PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION.

§ 1. By means of his bow, Crusoe reduced to his service the force of elasticity a great power always existing in nature, and waiting appropriation at the hands of man. His canoe enabled him to command another important force, the supporting power of water; to which, when he had made a sail, he added a third, the propelling power of wind each addition to his power increasing his supplies of food, while diminishing his labor. At a later period, we see him using his stick to make holes in the ground, with a view to obtain the aid of certain properties of the earth and atmosphere; and now it is that the earth. gives him back five, ten, or even twenty grains in return for the single one he had given to her.

As thus yielded, however, they do not constitute the thing he seeks not being as yet food for man. That they may so become, it is necessary that they be first converted into meal, for the accomplishment of which object he calls to his service. another natural force that of gravitation. Still, however, there has been no production of the thing he is seeking to obtain -food. The meal is scarcely more fitted to answer his purposes than the wheat had been; and therefore is it that he seeks the assistance of a further force-that of friction. Rubbing together a couple of pieces of wood, he obtains heat, and ultimately fire; and now it is that he produces bread, the commodity he needs. What, however, was the ultimate object of all these labors? Why did he give so much time and mind to the construction of the bow and the canoe, to the making of holes in the earth, to VOL. III.-2 (17)

the taking of fish, the pounding of grain, and the conversion of both into the forms in which they could be regarded in the light of food? That object was the attainment of muscular power in himself for doing which it was required that he should subject to decomposition the matter that nature had before composed. This he does by passing it through his stomach, where it is subjected to the action of other natural forces-being there prepared again to enter into the composition of fish or birds, wheat or rye, apples or potatoes. We have here a never-ending round; but, among all these operations, to which of them may we apply the term production? Where does production end, and where are we to find the beginning of consumption?

The canoe is consumed in producing fish, the bow in producing birds, the air and earth in producing wheat, the wheat in producing flour, the flour in producing bread, and the bread in producing man. He, in turn, being consumed in producing all these things, passes finally into soil, ready to take his part in furnishing anew the materials of which birds, beasts, fishes, wheat, rye, and potatoes are composed. One man, however, as we are told, is a producer of cotton, while another produces cotton cloth, which passes to a third, who produces calicoes; yet all these men are engaged in different portions of the same work-that of reducing to the service of man the forces of nature, by enabling those existing in the earth and atmosphere to take that form in which they will best afford the protection required against the winter's cold.

Again a man is called a producer of coal; whereas, he has simply changed its place- bringing to the head of the shaft what' before was at its foot. In doing this, however, he has taken but a single step towards the end for whose attainment coal is sought. Man needs power, and to have power there must be motion, which requires heat. To have heat he must consume the coal-the act of consumption becoming thus an act of production. Having obtained heat, he has now to consume it in the act of consuming water and producing steam. That done, he consumes the steam in producing water; and thus on and on, in an endless round, in which production and consumption are so entirely part and parcel of each other, that distinction between the two has ceased to exist.

Further one man produces coal, and another iron ore, both

corn.

of which must be consumed before either can command those services of nature which are obtained from the use of a bar of iron. They are consumed, but, in place of a malleable bar, we find a brittle lump of metal of slight utility. That, in its turn, being consumed, it is now that we obtain a bar. That, again, consumed, we next obtain strips of iron fitted for yielding knives. Before, however, the knife can be obtained, we are required to consume other iron in producing steel; and it is when both the iron and the steel have been consumed, that we find in their place a parcel of knives and forks. All the acts of consumption here described, are part and parcel of one great act of production. Having made holes in the earth with his stick, Crusoe obtained Having consumed the corn, he obtained muscular force, by means of which he obtained a spade. That, in its turn, being consumed in making deeper holes, he thus enabled the earth to consume more of the elements with which the atmosphere was charged giving him, in return, more corn, by help of which he has greater force. The more corn he consumed, the more of its elements he could return to the land, and the greater was the power of the soil to increase its consumption of other elements, by means of which to produce more food. These are all, therefore, but acts of motion, each of which is required for the production of the other. Man, however, can cause no motion to exist. All he can do is, so to engineer the forces of nature as to make them serve his purposes. Serve him they will, if he will put himself in the way of being served. The waters of Niagara, and the great coal-beds of the West, are ready to grant their aid to him, if he can but be induced to qualify himself for subjecting them to his power, and thus adding to his wealth.

