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Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth - Anne Robert Jacques Turgot · The American Trail

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  Speaker 1: Title page and forward of Reflections on the Formation and
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  Speaker 1: Distribution of Wealth. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings ear in the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Jeff
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  Speaker 1: Edward Dumas in Eldorado, Arkansas. Reflections on the Formation and
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  Speaker 1: Distribution of Wealth by M. Robert Jacques Durgou, translated by
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  Speaker 1: Nicholas de Condorset. Title page and forward. Reflections on the
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  Speaker 1: Formation and Distribution of Wealth by M. Yurgo, Comptroller General
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  Speaker 1: of the Finances of France in seventeen seventy four, seventeen
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  Speaker 1: seventy five, in seventeen seventy six, translated from the French.
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  Speaker 1: The tunnel page has a quote from Condorsey's Life of Turgot. Quote.
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  Speaker 1: This essay may be considered as the jerm for the
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  Speaker 1: Treatise on the Wealth of Nations written by the celebrated
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  Speaker 1: Smith end quote. M. Durgau, the author of the es Say,
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  Speaker 1: who for three years held the important office of Intendant
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  Speaker 1: or Controller of the Finances of France, was, without exception,
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  Speaker 1: one of the first political characters which the present century produced.
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  Speaker 1: In the various employments of the Master of Requests, Intendent
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  Speaker 1: of the Province of lis Manchet, Minister of the French Marine,
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  Speaker 1: and Comptroller General of the Finances of France. He labored
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  Speaker 1: assiduously to benefit his country. This, however, is his least eulogium.
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  Speaker 1: His writings entitle him to a higher praise, and he
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  Speaker 1: there shines in the revered character of a friend of mankind.
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  Speaker 1: An author who sends into the world detached pieces will
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  Speaker 1: seldom have the good fortune to reach that degree of
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  Speaker 1: celebrity which attends a more voluminous compiler, although his works
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  Speaker 1: may at the same time possess a greater degree of
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  Speaker 1: intrinsic merit. Such has been the fate of Mtergo. His writings,
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  Speaker 1: being in detached pieces, are little known beyond the limits
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  Speaker 1: of his own country. Nor even there have his countrymen
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  Speaker 1: paid the tribute due to his excellent productions by collecting
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  Speaker 1: and publishing them together. His essays on the commerce of grain,
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  Speaker 1: on Loans, on Minds and Quarries, the preambles to the
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  Speaker 1: Arrests issued during his administration, and the various important articles
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  Speaker 1: in the Encyclopedia of Etymology, Existence, Expansibility, fair and Foundation
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  Speaker 1: are all pieces of great merit. But no one does
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  Speaker 1: his capacious mind shine forth with greater luster than in
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  Speaker 1: the work of which a translation is now offered to
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  Speaker 1: the public, a work on the foundation of which was
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  Speaker 1: formed one of the most approved and justly celebrated treatises
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  Speaker 1: in the English language, doctor Adam Smith's Essay on the
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  Speaker 1: Wealth of Nations. This little piece fell by chance into
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  Speaker 1: the hands of the translator some time since, and his
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  Speaker 1: admiration of it could only be equaled by his surprise
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  Speaker 1: at finding that no translation had appeared in the English language.
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  Speaker 1: In order therefore that such of his countrymen as to
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  Speaker 1: have not perused this admirable treatise in the original may
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  Speaker 1: not be deprived of the important knowledge it contains. He
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  Speaker 1: has ventured to give it to the public in an
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  Speaker 1: English dress in which he has been studious to retain
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  Speaker 1: the author's sense and meaning. Seventeen ninety three, end of title,
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  Speaker 1: page and forward passages one through five of Reflections on
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  Speaker 1: the Formation and Distribution of Wealth by M. Robert Shaq Durgo,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Nicholas de condrese Ay. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. One the impossibility of the existence
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  Speaker 1: of commerce upon the supposition of an equal division of lands,
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  Speaker 1: where every man should possess only what is necessary for
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  Speaker 1: his own support. If the land was divided among all
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  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of a country, so that each of them
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  Speaker 1: possessed precisely the quantity necessary for his support, and nothing more,
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  Speaker 1: it is evident that all of them being equal, no
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  Speaker 1: one would work for another, neither would any of them
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  Speaker 1: possess wherewith to pay another for his labor. For each person,
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  Speaker 1: having only such a quantity of land as was necessary
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  Speaker 1: to produce a subsistence, would consume all he should gather,
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  Speaker 1: and would not have anything to give in exchange for
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  Speaker 1: the labor of others. Two, The above hypothesis neither has existed,
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  Speaker 1: nor could continue. The diversity of soils, a multiplicity of
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  Speaker 1: wants compel and exchange of the productions of the earth
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  Speaker 1: against other productions. This hypothesis never can have existed, because
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  Speaker 1: the earth has been cultivated before it has been divided,
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  Speaker 1: the cultivation itself having been the only motive for a division,
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  Speaker 1: and for that law which secures to every one his property.
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  Speaker 1: For the first, persons who have employed themselves in cultivation
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  Speaker 1: have probably worked as much land as their strength would permit,
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  Speaker 1: and consequently more than was necessary for their own nourishment.
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  Speaker 1: If this state could have existed, it could not possibly
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  Speaker 1: be durable. Each one, gathering from his field only a subsistence,
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  Speaker 1: and not having wherewith to pay others for their labor,
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  Speaker 1: would not be enabled to supply his other wants of lodging, clothing,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera, except by the labor of his hands,
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  Speaker 1: which would be nearly impossible, as every soil does not
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  Speaker 1: produce every material. The man whose land was only fit
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  Speaker 1: to produce grain and would neither bring forth cotton or flax,
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  Speaker 1: would want linen to clothe him. Another would have ground
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  Speaker 1: proper for cotton, which would not yield grain. One would
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  Speaker 1: want wood for his fire, and another be destitute of
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  Speaker 1: corn to support him. Experience would soon teach every one
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  Speaker 1: what species of productions his land was best adapted to,
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  Speaker 1: and he would confine himself to the cultivation of it
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  Speaker 1: in order to procure himself those things he stood in
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  Speaker 1: need of by an exchange with his neighbors, who, having
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  Speaker 1: on their part, acquired the same experience, would have cultivated
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  Speaker 1: those productions which were best suited to their fields, and
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  Speaker 1: would have abandoned the cultivation of any other three. The
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  Speaker 1: productions of the earth require long and difficult preparations before
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  Speaker 1: they are rendered fit to supply the wants of men.
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  Speaker 1: The productions which the earth supplies to satisfy the different
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  Speaker 1: wants of man will not, for the most part, administer
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  Speaker 1: to those wants, and the state nature affords them. It
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  Speaker 1: is necessary they should undergo different operations and be prepared
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  Speaker 1: by art. Wheat must be converted into flour, then into bread.
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  Speaker 1: Hides must be dressed or tanned. Woolen cotton must be spun.
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  Speaker 1: Silk must be taken from the cod. Hemp and flax
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  Speaker 1: must be soaked, peeled, spun, and wool into different textures,
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  Speaker 1: then cut and sewed together again to make garments, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: If the same man who cultivates on his own land
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  Speaker 1: these different articles, and who raises them to supply his wants,
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  Speaker 1: was obliged to perform all the intermediate operations himself, it
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  Speaker 1: is certain he would succeed very badly. The greater part
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  Speaker 1: of these preparations require care, attention, and a long experience,
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  Speaker 1: all which are only to be acquired by progressive labor,
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  Speaker 1: and that on a great quantity of materials let us refer,
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  Speaker 1: for example, to the preparation of hides. What laborer can
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  Speaker 1: pursue all the particular things necessary to those operations which
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  Speaker 1: continue several months, sometimes several years. If he is able
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  Speaker 1: to do it, can he do it with a single hide?
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  Speaker 1: What a loss of time, of room, and of materials
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  Speaker 1: which might be employed, either at the same time or
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  Speaker 1: successively to tend a large quantity of skins. But should
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  Speaker 1: he even succeed in manning a single skin and wants
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  Speaker 1: one pair of shoes, what will he do with the remainder?
