capital, in the same manner as that of the instruments
of husbandry; their maintenance
is a circulating capital, in the same manner as
that of the labouring servants. The farmer
makes his profit by keeping the labouring
cattle, and by parting with their maintenance.
Both the price and the maintenance of the cattle
which are bought in and fattened, not for
labour, but for sale, are a circulating capital.
The farmer makes his profit by parting with
them. A flock of sheep or a herd of cattle,
that, in a breeding country, is brought in neither
for labour nor for sale, but in order to
make a profit by their wool, by their milk,
and by their increase, is a fixed capital. The
profit is made by keeping them. Their maintenance
is a circulating capital. The profit is
made by parting with it; and it comes back
with both its own profit and the profit upon
the whole price of the cattle, in the price of
the wool, the milk, and the increase. The
whole value of the seed, too, is properly a
fixed capital. Though it goes backwards and
forwards between the ground and the granary,
it never changes masters, and therefore
does not properly circulate. The farmer
makes his profit, not by its sale, but by its
increase.
The general stock of any country or society
is the same with that of all its inhabitants
or members; and, therefore, naturally divides
itself into the same three portions, each of
which has a distinct function or office.
The first is that portion which is reserved
for immediate consumption, and of which
the characteristic is, that it affords no revenue
or profit. It consists in the stock of food,
clothes, household furniture, &c. which have
been purchased by their proper consumers,
but which are not yet entirely consumed. The
whole stock of mere dwelling-houses, too,
subsisting at any one time in the country,
make a part of this first portion. The stock
that is laid out in a house, if it is to be the
dwelling-house of the proprietor, ceases from
that moment to serve in the function of a capital,
or to afford any revenue to its owner.
A dwelling-house, as such, contributes nothing
to the revenue of its inhabitant; and though
it is, no doubt, extremely useful to him, it is
as his clothes and household furniture are useful
to him, which, however, make a part of
his expense, and not of his revenue. If it is
to be let to a tenant for rent, as the house itself
can produce nothing, the tenant must always
pay the rent out of some other revenue,
which he derives, either from labour, or stock,
or land. Though a house, therefore, may yield
a revenue to its proprietor, and thereby serve
in the function of a capital to him, it cannot
yield any to the public, nor serve in the function
of a capital to it, and the revenue of
the whole body of the people can never be
in the smallest degree increased by it. Clothes
and household furniture, in the same manner,
sometimes yield a revenue, and thereby
serve in the function of a capital to particular
persons. In countries where masquerades
are common, it is a trade to let out
masquerade dresses for a night. Upholsterers
frequently let furniture by the month
or by the year. Undertakers let the furniture
of funerals by the day and by the
week. Many people let furnished houses, and
get a rent, not only for the use of the house,
but for that of the furniture. The revenue,
however, which is derived from such things,
must always be ultimately drawn from some
other source of revenue. Of all parts of the
stock, either of an individual or of a society,
reserved for immediate consumption, what is
laid out in houses is most slowly consumed.
A stock of clothes may last several years; a
stock of furniture half a century or a century;
but a stock of houses, well built and properly
taken care of, may last many centuries.
Though the period of their total consumption,
however, is more distant, they are still as
really a stock reserved for immediate consumption
as either clothes or household furniture.
The second of the three portions into which
the general stock of the society divides itself,
is the fixed capital; of which the characteristic
is, that it affords a revenue or profit without
circulating or changing masters. It
consists chiefly of the four following articles.
First, of all useful machines and instruments
of trade, which facilitate and abridge
labour.
Secondly, of all those profitable buildings
which are the means of procuring a revenue,
not only to the proprietor who lets them for
a rent, but to the person who possesses them,
and pays that rent for them; such as shops,
warehouses, workhouses, farm-houses, with all
their necessary buildings, stables, granaries,
&c. These are very different from mere dwelling-houses.
They are a sort of instruments
of trade, and may be considered in the same
light.
Thirdly, of the improvements of land, of
what has been profitably laid out in clearing,
draining, inclosing, manuring, and reducing
it into the condition most proper for tillage
and culture. An improved farm may very
justly be regarded in the same light as those
useful machines which facilitate and abridge
labour, and by means of which an equal circulating
capital can afford a much greater revenue
to its employer. An improved farm is
equally advantageous and more durable than
any of those machines, frequently requiring
no other repairs than the most profitable application
of the farmer's capital employed in
cultivating it.
Fourthly, of the acquired and useful abilities
of all the inhabitants and members of
the society. The acquisition of such talents,
by the maintenance of the acquirer during his