is furnished by the phenomena on which economic rent depends. The same labour and capital applied to different soils give different returns according to the assistance afforded by nature.

I have discussed this question in a separate essay1 from which the following illustration is taken. Certain things are presented to man by nature, without any labour, except the mere labour of occupation, as it has been termed. If these things are limited, and satisfy human wants, they possess value; and this value in proportion to the labour and capital expended in their acquirement may be very great. The labour of acquisition is saved by nature, or as Adam Smith says, nature does the chief part of the work. Capital devoted to the production of indigo from the natural plants yields a very large profit, whilst the same amount of capital applied artificially by chemical methods will not pay its expenses. We may fairly say that the former method is more productive because nature labours with man.

§ 2. Of the Gifts of Nature some are practically unlimited, others limited. The distinction between the unlimited and the limited utilities afforded to man by nature, as so often happens in economic classifications, is indicated by a line which varies in different times and places. This variation appears to be due to three circumstances: namely, the number of people who desire the utility, the importance they assign to it, and the art or knowledge involved in its exploitation. Take, for example, the typical manor of the early medieval period. Generally, the use of the common pasture was without stint, and so long as the number of inhabitants was small, and their means of wintering stock unrestricted, there was no need for limitation even in the interests of the lord of the manor.2 In

1 Introductory Essay to Wealth of Nations. See also my Tenants' Gain, Ch. I.

2 Thorold Rogers' Six Centuries, p. 24. On the links of Dornoch, in Sutherland, I am told that there is no limitation to the number of horses and cattle imposed on the crofters, and there is no need for the reasons stated in the text.

many cases, also, the use of wood for building or instruments or fuel was also unrestricted, whilst, at the same time, the most savage laws prevented the pursuit of game however abundant. In general, as is shown in the case of fisheries, forests, commons, and the like, in the course of industrial progress, the limited class has constantly increased at the expense of the unlimited. In rare instances, however, the reverse has happened through the substitution of something better adapted for the purpose, or through a change in wants or desires. The best example is furnished by the recession of the "margin of cultivation" on land. In general, the immediate effect of great agricultural improvements is to make the cultivation. of some inferior land no longer profitable. The economic result (as distinct from any merely legal question of appropriation) is that land passes from the class of the limited to that of the unlimited gifts of nature. A similar effect may follow on the substitution of one kind of produce for another, land specially adapted to the old produce not being suitable to the new.

In the degradation of a race, from a higher to a lower stage of civilisation, the absorption of the limited into the unlimited class of natural powers and materials, is one of the best marked characteristics. Lands become wastes and cities become open quarries. The excavations of the cities of dead civilisations show how completely, under certain circumstances, nature may regain the mastery over man.

In some cases, however, the relapse of cultivated land into waste seems to be due to the exhaustion of the natural fertility. In former times there were dense populations, self-supported, in vast areas of Africa and Asia Minor, and even in certain parts of Italy and Spain, of the productiveness of the soil of which we can at present discover only slender traces.1

1 The Earth as Modified by Human Action. MARSH. Many interesting and detailed examples are given in this work of the oscillations between intensive cultivation and arid waste.

A second distinction turns not so much on the abundance, or the scarcity, of the gifts of nature, as on the capability, or incapability, of exchange and appropriation. Thus the light and warmth of the sun, and similar beneficial climatic influences, may be described as free gifts of nature which cannot be economised, but they are bestowed in very different measures upon different parts of the world. The winds and the tides are amongst the most important motivepowers; but they can only be used directly as nature furnishes opportunities, and the same forces may at one time be too strong, and at another too weak, for the purpose in view.

Although, as already stated, political economy has, in general, but little to say with regard to utilities that do not possess the three economic marks, in considering the production of a nation's wealth, it is necessary to take a survey of the principal natural conditions by which it may be affected, both as regards its variety and its abundance. As already stated, these natural conditions are always of fundamental importance, although in general, the truth is only adequately realised on the occurrence of some great catastrophe.

§ 3. The Natural Constituents in National Production.1 The most important elements in the natural resources of nations appear to be the following:

1°. Climate which affects directly the vegetable and animal products, and, indirectly, at least, the efficiency of human labour. Under climate we have to consider the temperature, including not only the average but the extremes of heat and cold in different times of the year, the moisture, again including not only the average but varying degrees at different times, the direction and force of the winds, and the healthiness or the reverse of the atmosphere. Abundant illustrations of these various influences are given in works on commercial geography, and the only difficulty is one of enumeration.

1 Cf. Schönberg's Handbuch, p. 198.

2 See Chisholm's Commercial Geography.

2o. The superficial appearance of the country introduces several factors of importance; mountains and plains respectively obstruct and facilitate trade; forests may in some cases retard, in others accelerate the growth of wealth; the coast may be indented with natural harbours, or unapproachable through rocks and sands.

3°. The fertility of the soil, and the geological formation of the earth's crust are of obvious importance, the former as largely dominating the agricultural production, and the latter the mineral wealth of the country. The discovery of mines has often transformed a district within a few years (e.g., the gold mines of Australia and California), and the virgin soils of new countries have thrown out of cultivation the less favoured lands in the Old World.

4°. Water must be considered under several aspects: as furnishing means of communication in lakes or navigable rivers, as necessitating large drainage works, as in the fens of England and Holland, as providing power for mills, or in recent times, as the source of electricity.

5°. The situation of a particular country, as regards the rest of the world, and especially in relation to the great trade routes, has often been the principal factor in determining commercial supremacy.

It will be observed that of these gifts and powers of nature, some (e.g., climatic influences and natural harbours) are practically unalterable by use, others (e.g., the soil) are partially exhausted and renewed, and others again (e.g., mines) are gradually exploited without renewal. As in most countries agriculture in some form is the most important element of national wealth, the preservation of the properties of the soil is of especial importance. The nature of various soils, and the methods best adapted for different cases, can only be adequately discussed in works on scientific agriculture. In its general aspects, however, the subject is of economic interest, especially with reference to the rent of land, and the growth of population, and will be treated at a later stage.

CHAPTER V.

LABOUR.

§ 1. Twofold Meaning of Labour, and first of Subjective Labour. Labour is used in two different senses, which are most briefly described by the philosophic terms, subjective and objective; that is to say, labour may be considered, on the one hand, as involving a certain degree and kind of feeling on the part of the labourer, and on the other, as effecting a certain result in doing a certain amount of work. In general, the nature of the feeling involved in economic labour must be regarded as in itself painful, disagreeable, or irksome, or, at any rate, as causing a sense of effort and strain. Accordingly, as a rule, it is undertaken and endured with the view of some ulterior object, such as the satisfaction of present or future wants.

In certain degrees of civilisation, however, the natural aversion to labour is overcome by compulsion and punishment in case of default. Thus, in ancient civilisations generally, almost all the labourers were slaves, and the inducement to work was the fear of penalties. In modern times, the labour of children is more often the result of obedience than of any hope of reward.

Many economists have been so much impressed by the hardship of labour, that they have explicitly described the exertion as essentially painful. This position, however, appears too extreme. A man in full vigour of mind and body often takes real pleasure in his work, and certainly would find idleness irksome. Again, most writers have

1 Cf. Jevons' Theory, Ch. VIII., p. 163; and see his curve, p. 168.