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  Speaker 1: Will he kill an ox to make this pair of shoes?
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  Speaker 1: Will he cut down a tree to make a pair
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  Speaker 1: of wooden shoes? We may say the same thing of
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  Speaker 1: every other want of every other man, who, if he
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  Speaker 1: was reduced to his field and the labor of his
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  Speaker 1: own hands, would waste much time, take much trouble, be
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  Speaker 1: very badly equipped in every respect, and would also cultivate
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  Speaker 1: his lands very ill. Four. The necessity of these preparations
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  Speaker 1: bring on the exchange of productions for labour. The same
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  Speaker 1: motive which has established the exchange of commodity for commodity
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  Speaker 1: between the cultivators of land of different natures, has also
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  Speaker 1: necessarily brought on the exchange of commodities for labour between
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  Speaker 1: the cultivators and another portion of society, who shall have
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  Speaker 1: preferred the occupation of preparing and completing the productions of
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  Speaker 1: the earth to the cultivation of it. Everyone profits by
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  Speaker 1: this arrangement, for everyone attaching himself to a peculiar species
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  Speaker 1: of labour succeeds much better. Therein. The husbandman draws from
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  Speaker 1: his field the greatest quantity it is able to produce,
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  Speaker 1: and procures to himself with greater facility all the other
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  Speaker 1: objects of his wants by an exchange of his superflux,
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  Speaker 1: than he could have done by his own labor. The shoemaker,
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  Speaker 1: by making shoes for the husbandman, secures to himself a
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  Speaker 1: portion of the harvest of the latter. Every workman labors
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  Speaker 1: for the wants of the workmen of every other trade, who,
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  Speaker 1: on their side toil also for him. Five pre eminence
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  Speaker 1: of the husbandman who produces over the artificer who prepares.
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  Speaker 1: The husbandman is the first mover in the circulation of labor.
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  Speaker 1: It is he who causes the earth to produce the
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  Speaker 1: wages of every artificer. It must, however, be observed that
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  Speaker 1: The husbandman, furnishing every one with the most important and
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  Speaker 1: the most considerable objects of their consumption, I mean, their
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  Speaker 1: food and the materials of almost all manufactures, has the
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  Speaker 1: advantage of a greater degree of independence. His labor, among
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  Speaker 1: the different species of labor appropriated to the different members
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  Speaker 1: of society, supports the same pre eminence and priority as
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  Speaker 1: the procuring of food did among the different works. He
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  Speaker 1: was obliged, in his solitary state, to employ himself in
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  Speaker 1: in order to minister to his wants of every kind.
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  Speaker 1: This is not a pre eminence of honor or of dignity,
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  Speaker 1: but of physical necessity. The husbandman can, generally speaking, subsist
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  Speaker 1: without the labor of other workmen, but no other workman
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  Speaker 1: can labor if the husbandman does not provide him wherewith
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  Speaker 1: to exist. It is this circulation which, by a reciprocal
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  Speaker 1: exchange of wants, renders mankind necessary to each other, and
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  Speaker 1: which forms the bond of society. It is therefore, the
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  Speaker 1: labor of the husbandman which gives the first movement what
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  Speaker 1: his industry causes the earth to produced. Beyond his personal wants,
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  Speaker 1: is the only fund for the wages which all the
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  Speaker 1: other members of society receive in recompense for their toil,
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  Speaker 1: the latter by availing themselves of the produce of this
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  Speaker 1: exchange to purchase in their turn. The commodities of the
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  Speaker 1: husbandman only return to him precisely what they have received.
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  Speaker 1: There is here a very essential difference between the two
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  Speaker 1: species of labor, on which it is necessary to reflect
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  Speaker 1: and to be well assured of the ground on which
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  Speaker 1: they stand before we trust to the innumerable consequences which
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  Speaker 1: flow from them. End of Passages one through five, Passages
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  Speaker 1: six through ten of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution
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  Speaker 1: of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgau, translated by Nicholas
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  Speaker 1: de Condorse. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Six.
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  Speaker 1: The wages of the workmen is limited by the competition
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  Speaker 1: among those who work for subsistence. He only gains a livelihood.
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  Speaker 1: The mere workman, who depends only on his hands and
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  Speaker 1: his industry, has nothing but such part of his labor
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  Speaker 1: as he is able to dispose of to others. He
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  Speaker 1: sells it at a cheaper or a dearer price. But
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  Speaker 1: this high or low price does not depend upon himself alone.
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  Speaker 1: It results from the agreement he has made with the
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  Speaker 1: person who employs him. The latter pays him as little
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  Speaker 1: as he can help, and as he has the choice
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  Speaker 1: from among a great number of workmen, he prefers the
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  Speaker 1: person who works cheapest. The workmen are therefore obliged to
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  Speaker 1: lower their price in opposition to each other. In every
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  Speaker 1: species of labor, it must, and in effect it does
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  Speaker 1: happen that the wages of the workmen is confined merely
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  Speaker 1: to what is necessary to procure him a sub assistance.
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  Speaker 1: The husbandman is the only one whose industry produces more
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  Speaker 1: than the wages of his labor. He therefore is the
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  Speaker 1: only source of all wealth. The situation of the husbandman
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  Speaker 1: is materially different. The soil, independent of any other man
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  Speaker 1: or of any agreement, pays him immediately the price of
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  Speaker 1: his toil. Nature does not bargain with him or compel
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  Speaker 1: him to content himself with what is absolutely necessary. What
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  Speaker 1: she grants is neither limited to is wants, nor to
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  Speaker 1: a conditional valuation of the price of his day's work.
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  Speaker 1: It is a physical consequence of the fertility of the
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  Speaker 1: soil and of justice, rather than of the difficulty of
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  Speaker 1: the means which he has employed to render the soil fruitful.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as the labor of the husbandman produces more
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  Speaker 1: than sufficient for his necessities, he can, with the excess
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  Speaker 1: which nature affords him, of pure free will, beyond the
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  Speaker 1: wages of nd his toil purchased the labor of other
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  Speaker 1: members of society. The latter, in selling to him, only
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  Speaker 1: procures a livelihood. But the husbandman, besides his subsistence, collects
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  Speaker 1: an independent wealth at his disposal, which he has not purchased,
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  Speaker 1: but which he can sell. He is therefore the only
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  Speaker 1: source of all those riches which, by their circulation animates
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  Speaker 1: the labours of society, because he is the only one
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  Speaker 1: whose labor produces more than the wages of his toil. Eight.
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  Speaker 1: First division of society into two classes, the one productive
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  Speaker 1: or the cultivators, the other stipendiary, or the artificers. Here, then,
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  Speaker 1: is the whole society, divided by the necessity founded on
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  Speaker 1: the nature of things, into two classes, both industrious, one
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  Speaker 1: of which by its labour, produces, or rather draws from
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  Speaker 1: the earth riches continually renewing, which supply the whole society
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  Speaker 1: with subsistence and with many materials for all its wants,
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  Speaker 1: while the other is employed in giving to the said materials,
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  Speaker 1: such preparations and forms as rendered them proper for the
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  Speaker 1: use of man sells his labour to the first, and
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  Speaker 1: receives in return a subsistence. The first may be called
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  Speaker 1: the productive, the latter the stipendiary. Class nine. In the
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  Speaker 1: first ages of society, the proprietors could not be distinguished
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  Speaker 1: from the cultivators. Hitherto we have not distinguished the husbandman
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  Speaker 1: from the proprietor of the land, and in the first
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  Speaker 1: origin they were not, in fact so distinguished. It is
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  Speaker 1: by the labour of those who have first cultivated the fields,
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  Speaker 1: and who have enclosed them to secure their harvest, that
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  Speaker 1: all land has ceased to be common, and that a
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  Speaker 1: property in the soil has been established. Until societies have
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  Speaker 1: been formed, and until the public strength or the laws
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  Speaker 1: becoming superior to the force of individuals, have been able
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  Speaker 1: to guarantee to everyone the tranquil possession of his property
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  Speaker 1: against all invasion from without. The property in the field
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  Speaker 1: could only be secured as it had been acquired, by
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  Speaker 1: continuing to cultivate it. The proprietor could not be assured
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  Speaker 1: of having his field cultivated by the help of another,
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  Speaker 1: and that person taking all the trouble could not easily
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  Speaker 1: have comprehended that the whole harvest did not belong to him.
