It is admitted by those who contend most strenuously for the claims of capital that all instruments and machines are the produce of labour.They add,however,that they are the produce of previous labour,and are entitled to profit,on account of having been saved or stored up.But the manufacture of instruments and tools is quite as uninterrupted as the manufacture of food and clothing.They are not all consumed or used within a year,but they are brought into use as soon as possible after they are made.Nobody who manufactures them stores them up;nor does he make them for this purpose.As long as they are merely the result of previous labour,and are not applied to their respective uses by labourers,they do not repay the expense of making them.It is only when they are so applied that they bring any profit.They are made solely for the use of the labourer,and directly they come into his hands they return or repay the capitalist,the sum they cost him;and over and above this the labourer must give him an additional sum corresponding to the rate of profit in the country.It is plainly not the previous creation of these things which entitles them to profit,for most of them diminish in value from being kept.A man must pay also as much profit for the use of an instrument in proportion to the labour of making it,whether it be like sewing needles,of which many are used and made in the course of a week,or like a ship,or a steam engine,one of which lasts several years.Fixed capital does not derive its utility from previous,but present labour;and does not bring its owner a profit because it has been stored up,but because it is a means of obtaining a command over labour.
The production of fixed capital cannot be attributed to circulating capital,in the ordinary sense;but certainly those who make instruments must be confident they will be able to obtain food,or they would never think of making instruments.The smith,while he is making or mending the farmer's ploughshare,trusts to the farmer to do his part in procuring a supply of food;and the farmer,while he tills his fields,trusts to the smith to prepare for him the necessary instruments.These instruments are not the produce of circulating capital and of labour,but of labour alone,and of the labour of two or more co-existing persons.All fixed capital,not only in the first instance,as is generally admitted,but in every stage of society,at every period in the history of man,is the creation of labour and of skill,of different species of labour and skill certainly,but of nothing more than labour and skill.
After any instruments have been made,what do they effect?
Nothing.On the contrary,they begin to rust or decay unless used or applied by labour.The most perfect instrument which the cunning hand of man can make is not instinct with life,and it constantly needs the directing hand of its creator,or of some other labourer.An artist may indeed make an automaton,or a timepiece,which will move for a certain period without further labour,but the motion he gives it is,in this case,the final object and aim of labour,and the instruments are not called fixed capital,because they are not used for further production.
The automaton may be exhibited by its owner for money,and the timepiece,if employed to determine the longitude of a ship,may be a portion of fixed capital,useful in that production which is occasioned by commerce.In this case,however,there is an observer required,and it is by his labour and skill,he making use of the timepiece,that the ship's place is ascertained.
Whether an instrument shall be regarded as productive capital or not depends entirely on its being used,or not,by some productive labourer.
The most perfect instruments ever made by labour require,as in the case of a timepiece,a peculiar skill to render them productive.A ship,for example,is undoubtedly a noble instrument,as admirable and useful a portion of fixed capital as the hand of man ever created,or his skill ever employed.By it the wealth of Great Britain has been and will be augmented.But our navy would lie and rot unless care were taken to preserve it;and the ships when turned adrift would be bruised by the waves,the winds or the rocks unless they were guided by seamen.By the skill acquired during many years'experience,and by much labour guided by this skill,a ship is built.It would trouble me to enumerate the various species of industry which are necessary to prepare her for sea.There is the skill and labour of the draughtsman,of the working shipwright,of the carpenter,the mast maker,the sail maker,the cooper,the founder,the smith,the coppersmith,the compass maker,etc.,etc.,but there is nothing necessary more than the skill and labour of these different persons.After she is made ready the same qualities watch over her,check the first indications of decay,and repair every little defect occasioned by accident and time.She is then,however,of no use unless there are seamen to manage her.To conduct her safely from port to port,and from hemisphere to hemisphere,a great deal of knowledge of the winds and tides,of the phenomena of the heavens,and of the laws which prevail on the surface of the earth,is necessary;and only when this knowledge is united with great skill,and carried into effect by labour,can a ship be safely conducted through the multitudes of dangers which beset her course.To have and to use this fixed capital,knowledge,labour and skill are necessary.Without these it could not be made,and when it would be less productive than the clod from which its materials spring,or from which they are fashioned by the hand of man.
