the price of those goods by the value, not only
of his profits, but of their wages. This is
all the productive labour which it immediately
puts into motion, and all the value which
it immediately adds to the annual produce.
Its operation in both these respects is a good
deal superior to that of the capital of the retailer.
Part of the capital of the master manufacturer
is employed as a fixed capital in the instruments
of his trade, and replaces, together
with its profits, that of some other artificer of
whom he purchases them. Part of his circulating
capital is employed in purchasing materials,
and replaces, with their profits, the capitals
of the farmers and miners of whom he
purchases them. But a great part of it is always,
either annually, or in a much shorter
period, distributed among the different workmen
whom he employs. It augments the value
of these materials by their wages, and by
their masters' profits upon the whole stock of
wages, materials, and instruments of trade employed
in the business. It puts immediately
into motion, therefore, a much greater quantity
of productive labour, and adds a much
greater value to the annual produce of the
land and labour of the society, than an equal
capital in the hands of any wholesale merchant.
No equal capital puts into motion a greater
quantity of productive labour than that of the
farmer. Not only his labouring servants, but
his labouring cattle, are productive labourers.
In agriculture, too, Nature labours along with
man; and though her labour cost no expense,
its produce has its value, as well as that of
the must expensive workmen. The most important
operations of agriculture seem intended,
not so much to increase, though they do
that too, as to direct the fertility of Nature towards
the production of the plants must profitable
to man. A field overgrown with briars
and brambles, may frequently produce as great
a quantity of vegetables as the best cultivated
vineyard or corn field. Planting and tillage
frequently regulate more than they animate
the active fertility of Nature; and after all
their labour, a great part of the work always
remains to be done by her. The labourers
and labouring cattle, therefore, employed in
agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen
in manufactures, the reproduction of a
value equal to their own consumption, or to
the capital which employs them, together with
its owner's profits, but of a much greater value.
Over and above the capital of the farmer,
and all its profits, they regularly occasion
the reproduction of the rent of the landlord.
This rent may be considered as the produce
of those powers of Nature, the use of which
the landlord lends to the farmer. It is greater
or smaller, according to the supposed extent
of those powers, or, in other words, according
to the supposed natural or improved
fertility of the land. It is the work of Nature
which remains, after deducting or compensating
every thing which can be regarded
as the work of man. It is seldom less than a
fourth, and frequently more than a third, of
the whole produce. No equal quantity of
productive labour employed in manufactures,
can ever occasion so great reproduction. In
them Nature does nothing; man does all; and
the reproduction must always be in proportion
to the strength of the agents that occasion it.
The capital employed in agriculture, therefore,
not only puts into motion a greater quantity
of productive labour than any equal capital
employed in manufactures; but in proportion,
too, to the quantity of productive labour
which it employs, it adds a much greater
value to the annual produce of the land
and labour of the country, to the real wealth
and revenue of its inhabitants. Of all the
ways in which a capital can be employed, it is
by far the most advantageous to society.
The capitals employed in the agriculture
and in the retail trade of any society, must always
reside within that society. Their employment
is confined almost to a precise spot,
to the farm, and to the shop of the retailer.
They must generally, too, though there are
some exceptions to this, belong to resident
members of the society.
The capital of a wholesale merchant, on the
contrary, seems to have no fixed or necessary
residence anywhere, but may wander about
from place to place, according as it can either
buy cheap or sell dear.
The capital of the manufacturer must, no
doubt, reside where the manufacture is carried
on; but where this shall be, is not always
necessarily determined. It may frequently be
at a great distance, both from the place where
the materials grow, and from that where the
complete manufacture is consumed. Lyons
is very distant, both from the places which
afford the materials of its manufactures, and
from those which consume them. The people
of fashion in Sicily are clothed in silks
made in other countries, from the materials
which their own produces. Part of the wool
of Spain is manufactured in Great Britain,
and some part of that cloth is afterwards sent
back to Spain.
Whether the merchant whose capital exports
the surplus produce of any society, be a native
or a foreigner, is of very little importance.
If he is a foreigner, the number of their productive
labourers is necessarily less than if he
had been a native, by one man only; and the
value of their annual produce, by the profits of
that one man. The sailors or carriers whom
he employs, may still belong indifferently either
to his country, or to their country, or to
some third country, in the same manner as if
he had been a native. The capital of a foreigner
gives a value to their surplus produce
equally with that of a native, by exchanging