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  Speaker 1: On the other hand, in this early age, when every
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  Speaker 1: industrious man would find as much land as he wanted,
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  Speaker 1: he would not be tempted to labor for another. It
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  Speaker 1: necessarily follows that every proprietor must cultivate his own field
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  Speaker 1: or abandon it entirely. Ten progress of society, all lands
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  Speaker 1: have an owner, but the land begins to people and
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  Speaker 1: to be cleared. More and more. The best lands are,
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  Speaker 1: in process of time fully occupied. There remains only for
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  Speaker 1: those who come last nothing but barren land, rejected by
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  Speaker 1: the first occupants. But at last every spot is found
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  Speaker 1: a master, and those who cannot gain a property therein
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  Speaker 1: have no other resource but to exchange the labor of
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  Speaker 1: their hands in some of the employments of the stipendiary
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  Speaker 1: class for the excess of commodities possessed by the cultivating proprietor.
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  Speaker 1: End of Passages six through ten, Passages eleven through fifteen
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  Speaker 1: of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth by m.
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  Speaker 1: Robert Jacques Durgo, translated by Nicholas de Condose. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Eleven, the proprietors begin
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  Speaker 1: to be able to ease themselves of the labor of
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: cultivation by the help of hired cultivators. Meantime, since the
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  Speaker 1: earth produces to the proprietor who cultivates it, not a
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  Speaker 1: subsistence only, not only wherewith to procure himself by way
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  Speaker 1: of exchange what he otherwise wants, but also a considerable superfluity.
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  Speaker 1: He is enabled, with this superfluity to pay other men
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  Speaker 1: to cultivate his land. For among those who live by wages,
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  Speaker 1: as many are content to labor in this employment, as
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  Speaker 1: in any other. The proprietor therefore might then be eased
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  Speaker 1: of the labor of culture, and he soon was so. Twelve.
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  Speaker 1: Inequality in the division of property causes which render that inevitable.
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  Speaker 1: The original proprietors would, as I have already mentioned, occupy
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  Speaker 1: as much land as their strength would permit them, with
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  Speaker 1: their families to cultivate. A man of greater strength, more laborious,
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  Speaker 1: more attentive about the future, would occupy more than a
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: man of a contrary character. He whose family is the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: most numerous, having greater wants and more hands, extends his
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  Speaker 1: possessions further This is the first cause of anyay. Every
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: piece of ground is not equally fertile. Two men with
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  Speaker 1: the same extent of land may reap a very different harvest.
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  Speaker 1: This is a second source of inequality. Property in descending
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  Speaker 1: from fathers to their children, divides into greater or less portions,
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  Speaker 1: according as the descendants are more or less numerous, and
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  Speaker 1: as one generation succeeds another, Sometimes the inheritances again subdivide,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes reunite again by the extinction of some of
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  Speaker 1: the branches. This is a third source of inequality. The
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  Speaker 1: difference of knowledge, of activity, and above all the economy
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  Speaker 1: of some, contrasted with the indolence, in action and dissipation
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  Speaker 1: of others, is a fourth principle of inequality, and the
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  Speaker 1: most powerful of all. The negligent and inattentive proprietor who
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  Speaker 1: cultivates badly, who in a fruitful year consumes in frivolous
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  Speaker 1: things the whole of his superfluity, finds himself reduced, on
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  Speaker 1: the least accident, to request assistance from his more provident neighbor,
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  Speaker 1: and to live by borrowing. If by any new accident
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  Speaker 1: or by a continuation of his negligence, he finds himself
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  Speaker 1: not in a condition to repay, he is obliged to
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  Speaker 1: have recourse to new loans, and at last has no
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  Speaker 1: other resource but to abandon a part, or even the whole,
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  Speaker 1: of his property to his creditor, who receives it as
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  Speaker 1: an equivalent, or to assign it to another in exchange
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  Speaker 1: for other valuables with which he discharges his obligation to
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  Speaker 1: his creditor. Thirteen consequences of this inequality. The cultivator distinguished
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  Speaker 1: from the proprietor. Thus is the property in the soil
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  Speaker 1: made subject to purchase and sale. The portion of the
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  Speaker 1: dissipating or unfortunate increases the share of the more happy
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  Speaker 1: or industrious proprietor. And in this infinite variety of possessions,
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  Speaker 1: it is not possible, but a great number of proprietors
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  Speaker 1: must possess more than they can cultivate. Besides, it is
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  Speaker 1: very natural for a rich man to wish for a
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  Speaker 1: tranquil enjoyment of his property, and instead of employing his
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  Speaker 1: whole time in toilsome labor, he rather prefers giving a
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  Speaker 1: part of his superfluity to people to work for him.
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  Speaker 1: Fourteen Division of the produce between the cultivator and the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: proprietor net produce or revenue. By this new arrangement, the
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: produce of the land divides into two parts. The one
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: comprehends the subsistence and the profits of the husbandman, which
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: are the rewards of his labor and the conditions on
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: which he agrees to cultivate the field of the proprietor.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: The other, which remains, is that independent and disposable part
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: which the earth produces as a free gift to the proprietor,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: over and above what he has dispersed. And it is
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: out of this share of the proprietors or what is
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: called the revenue, that he is enabled to live without labor,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and which he can carry wherever he will. Fifteen a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: new division of society into three classes cultivators, artificers, and proprietors,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: or the productive, stipendiary, and disposable classes. We now behold
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: society divided into three branches. The class of husbandmen, whom
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: we may denominate cultivators, the class of artificers and others
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: who work for hire upon the productions of the earth.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: And the class of proprietors, the only one which, not
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: being confined by a want of support to a particular
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: species of labor may be employed in the general service
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of society, as for war and the administration of justice,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: either by a personal service, or by the payment of
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: a part of their revenue, with which the state may
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: hire others to fill these employments. The appellation which suits
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the best with this division for this reason is that
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: of the disposable class. End of Passages eleven through fifteen.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Passages sixteen through twenty of Reflections on the Formation and
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Distribution of Wealth by n. Robert Jacques Durgo, translated by
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Nicholas de Condorcet. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Sixteen Resemblance between the two laborious classes. The two classes
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: of cultivators and artificers resemble each other in many respects,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and particularly that those who compose them do not possess
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: any revenue, and both equally subsist on the wages which
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: are paid them out of the productions of the earth.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Both have also this circumstance in common, that they only
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: gain the price of their labor and their disbursements, and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: that this price is nearly the same in the two classes.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: The proprietor, agreeing with those who cultivate his ground to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: pay them as small a part as possible of its produce,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: in the same manner as he bargains with the shoemaker
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: to buy his shoes as cheap as he can. In
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a word, neither the cultivator nor the artificer receives more
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: than a bare recompense for his labor seventeen essential difference
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: between the two laborious classes. But there is this difference
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: between the two species of labor that the work of
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the cultivator produces not only his own wages, but also
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: that revenue which serves to pay all the different classes
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: of artificers and other stipendiaries their salaries. Whereas the artificers
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: receive simply their salary, that is to say, their part
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of the productions of the earth, in exchange for their labor,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and which does not produce any increase, the proprietor enjoys nothing,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: but by the labor of the cultivator he receives from
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: him his subsistence, and wherewith to pay for the labor
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: of the other stipendiaries. He has need of the cultivator
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: by the necessity arising from the physical order of things,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: by which necessity the earth is not fruitful without labor.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: But the cultivator has no need of the proprietor, but
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: by virtue of human conventions and of those civil laws
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: which have guaranteed to the first cultivators and their heirs
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the property in the lands they had occupied, even after
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: they ceased to cultivate them. But these laws can only
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: secure to the idle man that part of the production
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of his land which it produces beyond the retribution due
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: to the cultivators. The cultivator, confined as he is to
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: a stipend for his labor, still preserves that natural and
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: physical priority which renders him the first mover of the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: hole machine of society, and which causes both the subsistence
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and wealth of the proprietor and the salaries paid for
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: every other species of labor to depend on his industry.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: The artificer, on the contrary, receives his wages either of
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the proprietor or of the cultivator, and only gives them
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: in exchange for his stipend an equivalent in labor, and
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: nothing more. Thus, although neither the cultivator and artificer gain
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: more than a recompense for their toil, yet the labor
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: of the cultivator produces besides that recompense a revenue to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the proprietor, while the artificer does not produce any revenue,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: either for himself or others. Eighteen. This difference authorizes another
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: distinction into the productive and bearing classes. We may then
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: distinguish the two classes not disposable into the productive class,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: which is that of the cultivators, or the bearing class,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: which comprehends all the other stipendiary members of society. Section nineteen.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: How the proprietors may draw a revenue from their lands.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: The proprietors who do not cultivate their lands themselves may
