ent has been discouraged by collective industry; the shop has been abandoned for the mill; each workman has learned only the fraction of a trade; no one can buy, make, and sell; no one dares to undertake any business, foreseeing that the corporation must rise again. For a while, all is distress. It is only when the stately fabric of associated industry is reared again, that plenty is known in the land.

We have discussed, somewhat at length, the relations which division of labor holds to the condition of the laborer, by depriving him of the opportunity to do business on his own account. Until recently, it has been supposed that the advantages of the principle could not practically be obtained without this defect; that capital could not be concentrated, and the trades perfected, without diminishing the independence and self-reliance of labor. But recent developments seem to be anticipating the objection. It is now a matter of common practice to admit the laborer to an interest in business, -a share in profits. This is done by merchants to their salesmen, by master mechanics to their workmen, by ship-owners to their hands. All stock-companies, of whatever character, admit of this principle. Mutual industrial associations for trade, mining, and insurance, furnish its most significant and hopeful applications. There is no reason why these should not be extended much further by a gradual growth, as they are found convenient and profitable. Just so far as a sufficient spring of selfinterest can be maintained in the effort, both of the employer, or manager, and of the operative, so far may mutuality of profits be applied to all departments with the most beneficial results.

CHAPTER VII.

THE DIVISION OF LABOR (concluded).

WE have passed through the discussion of the advantages, the limitations, and the disadvantages of the division of labor.

If, now, we inquire on which side the balance lies, there will be no question that it is in favor of the application and extension of the law. It appears as the great multiplying power of modern industry; it has made the difference between barbarism and civilization; it resides in man's being as the principle of help; it is the only name that savage nature fears.

If we could personify the forces of matter and the treasures of the earth, holding council how they might escape being enslaved or plundered by rapacious man, we should hear them say: "Let us spread disunion among our foes; let us convince them that their interests are separate, and lie apart; let us excite among them suspicion and hatred. Then the summer sun shall make them languid, and winter shall bring torpor on them. The waves shall overwhelm them, struggling singly with the ocean; the drought shall starve, the snow shall freeze them. So will we conquer, and be safe."

And indeed, as if they had so talked, like the councillors of a state invaded by a powerful foe, and had so planned, we find them for ages deceiving the hearts of men, sowing dissension, and enkindling strife by treacherous bounties of gold and precious stones, like bribes sent into an enemy's camp. Nations fell to quarrelling about the accidental and trivial treasures scattered, in fraud of their full rights, upon their paths. Great wars were waged to secure paltry balances in coin: wealth of continents was disregarded. Men stood over against each other, hunted for gold in the dust,

neglecting the mighty riches that lay deep in the soil. They had no heart to say, Let us help each other, and see what we can do. Whole peoples acted, and look now in history just as we imagine miners to do when they suspect the presence of some great treasure among them; each hunting silent by himself, casting angry glances from under steadfast lids; each heart beating fast with fear and wrath that some other may find it first; hateful all, and hating one another.

That this sketch is not exaggerated, let it be said, to the shame of mankind, that the Mercantile theory was undoubted till the middle of the last century; proclaiming as truth, and pursuing as policy, the world over, the double lie that the only wealth is gold and silver, and that what one people gains in trade another must lose. So man had need of his fellow only to rob him; so man had need of Nature only to get her gold.

Palaces and warehouses floating safely on the waves; breakwaters along the sea; coast-lines of docks and wharves; arterial railroads to the length of the continents; canals connecting oceans; bridges leaping rivers; the genii of the woods groaning in the windmills; brook-nymphs grinding corn in the valleys; the spirit of the air hard at work pegging shoes; mountains of iron split open; precious crystals, forming for ten million years, strewn about the land, these are the first fruits of man's confidence in his fellow.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CO-OPERATION OF CAPITAL.

THIS is the second grand condition, through which the productiveness of labor is increased.

We have before spoken of capital: we now proceed to define it strictly.

It is that portion of wealth employed in reproduction. The distinction involved is an important one. All capital is wealth, but all wealth is not capital. The very use of the term "reproduction" testifies to the feeling of man that the object of any thing is not fulfilled in its own creation or perfection, but that there is an endless series of propagations, with a constant view, and with increasing force, to some ulterior end. And we find that production does go forward, not by the increase alone of the laboring class, not by mere annual savings and gross accumulation, but by the employment of that which before was an object of desire in itself, as now a means to the gratification of new desires. Since it is recognized that human wants create others of their kind, and hence go on increasing in number and urgency, it is necessary that human efforts should find some force having a corresponding rate of increase, by which to assist themselves in supplying the growing demand. Such an agent is found in capital, which is taken out of wealth.

A man may have much wealth, and use little capital. Wealth is as it is had; capital, as it is used. For example, a man may live in a house worth thirty thousand dollars, and have ten thousand dollars invested in a ship, from which he derives all his support, and which forms his capital. It may be asked, Is not the house itself capital? It is so far as necessary to production, in sheltering the producer and his family, even with the style and comfort usual to such a degree of society. Beyond this, it ceases to be capital. It is devoted, not to the creation of values, but to personal enjoyment and culture; noble and worthy ends for wealth, but not for capital.

We may change the supposition. The man may have a house worth ten thousand dollars, and ships to the value of thirty thousand dollars. The difference to production will be apparent, inasmuch as his active capital now consists of three-fourths of his wealth, while before it was only onefourth.

It will follow from this illustration, that there is much of the wealth of the world which it is difficult to classify whether as capital or not, much in which the two ends unite, much in which the share devoted to reproduction is doubtful. Still, this casts no discredit on the distinction itself, which stands manifest to all. There are many such principles in political economy, the general direction and character of which cannot be intelligently doubted, yet in whose particular applications we find difficulties and apparent contradictions; just as the mountain-ranges stretch across the continent, unmistakable in their great course, shedding the waters of one slope to the east and of the other to the west, making clear separation between the Flora and Fauna of the adjacent countries, and forming impassable boundaries of empire, yet are occasionally interrupted by one cause or twisted away by another, so that we find peaks here and there, which a little critic can take his stand upon, and deny the geography of the hemisphere.

How does capital arise?

From the net savings of labor. A person who earns five hundred dollars a year, and places one hundred dollars of it in a savings-bank, or invests it in land or machinery or railroad stock, or anywhere at work, has increased his own capital and the capital of the country by so much. It is not what he lays aside for use in his own occupation merely, but for use anywhere.

All capital comes in this way. A country increases in expital just in proportion to the increase of capital acontmulatod by its members. If the individuals of a nation apply none of their net income to reproduction, there is no increase of the national capital. If they withdraw any of their capital to meet personal consumption, the county becomes poorer.

Many of the considerations which pertain to the DccLINElation of capital, and the ultimate use of it, belong to the discussions of economic culture, or gc further on, to the game