# Manual of Political Economy/Book 1/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III.
LABOUR AS AN AGENT OF PRODUCTION.
Wealth involves the application of labourIT is manifest, from the remarks which have been made in the previous chapter, that labour is indispensable to the production of wealth. As we proceed to describe the purposes to which labour is directed, it will be found, as observed by J. S. Mill, that labour creates utilities fixed and embodied in material objects. Nature supplies the materials, but labour fashions these materials, arranges them, places them in those situations in which they are required, and in fact renders them in every respect suited to satisfy the wants of life.
in complicated processes.The greater number of commodities, before they become serviceable for man, pass through many complicated processes, each of which necessitates much complex labour. Trace the cotton seed, first sown in the swamps of Georgia, then supplying material to the looms of Manchester. Watch the woven cloth transported to the far East, there destined to clothe the inhabitants of some remote valley of Scinde. Attempt such an examination, and we at once become almost overwhelmed with the endless series of labourers who have ministered to the production of so simple a commodity as a piece of cotton cloth. There are those who cultivate the cotton plant in Georgia, and prepare it for exportation. The cotton has to be brought to the port. Shipwrights must have constructed the ships which carry the cotton from America to England; sailors must navigate these ships; dock labourers are required to unload the cotton; the railway on which the cotton is carried from Liverpool to Manchester has been constructed by the industry of numerous classes of labourers; and the cotton, before it is woven into cloth, ​passes through the hands of a succession of workmen whose skill is assisted by machinery—to the creation of which almost every class of labourers has contributed, from the collier to the skilled and thinking mechanician. Every one may also be regarded as an important participator in the work, who has, by his saving, contributed to the accumulation of the capital by which the industry of the labourers has to be sustained. We are quickly carried into endless ramifications if we attempt to ascertain the labour which has, either directly or indirectly, assisted in the production of an apparently simple commodity.
Productive and unproductive labour.Although no wealth whatever can be produced without labour, yet there is much labour which does not contribute to the creation of wealth. Hence, labour is divided into two great classes, productive and unproductive labour. This is a distinction which, in name, is familiar to those who have not studied political economy.
Functions of labourBefore the characteristics which distinguish productive from unproductive labour are explained, it will be necessary to revert to our primary conception of wealth. Nature, as has been before remarked, supplies the materials. Man is powerless to create any material object; he combines substances together which would never be combined without his interposition, and thus creates a product which nature could never construct without his aid. Man takes the wheat and puts it in that situation where it will be ground; with the flour he mixes a certain quantity of water and yeast, and when he has brought the mixture within the influence of the requisite heat, a loaf of bread will have been made. It is through the agency of man's labour that these utilities are embodied in material objects which give them their exchange value. For instance, the utility which man confers upon coal is to place it in those situations in which it may be required. in conferring utility directly.There can be no doubt, therefore, that all that labour is productive which confers utility upon material objects.
Such is the labour of all ordinary workmen. Agricultural labourers, manufacturing operatives, bricklayers, &c., must all be manifestly ranked as productive labourers. All those, too, who are employed in transporting ​merchandise from one place to another, are productive labourers, for they confer upon commodities the utility of being in the place where they are required. The labour of policemen and others who are engaged in protecting industry is productive, because they confer upon commodities the important utility of security. But even the labour of productive labourers is not unfrequently unproductive. Public works have been commenced and abandoned; the labour which was bestowed upon these is of course wasted. A railway was constructed from Chesterford to Newmarket; it was closed almost from the first; there is now no chance of its being reopened, for the company has commenced reselling the land to its original proprietors; and thus the labour of even the most useful workmen may be unproductive.
or indirectly.There is also labour which is eminently useful, but does not, however, directly contribute to the production of wealth. As an example of this, it may be mentioned that, not many years since, the uneducated labourer was considered as efficient as the educated labourer, and employers were heard to regret those days when there were no schools to corrupt the industrial virtues of the workmen. When such opinions were current the labour of the schoolmaster must have been considered entirely unproductive, because it would have been supposed that, even if he did not impede, he certainly did not promote, the efficiency of the labourers, regarded as mere machines for the production of wealth. But now facts are every day coming to light which must impress us with the conviction that the schoolmaster occupies a most important position in the material economy of the nation. ​Even to manual labourers a properly developed mind is as essential as a well-developed body; and there can be no doubt that he who contributes in any manner to improve either the physical or intellectual condition of the people takes no unimportant part in assisting the nation's wealth. Much labour, therefore, which at first sight may seem unproductive, will appear, on further consideration, to exert an indirect influence upon the production of wealth. Popular notions attach a certain stigma to unproductive labour. No doubt, waste of any kind is to be deplored; but we should not be too prone to regret that so much labour is devoted to provide the pleasures of life, for the happiness of a nation may be in some degree estimated by the time and labour which can be spared for enjoyment: even the labour of those who provide these enjoyments is not altogether unproductive: a man will work with more vigour and efficiency if his mind can be diverted from the routine toil of life.
Definition of productive labour.From these remarks we are able to deduce a precise definition of productive labour. The definition which is now usually accepted, is as follows:—'Productive labour is that which produces utilities fixed and embodied in material objects.' According to this definition, the labour of the teacher is unproductive from whose instruction a mechanic acquires his skill. And yet the skill of our workmen ought to be classed as wealth, because the loss of this skill would diminish the wealth of the nation, as much as if she were deprived of a great amount of material wealth. If, however, the skill of the labourer is classified as wealth, we strain the use of the word 'wealth' beyond its usual acceptation; because wealth is always popularly conceived to be something material. We will therefore adopt the following definition:—Productive labour is that which either directly or indirectly produces utilities fixed and embodied in material objects. According to this definition, the labour of the teacher who imparts skill to the mechanic is productive, for by this skill wealth is created—or, in other words, utilities are embodied in material objects, and therefore the labour ​of the teacher indirectly produces these utilities, and his labour must consequently be classified as productive. The definition, moreover, obviates the necessity of running counter to popular language, for this is undoubtedly done if we denominate as wealth such an immaterial object as the skill of a mechanic.
Productive and unproductive consumption.For the purposes of political economy, there is another distinction, as important as that between productive and unproductive labour. Much of that which is produced is destined to be wasted, or to be consumed unproductively. The wants of those who never contribute, either directly or indirectly, to the wealth of the nation must be supplied by the results of productive labour; and hence a portion only of the results of productive labour assists in the formation of new wealth. Consumption, therefore, as well as labour, may be either productive or unproductive.
Although the entire consumption of unproductive labourers must be unproductive, yet it does not follow that commodities are always consumed productively by productive labourers. For instance, even the poorest labourers in this country purchase some luxuries which they could abstain from, without in the slightest degree diminishing the efficiency of their labour. All such purchases, therefore, even if made by the most productive labourers, denote unproductive consumption.
The distinction between productive and unproductive consumption will assume considerable importance in the remarks we are about to make upon capital.