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: adopt different methods of cultivating them, or make different agreements
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: with those who cultivate them. Se twenty. First method or
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: cultivation by laborers on wages. They may, in the first place,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: pay men by the day or the year to work
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: their fields and reserve to themselves the whole of the produce.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: This includes a supposition that the proprietor pays all advances,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: both for seed and the wages of the laborers until
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: after the harvest. But this method requires great labour and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: assiduity on the part of the proprietor, who alone can
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: direct his men in their labour, see that they employ
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: their time well, and watch over their fidelity, that they
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: shall not carry away any part of the produce. It
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: is true that he may pay a man of more
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: knowledge and whose fidelity he knows, who in quality of
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: manager and conductor, may direct the workmen and keep an
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: account of the produce, But he will be always subject
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to fraud. Besides, this method is extremely expensive, unless a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: large population or want of employee in other species of
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: labor forces the workmen to content themselves with very low salaries.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: End of Passages sixteen through twenty Passages twenty one through
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: twenty five of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgo, translated by Nicholas de Condors.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Twenty one
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: second method the cultivation by slaves. In times not very
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: distant from the origin of society, it was almost impossible
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: to find men willing to work on the lands of another,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: because all the land not being as yet occupied. Those
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: who were willing to labour preferred the clearing of new
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: lands and the cultivating them on their own account. This
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: is pretty much the case in all new colonies. In
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: this situation, violent men then conceive the expedient of obliging
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: other men by force to labour for them they employed slaves.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: These latter have had no justice to look for from
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: the hands of people who have not been able to
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: reduce them to slavery without violating all the laws of humanity. Meantime,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the physical law of nature secures to them their part
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: of the productions which they have raised. For the master
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: must necessarily nourish them in order to profit by their labour.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: But this species of recompense is confined to mere necessaries
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: for their subsistence. This abominable custom of slavery has formerly
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: been universal, and has spread over the greatest part of
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the globe. The principal object of the wars carried on
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: by the ancients was to carry off slaves, whom the
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: conquerors either compelled to work for them or sold to others.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: This species of thieving, and this trade still continues, attended
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: with all its cruel circumstances, on the coast of Guinea,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: where the Europeans encourage it by going thither to purchase
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: negroes for the cultivation of the American colonies. The excessive
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: labor to which the greedy masters force their slaves causes
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: many of them to perish, and it becomes necessary to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: keep up the number requisite for cultivation, that this trade
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: should supply annually a very large number. And since war
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: is the principal source which supplies this commerce, it is
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: evident that it can subsist no longer than the people
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: continue divided into very small nations who are incessantly plundering
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: each other, and every district is at continued war with
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: its neighbors. Let England, France and Spain carry on the
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: most cruel hostilities, the frontiers alone of each state will
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: be the only parts invaded, and that in a few
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: places only all the rest of the country will be quiet,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and the small number of prisoners they could make on
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: either side would be but a weak resource for the
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: cultivation of each of the three nations. Twenty two. Cultivation
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: by slaves cannot exist in great societies. Thus, when men
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: are formed into great societies, the recruits of slaves are
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: not sufficiently numerous to support the consumption which the cultivation requires.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: And although they supply the labor of men by that
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: of beasts, a time will come when the lands can
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: no longer be worked by slaves. The practice is then
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: continued only for the interior work of the house, and
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: in the end it is totally abolished, because in proportion
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: as nations become polished, they form conventions for the exchange
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: of prisoners of war. These conventions are the more readily
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: made as every individual is very much interested to be
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: free from the danger of falling into a state of slavery.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Twenty three. Slavery annexed to the land succeeds to slavery
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: properly so called. The descendants of the first slaves attached
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: at first to the cultivation of the ground, change their condition.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: The interior peace among nations, not leaving wherewithal to supply
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: the consumption of slaves. The masters are obliged to take
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: greater care of them. Those who were born in the house,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: accustomed from their infancy to their situation revolt the less
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: at it, and their masters have less need to employ
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: rigor to restrain them. By degrees. The land they cultivate
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: becomes their country, They become a part of the nation,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and in the end they experience confidence and humanity on
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: the part of their masters. Twenty four vassalage succeeds to
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: slavery annexed to the land, and the slave becomes a proprietor.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Third method, alienation of the land for a certain service.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: The administration of an estate cultivated by slaves requires a
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: careful attention and an irksome residence. The master secures to
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: himself a more free, more easy, and more secure enjoyment
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: of his property by interesting his slaves in the cultivation
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: of it, and by abandoning to to each of them
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: a certain portion of land on condition of their paying
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: him a portion of the produce. Some have made this
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: agreement for a time and have only left their serfs
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: or slaves a precious and revocable possession. Others have assigned
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: them lands in perpetuity, refining an annual rent, payable either
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: in provisions or in money, and requiring from the possessors
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: certain services. Those who received these lands under the condition
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: prescribed become proprietors and free under the name of tenant
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: or vassal, and the ancient proprietors under the title of
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: lords preserved only the right of exacting payment of the
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: rent and other stipulated duties. Thus it has happened in
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: the greater part of Europe twenty five. Fourth method partial colonization.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: These lands rendered free at the expensive rent may yet change.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Master mister may divide or reunite by means of succession
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and sale, and such a vassal may, in his turn
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: have more than he can cultivate himself. In general, the
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: rent to which those lands are subject is not so large,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: but that by cultivating them well, the cultivator is enabled
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: to pay all advances and expenses, procure himself a subsistence,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: and besides an excess of productions which form a revenue. Henceforth,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the proprietary vassal becomes desirous of enjoying this revenue without labor,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: and of having his lands also cultivated by others. On
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: the other hand, the greater part of the lords grant
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: out those parts of their possessions only which are the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: least within their reach, and retain those they can cultivate
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: with the least experience. The cultivation by slaves not being practicable,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: the first method that offers and the most simple, to
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: engage freemen to cultivate lands which do not belong to
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: them was to resign to them such a portion of
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the probe as would engage them to cultivate better than
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: those husbandmen who are employed at a fixed salary. The
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: most common method has been to divide it into equal parts,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: one of which belonged to the cultivator and the other
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: to the proprietor. This has given place to the name
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: in France of miteller muditarius or cultivator for half produce
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: and arrangements of this kind which take place throughout the
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: greatest part of France. The proprietor pays all contingencies, that
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: is to say, he provides at his expense the cattle
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: for labor, plows and other utensils of husbandry, seed, and
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: the support of the cultivator and his family, from the
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: time the latter enters into the materie until the first harvest.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: End of Passages twenty one through twenty five. Passages twenty
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: six through thirty of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: of Wealth by n. Robert Jacques Durgo, translated by Nicholas
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: de Condorsey. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Twenty six. Fifth method renting or letting out the land.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Rich and intelligent cultivators who saw to what perfection an
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: active and well directed cultivation for which neither labor nor
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: expense was spared, would raise the fruitfulness of land, judged
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: with reason that they would gain more if the proprietors
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: should consent to abandon for a certain number of years
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: the whole of the harvest, on condition of receiving annually
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: a certain revenue, and to be free of all expenses
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: of cultivation. By that they would be assured that the
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: increase of productions which their disbursements and their labor procured
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: would belong entirely to themselves. The proprietor, on his side,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: would gain thereby first a more tranquil enjoyment, of his revenue,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: being freed from the care of advances and of keeping
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: an account of the produce. Second, a more equal enjoyment,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: since he would receive every year the same and a
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: more certain price for his farm, because he would run
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: no risk of losing his advances, and the cattle and
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: other effects with which the farmers had stocked it would
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: become a security for his payment. On the other hand,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the league being only for a small number of years,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: if his tenant paid him too little, he could augment
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: it at the expiration thereof twenty seven The last method
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: is the most advantageous, but it supposes the country already rich.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: This method of securing lands is the most advantageous both
