The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-07
CHAPTER X.
The All but Absolute Conditions to
Wealth Production, viz, Capital
and Social Organization

- NS'~CANA
relative absolute. These conditions, it
will be seen, do not stand on the same
lever with nature and labor, apart from
winch absolutely no wealth whatever
could arise. Capital and social organi
cation are, however. all but absolutely
necessary. Production, meager, uncer-
tain, just better than none might have
place without them, but it could never
become abundant.
Capital, to speak of this first has usu-
ally been represented by economists as a
strictly Indispensable prerequisite to la
Dor, and hence to production, which. il
this were true, would force us to make
capital, too, one Of the absolute condi-
tons of wealth production. 1t is true
that labor without capital can only be
OF the simplest species, and of the lowest
degree of productiveness, yet, unless we
give an arbitrary definition to capital,
labor may to very slight extent get on
independently OF 1t. Capital Is product
set apart to aid in other production. This
Is in substance the definition which every
writer propounds. Now a man may have
for a given piece Of labor strength which
he has gotten from food that was never
set apart for production, from wild
fruits, wild berries, etc. Game might be
caught and killed without traps arms or
anything which could be called capital
The writer knows a military officer who
throws a stone with such precision that
he can kill rabbit with an ordinary peb-
bic at 100 yards twice out of every three
trials. In fact, the very definition of
capital implies the priority Of labor, for
capital Is product producing. The cir
cumstance of product being present pre-
supposes that labor hos preceded.
The truth that work is precedent to
capital must not, however, blind us to
the indefinitely more important consid-
GRAFTON that labor can never precede cap
Hal by more than a step. Sir William
Hamilton's calculation Of the Ultimate re-
lattonS between thought and language by
citing the operation Of tunneling through
a sand bank Is to our point here. AS
the digging must precede the snoring OF
plank or brick yet can only just pre-
cede. and as thought must exist in adj
vance Of speech, but can only be a little
in advance, so labor is the absolute pre-
requisite of capital and still totally de-
pendent upon capital for any considerable
development. All capital is boarded labor,
frozen labor, as it has sometimes been
called; it results from saving up the
products Of the labor instead Of enjoying
them Immediately. On the other hand,
speaking broadly, labor is limited by cap
ital. To attain aught Of efficiency it Is
forced to alliance with this its creature,
capitalize forget, as it were, that capt.
tai is It's creature, and to accept capital
as it's partner and mate. United they are
almighty; If they are separated capital
dies instantly, labor gasps and then
dies.
Capital in the name Of all products
engaged in or devoted to the business
Of assisting labor to create further prod
ucts. 1t is that portion of wealth which,
when it has been brought into existence,
is neither forthwith consumed nor de-
voted to mere enjoyment Of any kind,
but is kept for use stored away for
service-the service Of raising up addI-
tionaI products. Food to nourish laborers
is a good illustration. Other familiar
forms Of capital are TOOLS machinery,
factories, store houses, wharves, raw ma
terialS of all kinds, improvements on
land, useful domestic animals. There Is
also immaterial or personal capital, IL
Illustrated by mental or corporal tlexterity
of any useful species. All these things
are manifestations of wealth; they are
economic products, and they are eco
nomic products which have been conse-
CT ated to the work of cooperating with
labor in begetting new products.
Prof. Marshall well notices that lit is
not always possible to tell whether a
thing is capital or not without knowing
how the owner intends to use 1t. thus
oats are capital if they are to be given
to a cart horse, but not If to be given
to a race horse. Again, many things are
used sometimes for business, therefore
as capital; sometimes for pleasure, and
therefore not as capital" Obviously a
mass of wealth might cease to be cap
ital by mere change Of purpose on the
owners part, passing over by the mans
mere thought from the class Of productive
wealth to that Of consummate non-cap-
oI,a, nR
pose might turn an improved farm into
an ornamental preserve as a swift steam
launch into a yacht. But such uncertain
ty Of classification never reaches to any
considerable proportion of wealth. On the
contrary, to determine in given cases
whether pieces Of property are capital
or not is usually quite easy by follow
ing such hints as are given above
Roscher usefully Classics the various
forms Of capital as follows: lrst, I'M
provements upon land; second, building
streets and roads; third, tools, instru-
ments and machines; fourth, useful do
nestle animals; fifth. materials for man,
ufacture which visibly reappear in prod
ucts, as wool, cotton, fax and coloring
matters in cloth, leather in shoes, and
a. sorts of ornamentation; sixth, ma
terials to aid in manufacture which do
not visibly reappear in the products, as
coal, bleaching material and all lubri-
cants; seventh food and clothing for the
support of laborers while they labor;
eighth, stocks of goods for sale; ninth,
money; tenth, incorporeal or immaterial
capital To render this a complete list
we have only to add weapons and means
of transportation, as Roscher would
probably reckon docks and wharves with
buildings.
An instrument is passive in nature;
tool, perhaps from the same root as
do" is active A sawbuclk is an instru-
ment, a saw tool. When an extra
human force is joined to either or to the
two combined we have a machine His
torically such motors have been ap-
piled in the order of brute strength,
water power, wind, steam, electricity.
For pulverizing grain hammers were
first used; then in order, hand mills, ass
power mills, referred to in verse six of
the eighteenth chapter Of Matthew; water
mills which Roscher dates from Cicero's
time. say so B. c.; wind mills. from the
ninth century, and steam mills, since
1882.
Very important often is the distinction
between different forms of capital as free
or specialized according as the forms
Of capital in question are or
are not so bound up with
given kinds Of production as to be ap-
piled otherwise only with difficulty and
loss. Pig iron can be put to any Of
thousand uses; steel in the shape of
watch springs is good only for use in
watches. Destruction of the free variety
IS, dollar for dollar more disastrous than
that Of the specialized one
It is common and convenient to classify
capital also as fixed for circulating
Capital which exists considerable time
in any relatively permanent form, thus
aiding in repeated processes Of produc-