§ 2. That man may qualify himself for obtaining command of the forces of nature, it is required that his own latent powers be stimulated into action a result to be obtained only by means of association and combination with his fellow-men. The solitary Crusoe could make a bow; but when he attempted to fell a tree, out of which to make a canoe, he failed. His strength was insufficient for building a dam, in default of which the water passing from the hill remained as useless as it had been before his appearance on the island. Deficient in the power required for convert

ing ore into iron, and iron into instruments, he might have been surrounded with coal and iron, and yet have perished for want of an axe or a spade. Forced, too, to divide his labor among a variety of employments, he was unable to obtain complete control of those faculties in which he most excelled. With the arrival of Friday, employment became divided each now taking that department for which he was best fitted. More neighbors coming, new divisions of employment now arise, and from year to year it becomes more obvious that each and every of them has a distinct individuality — qualifying him to do some one thing better than it could be done by other members of the little community.

Individuality being thus developed, commerce arises, and society is formed each and every act of commerce consisting in the consumption of two efforts of physical or mental power, and the production of two results, both of which are in their turn consumed. The more instant the consumption, the greater must be the motion - the greater the tendency to increase of force and the more perfect the steadiness of the movement.

Throughout the material world, production and consumption are but parts of the same operation-oxygen and hydrogen being consumed in producing water, and water being consumed in the reproduction of its elements. In both cases motion is produced, yielding power whose measure is to be found in the rapidity of the movement. So is it, too, in the physiological world — life being a constant round of production and consumption, and health and vigor being throughout, attendant upon rapidity of digestion. So, everywhere, is it in the social world - the power there existing being dependent, altogether, upon the circulation of the physical and mental efforts of the persons of whom it is composed. When it is rapid, the force is great; when it is sluggish, there can be but little force exerted. Seeking evidence of this, the reader may compare the sluggish Sparta with the lively Athens Turkey, Italy, or Portugal, with Northern GermanyIndia, with her hundred millions of people, with France and her thirty-six millions or Carolina with Massachusetts.

Production consists in the direction of the natural forces to the service of man. The more they are so directed, the greater is his wealth wealth consisting in the power to command their service.

The more they are so directed, the greater is the tendency of matter to take upon itself new and higher forms terminating in that of man.

The greater the number of men, the greater is the power of association the more rapid is the development of individual faculty and the more does man acquire power over nature That, in its turn, is attended with increased facility of combina tion, and increased capacity for comprehending the wonderful powers of nature with corresponding increase in his power to reduce them to his service. With every step in this direction, the latent utilities of matter become more and more developed, with constant diminution in the value of all commodities required by man, and increase in his value when compared with them. Wealth tends, therefore, to increase at a constantly accelerated pace every stage of its growth being accompanied by an increase in the rapidity with which production and consumption follow each other, and in the further power of progress.

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Made in

§ 3. The ultimate object of all production is MAN. the image and likeness of his Creator, he was endowed with faculties fitting him to obtain power over the material world; and, for their development, commerce with his fellow-man was imposed upon him as one of the conditions of his existence. That commerce consists in the exchange of physical or intellectual effort among men each with every other. The man who is strong of arm seeks to exchange with him who is swift of foot; and he who has taken fish desires to exchange with his neighbor who has spent his time in snaring rabbits. In the infancy of society, however— there being little commerce-the human faculties, whether physical or intellectual, remain latent, waiting demand; precisely as is the case with the natural forces which so much abound. Power exists everywhere, susceptible of being made to contribute to man's purposes; but coal and ore, elasticity and steam, await his coming for their development.

Everywhere in the social, as in the physical, world, it is demand that causes supply. The isolated settler, having taken as many birds as he can consume, finds no inducement to exertion, and his faculties remain unused. The wild man of the West secretes the produce of the chase; while Castilian men deposit their grain in