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: to proprietors and cultivators. It is universally established where there
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: are any rich cultivators in a condition to make the
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: advances necessary for the cultivation, and the rich cultivators are
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: in a situation to bestow more labor and manure upon
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: the ground. Their results from thence a prodigious augmentation in
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the productions and in the revenue of the land. In Picardy, Normandy,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: the environs of Paris, and in most of the provinces
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: in the north of France, the lands are cultivated by farmers,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: in those of the south by the metege. Thus the
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: northern are incomparably richer and better cultivated than the southern provinces.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Twenty eight Recapitulation of the several methods of making lands productive.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: I have just mentioned five different methods by which proprietors
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: are enabled to ease themselves of the labor of the
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: cultivation and to make their land productive by the hands
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: of others. One by workmen paid at a fixed salary,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: two by slaves, three by seating their lands for rent.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Four by granting to the cultivator a determined portion, which
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: is commonly half the produce, the proprietor paying the advances
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: necessary for the cultivation. Five by letting their land to
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: farmers who undertake to make all the necessary advances, and
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: who engage to pay to the proprietors during the number
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: of years agreed on a revenue equal to its value.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Of these five methods, the first is too expensive and
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: very seldom practiced. The second is only used in countries
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: as yet ignorant and barbarous. The third is rather a
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: means of procuring a value for than abandoning of the
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: property for money, so that the ancient proprietor is no
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: longer anything more than a mere creditor. The two last
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: methods of cultivation are the most common, that is, the
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: cultivation by mittee in the poor and by farmers in
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: the richer countries. Twenty nine of capitals in general, and
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: of the revenue of money. There is another way of
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: being rich, without labor and without possessing lands, of which
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: I have not yet spoken, and of which it is
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: necessary to explain the origin and connection with other parts
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: of the system of the distribution of riches in society,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: of which I have just drawn the outlines. This consists
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: in living by what is called the revenue of money,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: or of the interest which is paid for the loan thereof.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Thirty of the use of gold and silver and commerce.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Gold and silver are two species of merchandise, like others,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: and less valuable than many of them, because they are
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: of no use for the real wants of life. To
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: explain how these two metals are become the representative pledges
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: of every species of riches, how they influence the commercial markets,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: and how they enter in to the composition of fortunes,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: it is necessary to go back again and return to
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: our first principles. End of Passages twenty six through thirty.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Passages thirty one through thirty five of Reflections on the
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Formation and Distribution of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgau,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: translated by Nicholas de Condorse. This LibriVox recording is in
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Thirty one Rise of commerce. Principle of
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the valuation of commercial things reciprocal once first introduced, exchanges
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: of what we possessed for what we stood in need of.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: One species of provision was bartered for another, or for labor.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: In exchanging, it is necessary that each party is convinced
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: of the quality and quantity of everything exchanged. In this agreement,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: it is natural that every one should desire to receive
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: as much as he can and to give as little,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: and both being equally masters of what they have to barter.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: It is in a man's own breast to balance the
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: attachment he has to the thing he gives with the
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: desire he feels to possess that which he is willing
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: to receive, and consequently to fix the quantity of each
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: of the exchanged things. If the two persons do not agree,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: they must relax a little on one side or the other,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: either by offering more or being content with less. I
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: will suppose that one is want of corn and the
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: other of wine, and that they agree to exchange a
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: bushel of corn for six pints of wine. It is
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: evident that by both of them, one bushel of corn
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: and six piles of wine are looked upon as exactly equivalent,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: and that in this particular exchange, the price of a
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: bushel of corn is six piles of wine, and the
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: price of six piles of wine is one bushel of corn.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: But in another exchange between other men, this price will
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: be different accordingly as one or the other of them
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: shall have a more or less pressing want of one
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: commodity or the other. And a bushel of corn may
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: be exchanged against eight pints of wine, while another bushel
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: shall be bartered for four pints. Only. Now it is
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: evident that not one of these three prizes can be
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: looked on as the true price of a bushel of corn,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: rather than the others. To each of the dealers, the
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: wine he has received was equivalent to the corn he
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: had given. In a word, So long as we consider
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: each exchange independent of any other, the value of each
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: thing exchanged has no other measure than the wants or
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: desires of one party weighed with those of the other,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: and is fixed only by their agreement. Thirty two. How
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: the current value of the exchange of merchandise is established. Meantime,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: it happens that many individuals have wine to dispose of
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: to those who possess corn. If one is not willing
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: to give more than four pints for a bushel, the
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: proprietor of the corn will not exchange with him, when
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: he shall know that another will give him six or
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: eight pints for the same bushel. If the former is
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: determined to have the corn, he will be obliged to
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: raise his price equal to what is offered by others.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: The sellers of wine profit on their side by the
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: competition among the cellars of corn. No one resolves to
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: part with his property before he has compared the different
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: offers which are made to him of the commodity he
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: stands in need of, and then he accepts of the
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: best offer. The value of the wine and corn is
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: not fixed by the two proprietors with respect to their
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: own wants and reciprocal abilities, but by a general balance
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: of the wants of all the cellars of corn with
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: those of all the cellars of wine. For those who
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: will willingly give eight pints of wine for a bushel
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: of corn will give but four. When they shall know
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: that a proprietor of corn is willing to give two
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: bushels for eight pints. The medium price between the different
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: offers and the different demands will become the current price
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: to which all the buyers and sellers will conform in
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: their exchanges. And it will be true if we say
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: that six pints of wine will be to every one
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the equivalent for a bushel of corn, that is the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: medium price, until a diminution of supply on one side
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: or of demand on the other causes a variation. Thirty three.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Commerce gives to all merchandise a current value with respect
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: to any other merchandise. From whence it follows that all
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: merchandise is the equivalent for a certain quantity of any
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: other merchandise, and may be looked on as a pledge
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: to represent it. Corn is not only exchanged for wine,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: but also for any object which the proprietors of the
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: corn may stand in need of, as wood, leather, woolen, cotton,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: et cetera. It is the same with wine and every
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: other particular species. If a bushel of corn is equivalent
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: to six pints of wine, and a sheep is equivalent
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: to three bushels of corn, the same sheep will be
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: equivalent to eighteen pints of wine. He who, having the corn,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: wants the wine, may, without inconvenience, exchange his corn for
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: a sheep, in order afterwards to exchange the sheep for
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: the wine he stands in need of. Thirty four, Every
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: merchandise may serve as a scale or common measure by
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: which to compare the value of any other. It follows
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: from Hents that in a country where the commerce is
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: very brisk, where there are many productions in much consumption,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: where there are great supplies and a great demand for
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: all sorts of cold comodities, every sort will have a
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: current price having relation to every other species. That is
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: to say that a certain quantity of one will be
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: of equal value to a certain quantity of any others. Thus,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: the same quantity of corn, which is worth eighteen pints
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: of wine, is also the value of a sheep, a
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: piece of leather, or a certain quantity of iron. And
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: all these things have, in the transactions of trade and
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: equal value. To express or make known the value of
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: any particular thing, it is evident that it is sufficient
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: to announce the quantity of any other known production, which
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: will be looked on as an equivalent for it. Thus,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: to make known what a piece of leather of a
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: certain size is worth, we may say indifferently that it
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: is worth three bushels of corn or eighteen pints of wine.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: We may by the same method express the value of
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: a certain quantity of wine by the number of sheep
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: or bushels of corn it will bring in trade. We
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: see by this that every speed secies of commodity that
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: can be an object of commerce may be measured, as
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: I may say, by each other. That everyone may serve
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: as a common measure or scale of comparison, to describe
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the value of every other species. And in like manner,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: every merchandise becomes in the hands of him who possesses
