjofits of 
 all the members of laborious claffes. It is even 
 generally true, that, though the proprietors have 
 more overplus, they fpare lefs ; for, having more 
 treafure, they have more defires, and more paf- 
 fions; they think themfelves better enfured of 
 their fortune ; and are more defirous of enjoying 
 
 it
 
 ( 120 ) 
 
 it contentedly, than to augment it; luxury is their 
 purfuit. The ftipendiary clafs, and chiefly the 
 undertakers of the other clafles, receiving profits 
 proportionate to their advances, talents, and ac- 
 tivity, have, though they are not pofTeffed of a 
 revenue properly fo called, a fuperfluity beyond 
 their fubfiftence ; but, abforbed as they generally 
 are, only in their enterprizes, and anxious to in- 
 creafe their fortune; retrained by their labour 
 from amufements and expenfive paflions; they 
 fave their whole fuperfluity, to re-convert it in 
 other enterprizes, and augment it. The greater 
 part of the undertakers in agriculture borrow 
 but little, and they almoft all refl: on the capital 
 of their own funds. The undertakers of other 
 bufineffes, who wifli to render their fortune 
 ftable, flrive likewife to attain to the fame 
 ftate. Thofe that make their enterprizes on 
 borrowed funds, are greatly in danger of faiU 
 ing. However, although capitals are formed in 
 part by the faving of profits in the laborious claffcs, 
 yet, as thofe profits ipring always from the earth, 
 they are almoll all repaid, either by the revenue, 
 or in the expenccs that ferve to produce the re-» 
 
 venue ;
 
 ( 1" ) 
 
 venue ; it is evident, that the capitals are derived 
 from the earth as well as the revenue, or rather 
 that they are but an accumulation of a part of 
 the riches produced by the earth, which the pro- 
 prietors of the revenue, or thofe that Ihare it, 
 are able to lay by every year in ftore, without 
 confuming it on their wants. 
 
 § loi. Although money is the dirtB ohjeB in 
 faving^ and it is, if we may call it fo, the firjl 
 foundation of capitals, yet money and fpecie form 
 but an infenfihle part in the total fam of capi^ 
 tals. 
 
 We have feen what an inconfiderable part mo- 
 ney forms in the total fum of exifting capitals, 
 but it makes a very large one in the formation of 
 them. In fa 61, almoft all favings are only in mo- 
 ney ; it is in money that the revenue is paid 
 to the proprietors, that the advances and profits 
 are received by the undertakers of every kind; it 
 is their money which they fave, and the annual 
 increafe of capitals happens in money j but all the 
 undertakers make no other ufe of it, than imme- 
 diately
 
 ( 122 ) 
 
 diately to convert it into the different kinds of 
 cffeds on which their enterprizes turn ; thus, 
 money returns into circulation, and the greater 
 part of capitals exift only, as we have already 
 explained it, in' effeds of different natures. 
 
 FINIS.