(1.1) The distinction, between what is done by labour, and what is done by nature, is notalways observed.
(1.2) Labour produces its effects only by conspiring with the laws of nature.
(1.3) It is found that the agency of man can be traced to very simple elements. He doesnothing but produce motion. He can move things towards one another, and he can separate them fromone another. The properties of matter perform the rest. He moves ignited iron to a portion ofgunpowder, and an explosion takes place. He moves the seed to the ground, and vegetationcommences. He separates the plant from the ground, and vegetation ceases. Why, or how, theseeffects take place, he is ignorant. He has only ascertained, by experience, that if he perform suchand such motions, such and such events are the consequence. In strictness of speech, it is matteritself, which produces the effects. All that men can do is to place the objects of nature in acertain position. The tailor, when he makes a coat; the farmer, when he produces corn, do butthe same thing. Each performs a set of motions; the properties of matter accomplish the rest. Itwould be absurd to ask, to which of any two effects the properties of matter contribute the most;seeing they contribute every thing, after certain portions of matter are placed in a certainposition.
(1.4) As our inquiry is confined to that species of production, of which human labour is theinstrument; and as human labour produces its effects chiefly in two modes; either with, orwithout, the aid of implements; this chapter naturally divides itself into two sections; of whichthe first will treat of Labour, simply, and as much as possible detached from the consideration ofthe instruments by which the powers of labour maybe improved: the second will treat of Capital,or of the origin, and nature of that provision of materials, on which labour is employed, and bywhich its operations are assisted.
Section I. Labour (1.i.1) In the state of society, in which we exist, we seldom see Labour employed except inconjunction with Capital. To conceive the separate operation of Labour more distinctly, it maybe useful to recur, in imagination, to that simple state of things, in which society may beconceived to have originated.
(1.i.2) When the savage climbs a tree, and gathers the fruit; when he ensnares a wild beast,or beats it down with a club, he may be considered as operating with his naked powers, and withoutthe aid of any thing, to which the name of Capital can properly be annexed.
(1.i.3) The principal thing, which, with a view to the conclusions of Political Economy, it isnecessary to remark, in regard to Labour, considered as a distinct portion of a composite whole,and apart from Capital, is, the necessity of subsistence to the labourer. In the idea of labour, theidea of this subsistence is included. Whenever we say that such and such effects are produced bypure labour, we mean the consumption and operations of the labourer, taken conjunctly. Therecan be no labour, without the consumption of the labourer. If the man, who climbs the tree togather the fruit, can manage to find two such trees, and to climb them in a day, he can continuehis employment with the subsistence of half a day provided in advance. If the man who subsistson animals cannot make sure of his prey, in less than a day, he cannot have less than a wholeday's subsistence in advance. If hunting excursions are undertaken, which occupy a week or amonth, subsistence for several days may be required. It is evident, when men come to live uponthose productions which their labour raises from the soil, and which can be brought to maturityonly once in the year, that subsistence for a whole year must be laid up in advance.
(1.i.4) The previous provision or the labourer may be greater or smaller, in different cases, inproportion to the greater or less time which it may require, to realize the fruit of his labour, inthe shape of subsistence; but in all these cases, equally, whenever we speak of his labour, as athing by itself, a detached, independent, instrument of production, the idea or the subsistence isincluded in it.
(1.i.5) This is the more necessary to be remembered, that the terms, Labour, and Wages, are,sometimes, incautiously used; and confusion of ideas, and some fundamental errors, are theconsequence. It is clear, that, when we speak of the labour of a man, for a day, or a month, or ayear, the idea of his subsistence is as necessarily included, as that of the action of his muscles, orhis life. His labour is not one thing, the action of his muscles another thing; to the purpose inhand, they are one and the same thing. If wages be taken as synonymous with the consumptionof the labourer, the labour cannot be taken, as one item of an aggregate, and its wages asanother. As often as this is done, an error is the necessary consequence.
(1.i.6) Having thus seen, what ideas are necessarily included in that of labour, in itsdetached, and simplest form, it is only further necessary, under this head, to consider the improvements, inrespect to its productive powers, of which it is susceptible.
(1.i.7) It will be seen hereafter, that the most important of these improvements arise, fromthe use of those instruments, which form one of the portions of capital. Great improvements alsoarise, from the division, including the distribution, of labour.
(1.i.8) The foundation of this latter class of improvements is laid, in the fact, that anoperation, which we perform slowly at first, is performed with greater and greater rapidity by repetition.
This is a law of human nature so familiar, and well understood, that it hardly stands in need ofillustration. The simplest of all operations, that of beating a drum, is a proper example. A manwho has not practised this operation, is often surprised, upon trial, at the slowness with which heperforms it, while the rapidity of a practised drummer is still more astonishing.