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: it a means to procure all others, a sort of
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: universal pledge. Thirty five. Every species of merchandise does not
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: present a scale equally commodious. It is proper to prefer
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: the use of such as are not susceptible of any
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: great alteration and quality, and have a value principally relative
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: to the number and quantity. But although all merchandise has
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: essentially this property of representing any other is able to
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: serve as a common measure to express its value, and
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: to become a universal pledge to procure any of them
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: by way of exchange, yet all cannot be employed with
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the same degree of facility for these two uses. The
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: more susceptible any merchandise is to change its value by
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: an alteration in its quality, the more difficult it is
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: to make it a scale of reference. For the value
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: of others. For example, if eighteen pints of wine of
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Onjeu are equivalent in value to a sheep, eighteen pints
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: of cape wine may be equivalent to eighteen sheep. Thus,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: he who to express the value of a sheep would
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: say it is worth eighteen pints of wine would employ
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: an equivocal language, and would not communicate any precise idea,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: at least until he added some explanation, which would be
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: very inconvenient. We are therefore obliged to choose for a
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: scale of comparison such commodities as being more commonly in use,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: and consequently of a value more generally known, are more
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: like each other, and of which consequently the value has
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: more relation to the quantity than the quality. End of
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: Passages thirty one through thirty five. Passages thirty six through
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: forty of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: by m. Robert Jacques Durgo, translated by Nicholas de Condors.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Thirty six.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: For want of an exact correspondence between the value and
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the number or quantity, it is supplied by a mean valuation,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: which becomes a species of real money. In a country
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: where there are only one race of sheep, we may
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: easily take the value of a fleece or of a
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: sheep by the common method of valuation, and we may
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: say that a barrel of wine or a piece of
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: stuff is worth a certain number of fleeces or of sheep.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: There is in reality some inequality in sheep, but when
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: we want to sell them, we take care to estimate
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: that inequality and to reckon, for example, two lambs for
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: one sheep. When it is necessary to treat of the
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: relative value of other merchandise, we fix the common value
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: of a sheep of middling age and quality as the
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: symbol of unity. In this view, the nunciation of the
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: value of sheep becomes an agreed language, and this word
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: one sheep in the language of commerce signifies only a
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: certain value, which, in the mind of him who understands it,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: carries the idea not only of a sheep, but as
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: a certain quantity of every other commodity, which is esteemed
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: equivalent there too. And this expression is more applicable to
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: a fictitious and abstract value than to the value of
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: a real sheep. That if, by chance of mortality happens
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: among the sheep, and that to purchase one of them
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: you must give double the quantity of corn or wine
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: that was formerly given. We shall rather say that one
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: sheep is worth two sheep, than change the expression we
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: have been accustomed to for all other valuations. Thirty seven
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: example of those mean valuations which become an ideal expression
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: for value. There exists in the commerce of every nation
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: many examples of fictitious valuations of merchandise, which are, as
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: we may say, only a conventional language to express their value. Thus,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: the cooks of Paris and the fishmongers who furnish great
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: houses generally sell by the peace. A fat pullet is
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: esteemed one piece, a chicken half a piece, more or
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: less according to the season, and so of the rest.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: In the Negro trade in the American colonies, they sell
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: a cargo of negroes at the rate of so much
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: per negro an Indian peace. The women and children are valued,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: so that, for example, three children or one woman and
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: two children are reckoned as one head of negro. They
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: increase or diminish the value on account of the strength
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: or other quality of the slaves, so that certain slaves
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: are reckoned as two heads of negroes. The Mandingo negroes,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: who carry on a trade for gold dust with the
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Arabian merchants, bring all their commodities to a fictitious scale,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: which both parties call mccots, so that they tell the
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: merchants they will give so many mccots in gold. They
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: value thus in mcots the merchandise they receive and bargain
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: with the merchants upon that valuation. Thus, in Holland they
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: reckon by bank florins, which is only a fictitious money,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: and which in commerce is sometimes of a greater sometimes
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: of a less value than the coin which is denominated
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: of florin thirty. All merchandise is a representative pledge of
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: every object of commerce, but more or less commodities for use,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: as it possesses a greater or less facility to be
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: transported and to be preserved without alteration. The variation in
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the quality of merchandise, and in the different prices in
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: proportion to that quality, which renders them more or less
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: proper than others to serve as a common measure, is
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: more or less an impediment to there being a representative
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: pledge of every other merchandise of equal value. Nevertheless, there
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: is also, as to this last property, a very essential
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: difference between the different species of merchandise. It is, for example,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: evident that a man who possesses a piece of linen
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: is more certain of procuring for it when he pleases
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: a certain quantity of corn than if he had a
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: barrel of wine of equal value, the wine being subject
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: to fix a variety of accidents which may in a
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: moment deprive him of the whole property. Thirty nine. All
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: merchandise has the two essential properties of money, to measure
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: and to represent all value, And in this sense all
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: merchandise is money. These two properties, of serving as a
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: common measure of all value, and of being a representative
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: pledge of all other commodities of equal value, comprehend all
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: that constitute the essence and use of what is called money.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: And it follows from the details which I have just
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: now given, that all merchandise is in some respect money,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: and participates more or less according to its particular nature.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Of these two essential properties, all is more or less
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: proper to serve as a common measure in proportion, as
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: it is more or less in general use of a
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: more similar quality and more easy to be divided into
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: all caught parts. All is more or less applicable for
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: the purpose of a general pledge of exchange in proportion,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: as it is less susceptible of decay or alteration in
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: quantity or quality. Forty Reciprocally, all money is essentially merchandized.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: We can take only that which has a value for
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: a common measure of value, that which is received in
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: commerce in exchange for other properties. And there is no
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: universal representative pledge of value, but something of equal value
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: a money of convention, is therefore a thing impossible. End
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: of Passages thirty six through forty. Passages forty one through
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: forty five of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Wealth by n Robert Jacques Durgo, translated by Nicholas de Condors.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. For one
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: different matters are able to serve and have served for
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: current money. Many nations have adopted in their language and
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: in their trade as a common measure of value. Different
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: matters more or less precious. There are at this day
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: some barbarous nations who make use of a species of
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: little shells called cowies. I remember to have seen when
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: at college. Some apricot stones exchanged and passed as a
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: species of money among the scholars who made use of
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: them at certain games. I have already spoken of evaluation
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: by heads of cattle. Some of these are to be
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: found in the vestiges of the laws of the ancient
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: German nations who overran the Roman Empire. The first Romans,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: or at least the Latins their ancestors, made use of them. Also,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: it is pretended that the first money they struck in
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: brass represented the value of a sheep, and bore the
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: image of that animal, and that the name of Pecunia
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: has obtained from Pecus. This conjecture carries with it a
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: great probability forty two metals, and particularly gold and silver,
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: are the most proper for that purpose, and why we
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: are now arrived at the introduction of the precious metals
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: into trade. All metals, as they have been discovered, have
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: been admitted into exchange on account of their real utility.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Their splendor has caused them to be sought for to
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: serve as ornaments. Their ductility and their solidity have rendered
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: them proper for utensils, more durable and lighter than those
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: of clay. But these substances cannot be brought into commerce
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: without becoming almost immediately a universal money. A piece of
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: any metal of whatever sort has exactly the same qualities
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: as another piece of the same metal, provided they are
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: both equally pure. Now, the ease with which we can
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: separate by different chemical operations of metal from other metals
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: with which it is incorporated, enables us to bring it
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: to a degree of purity, or, as they call it,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: to what standard we please. Then the value of metal
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: differs only as to its weight. In expressing, therefore the
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: value of any merchandise by the weight of metal which
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: may be had in exchange, we shall then have the clearest,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: the most commodious, and most precise expression of value. And
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: hence it is impossible, but it must be preferred in
