Principles of Political Economy with Applications to Social Philosophy

person who parts with goods to get money; the former seems to be spending his resources, while the latter seems to be adding to them. These are illusions which, though now somewhat dispelled, were long powerful enough to overmaster the minds of every politician, both theoretical and practical, in Europe.

It must be evident, however, that the mere introduction of a particular way of exchanging things—by first exchanging a good for money and then exchanging the money for something else—makes no difference in the essential nature of the transactions. It is not with money that things are really purchased. Nobody’s income (except for the gold or silver miner) is derived from the precious metals. The pounds or shillings that a person receives weekly or yearly are not what constitute his income; they are a sort of ticket or voucher that he can present for payment at any shop he chooses, entitling him to receive a certain value of any commodity he selects. The farmer pays his laborers and his landlord in these vouchers, as the most convenient plan for himself and them; but their real income is their share of his corn, cattle, and hay. It makes no essential difference whether he distributes it to them directly or sells it for them and gives them the money; but since they would have to sell it for money if he did not, and since he is a seller at any rate, it best suits everyone's purpose that he should sell their share along with his own, leaving the laborers more leisure for work and the landlord for leisure. Capitalists—except those who produce the precious metals—derive no part of their income from those metals, since they only obtain them by buying them with their own produce. Meanwhile, all other persons have their incomes paid to them by the capitalists or by those who have received payment from the capitalists. Since the capitalists have nothing to start with except their produce, it is that, and nothing else, which provides all incomes.