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: practice to all other things. Nor are metals less proper
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: than other merchandise for becoming the universal token of all
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: value that can be measured, As they are susceptible of
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: all imaginable divisions. There is not any object of commerce,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: great or small, whose value cannot be exactly paid by
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: a certain quantity of a metal. To this advantage of
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: accommodating itself to every species of division, they join that
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: of being unalterable, and those which are scarce. As gold
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: and silver have a great value, although of a weight
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: and size little considerable. These two metals are, then, of
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: all merchandise, the most easy to ascertain their quality, to
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: divide their quantity, and to convey to all places at
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: the easiest expense. Everyone therefore, who has a superfluity, and
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: who is not at the time and want of another
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: useful commodity, will hasten to exchange it for silver, with
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: which he is more certain than with anything else, to
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: procure himself the commodity he shall wish for at the
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: time he is in want. Forty three. Gold and silver
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: are constituted, by the nature of things money and universal money,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: independent of all convention and of all laws. Here then
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: is gold and selin over constituted money and universal money,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: and that without any arbitrary agreement among men, without the
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: intervention of any law, but only by the nature of things.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: They are not as many people imagine signs of value.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: They have an intrinsic value in themselves, if they are
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: capable of being the measure and the token of other values.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: This property they have in common with all other commodities
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: which have a value in commerce. They only differ in
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: being at the same time more divisible, more unchangeable, and
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: of more easy conveyance than other merchandise, by which they
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: are more commodiously employed to measure and represent the value
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: of others. Forty four. Other medals are only employed for
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: these uses in a secondary manner. All medals are capable
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: of being employed as money, but those which are too
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: common have too little value in large bulk to be
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: employed in the current use of commerce. Copper, silver and
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: gold are the only ones which have been brought into
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: constant use, and even copper, except among people to whom
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: neither minds nor commerce have supplied, a sufficient quantity of
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: gold or silver has never been used, but in exchanges
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: of small value forty five. The use of gold and
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: silver as money has augmented their value as materials. It
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: is not possible, but the eagerness with which everyone has
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: sought to exchange their superfluous commodities for gold and silver
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: rather than for any other commodity, must have augmented the
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: value of these two materials and commerce. These are only
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: thereby rendered more commodious for their employment as tokens or
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: common measure end of Passages forty one through forty five,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: Passages forty six through fifty of Reflections on the Formation
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: and Distribution of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgo, translated
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: by Nicholas de Condres. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: public domain. Forty six variations in the value of gold
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: and silver compared with the other objects of commerce and
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: with each other. This value is susceptible of change, and
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: in truth is continually changing, so that the same quantity
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: of metal, which answered to a certain quantity of such
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: or such a commodity, becomes no longer equal there too,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: And it requires a greater or less quantity of silver
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: to represent the same commodity when it requires more. It
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: is said the commodity is dearer when it requires less,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: that it is become cheaper. But they may as well
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: say that the silver is, in the first case become cheaper,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: and in the latter dearer. Silver and gold not only
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: vary in price compared with all other commodities, but they
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: vary also with each other in proportion, as they are
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: more or less abundant. It is notorious that we now
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: give in Europe from fourteen to fifteen ounces of silver
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: for one ounce of gold, and that in former times
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: we gave only ten or eleven ounces. Again that at
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: present in China they do not give more than twelve
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: ounces of silver for one ounce of gold, So that
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: there is a very great advantage in carrying silver to
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: China to exchange for gold to bring back to Europe.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: It is visible that in process of time this commerce
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: will make gold more common in Europe and less common
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: in China, and that the value of these two materials
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: must finally come in both places to the same proportion.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: A thousand different causes concur to fix and to change
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: incessantly the comparative value of commodities, either with respect to
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: each other or with respect to silver. The same causes
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: conspire to fix and vary the comparative value, whether in
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: respect to the value of each commodity in particular, or
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: with respect to the totality of the other values which
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: are actually in commerce. It is not possible to investigate
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: these different causes or to unfault their effects, without entering
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: into very extensive and very difficult details, which I shall
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: decline in this discussion. Forty seven. The use of payments
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: in money has given room for the distinction of seller
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: and buyer in proportion. As mankind became familiarized to the
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: custom of valuing all things in silver, of exchanging all
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: their superfluous commodities for silver, and of not parting with
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: that money but for things which are useful or agreeable
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: to them at the moment, they become accustomed to consider
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: the exchanges of commerce in a different point of view.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: They have made a distinction of two persons, the buyer
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: and the seller. The seller is him who gives commodities
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: for money, and the buyer is him who gives money
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: for commodities. Forty eight. The use of money has much
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: facilitated the separation of different labors among the different orders
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: of society. The more money becomes a universal medium, the
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: more everyone is enabled by devoting himself solely to that
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: species of cultivation and industry of which he has made choice,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: to divest himself entirely of every thought for his other wants,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: and only to think of providing the most money he
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: can by the sale of his fruits or his labor,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: being sure with that money to possess all the rest.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: It is thus that the use of money has prodigiously
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: hastened the progress of society forty nine of the excess
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: of annual produce accumulated to form capitals. As soon as
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: men are found whose property in land assures them an
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: annual revenue more than sufficient to satisfy all their wants.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: Among them there are some who, either uneasy respecting the future,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: or perhaps only provident, lay by a portion of what
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: they gather every year, either with a view to guard
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: against possible accidents, or to augment their enjoyments. When the
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: commodities they have gathered are difficult to preserve, they ought
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: to procure themselves in exchange such objects of a more
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: durable nature, and such as will not decrease in their
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: value by time, or those that may be employed in
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: such a manner as to procure such profits as will
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: make good the decrease with advantage fifty. Personal property accumulation
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: of money. This species of possession resulting from the accumulation
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: of annual produce not consumed, is known by the name
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: of personal property. Household goods, houses, merchandise in store, utensils
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: of trade, and cattle are under this denomination. It is
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: evident men must have toiled hard to procure themselves as
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: much as they could of this kind of wealth before
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: they became acquainted with the use of money. But it
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: is not less evident. But as soon as it was
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: known that it was the least liable to alteration of
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: all the objects of commerce, and the most easy to
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: preserve without trouble, it would be principally sought after by
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: whoever wished to accumulate. It was not the proprietors of
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: land only who thus accumulated their superfluity. Although the profits
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: of industry are not, like the revenue of lands, a
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: gift of nature, and the industrious man draws from his
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: labor only the price which is given him by the
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: persons who pay him his wages, although the latter is
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: as frugal as he can of his salary, and that
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: a competition obliges an industrious man to content himself with
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: a less price than he otherwise would do. It is
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: yet certain that these competitions have neither been so numerous
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: or strong in any species of labor, but that a
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: man more expert, more active, and who practices more economy
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: than others in his personal expenses, has been able at
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: all times to gain little more than sufficient to support
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: him and his family, and reserve his surplus to form
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: a little Hoarde and the passages forty six through fifty
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: Passages fifty one through fifty five of Reflections on the
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Formation and Distribution of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgou,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: translated by Nicholas de Condors. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Fifty one. Circulating wealth is an indispensable
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: requisite for all lucrative works. It is even necessary that
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: in every trade the workmen or those who employ them,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: possess a certain quantity of circulating wealth collected beforehand. We
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: here again are obliged to go back to a retrospect
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: of many things which have been as yet only hinted at.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: After we have spoken of the division of different professions,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: and of the different methods by which the proprietors of
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: capitals may render them of value, because otherwise we should
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: not be able to explain them properly without interrupting the
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: connection of our ideas. Fifty two. Necessity of advances for cultivation.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: Every species of labor, of cultivation, of industry, or of
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: commerce require advances. When people cultivate the ground it is
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: necessary to sow before they can reap. They must also
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: support themselves until after the harvest. The more cultivation is
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: brought to perfection and enlivened, the more considerable these advances
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: are cattle, utensils, for farming, buildings to hold the cattle,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: to store the productions. A number of persons, in proportion
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: to the extent of the undertaking, must be paid and
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: subsisted until the harvest. It is only by means of
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: considerable advances that we obtain rich harvests, and that lands
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: produce a large revenue in whatever business they engage. The
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: workmen must be provided with tools, must have a sufficient
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: quantity of such materials as the object of his labor requires,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: and he must subsist until the sale of his goods.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: Fifty three. First advance furnished by the land. Although uncultivated,
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: the earth was ever the first and the only source
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: of all riches. It is that which, by cultivation, produces
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: all revenue. It is that which has afforded the first
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: fund for advances anterior to all cultivation. The first cultivator
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: has taken the grain he has sown from such productions
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: as the land has spontaneously produced. While waiting for the harvest,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: he has supported himself by hunting, by fishing, or upon
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: wild fruits. His tools have been the branches of trees
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: procured in the forests and cut with stones, sharpened upon
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: other stones. The animals in the woods he has taken
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: in the chase, caught them in his traps, or has
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: subdued them unawares. At first, he has made use of
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: them for food afterwards to help him in his labors.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: These first funds or capital have increased by degrees. Cattle
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: or in early times, the most sought after of all
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: circulating property, and were also the easiest to accumulate. They perish,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: but they also breed, and this sort of riches is
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: in some respects unperishable. This capital augments by generation alone,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: and affords an annual produce either in milk, wool, leather,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: and other materials, which, with wood taken in the forest,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: have affected the first foundations for works of industry. Fifty four.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: Cattle a circulating wealth. Even before the cultivation of the earth,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: in times when there was yet a large quantity of
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: uncultivated land, and which did not belong to any individual,
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: cattle might be maintained without having a property in land.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: It is even probable that mankind have almost everywhere began
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: to collect flocks and herds, and to live on what
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: they produced before they employed themselves in the more laborious
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: occupation of cultivating the ground. It seems that those nations
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: who first cultivated the earth are those who found in
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: their country such sorts of animals as were the most
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: susceptible of being tamed, and that they have by this
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: been drawn from the wandering and restless life of hunters
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: and fissures to the more tranquil enjoyment of pastoral pursuits.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Pastoral life requires a longer residence in the same place,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: affords more leisure, more opportunities to study the difference of lands,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: to observe the ways of nature, and the productions of
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: such plants as serve for the support of cattle. Perhaps
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: it is for this reason that the Asiatic nations have
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: first cultivated the earth, and that the inhabitants of America
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: have remained so long in a savage state. Fifty five.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: Another species of circulating wealth and advances necessary for cultivation slaves.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: The slaves were another kind of personal property, which at
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: first were procured by violence and afterwards by way of
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: commerce and exchange. Those that had many employed them, not
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: only in the culture of land, but in various other
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: channels of labor. The facility of accumulating, almost without measure,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: those two sources of riches, and of making use of
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: them abstractedly from the land, cast the land itself to
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: be estimated, and the value compared to movable riches. End
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: of Passages fifty one through fifty five. Passages fifty six
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: through sixty of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: Wealth by n Robert Jacques Durgo, translated by Nicholas de Condors.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Fifty six.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: Personal property has an exchangeable value, even for land itself.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: A man that would have been possessed of a quantity
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: of lands without cattle or slaves would undoubtedly have made
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: an advantageous bargain in yielding a part of his land
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: to a person that would have offered him in exchange
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: cattle and slaves to cultivate the rest. It is chiefly
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: by this principle that property in land entered likewise into
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: commerce and had a comparative value with that of all
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: other goods. If four bushels of corn, the net produce
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: of an acre of land was worth six sheep the
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: acre itself that feeds them could have been given for
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: a certain value, greater, indeed, but always easy to settle
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: by the same way as the price of other weares, namely,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: at first by debates among the two contractors, next by
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: the current price established by the agreement of those who
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: exchange land for cattle, or the contrary. It is by
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: the scale of this current specie that lands are appraised
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: when a debtor is prosecuted by his creditor and is
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: constrained to yield up his property. Fifty seven. Valuations of
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: lands by the proportion of their revenue with the sum
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: of personal property, or the value for which they are exchanged.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: This proportion is called the price of lands. It is
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: evident that if land which produces a revenue equivalent to
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: six sheep can be sold for a certain value, which
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: may always be expressed by a number of sheep equivalent
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: to that value, this number will bear a fixed proportion
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: with that of six and will contain it a certain
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: number of times. Thus, the price of the state is
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: nothing else but its revenue multiplied a certain number of
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: times twenty times. If the price is one hundred and
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: twenty sheep, thirty times of one hundred and eighty sheep.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: And so the current price of land is reckoned by
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: the proportion of the value of the revenue, and the
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: number of times that the price of the sale contains
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: that of the revenue is called so many years purchase
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: of the land. They are sold at the price of
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: twenty thirty or forty years purchase, when on purchasing them
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: we pay twenty thirty or forty times their revenue. It
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: is also not less evident that this price must vary
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: according to the number of purchasers or sellers of land,
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: in the same manner as other goods vary in a
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: ratio to the different proportion between the offer and the demand.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: Fifty eight. All capital in money and all value whatever
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: is equivalent to land producing a revenue equal to a
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: determined sum first employ of capitals purchase of lands. Let
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: us now go back to the time after the introduction
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: of money. The facility of accumulating it has soon rendered
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: it the most desirable part of personal property, and has
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: afforded the means of augmenting by economy the quantity of
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: it without limits. Whoever, either by the revenue of his
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: land or by the salary of his labor or industry
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: receives every year a higher income than he needs to spend,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: may lay up the residue and accumulate it. These accumulated
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: values are what we name a capital. The pusillanimous miser
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: that keeps his money with the mere view of soothing
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: his imagination against apprehension of distress in the uncertainty of futurity,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: keeps his money in a ward. If the dangers he
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: had foreseen should eventually take place, and he, in his poverty,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: be reduced to live every year upon the treasure, or
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: a prodigal's successor lavish it by degrees, this treasure would
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: soon be exhausted and the capital totally lost to the possessor.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: The latter can draw far greater advantage from it. For
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: an estate and land of a certain revenue being but
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: an equivalent of a sum of value equal to the
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: revenue taken a certain number of times, it follows that
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: any somewhatsoever of value is equivalent to an estate in
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: land producing a revenue equal to a fixed proportion of
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: that sum. It is perfectly the same whether the amount
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: of this capital consists in a mass of metal or
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: any other matter. Since money represents all kinds of value,
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: as well as all kinds of value, represent money. By
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: these means, the possessor of a capital may at first
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: employ it in the purchase of lands, but he is
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: not without other resources. Fifty nine Another employment for money
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: and advances for enterprises of manufacture or industry. I have
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: already observed that all kinds of labour, either of cultivation
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: or industry, required advances. And I have shown how the earth,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: by the fruits and herbages it spontaneously produces for the
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: nourishment of men and animals, and by the trees of
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: which man has first formed his utensils, had furnished the
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: first advances for cultivation, and even of the first manual
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: works a man can perform for his own service. For instance,
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: it is the earth that provides the stone, clay, and
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: wood of which the first houses were built. And before
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: the division of professions, when the same man that cultivated
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: the earth provided also for his liad other wants by
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: his own labor, there was no need of other advances.
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: But when a great part of society began to have
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: no resource but in their hands, it was necessary that
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: those who lived thus upon salaries should have somewhat beforehand,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: that they might either procure themselves the materials on which
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: they labored, or subsist during the time they were waiting
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: for their salary. Sixty explanation of the use of the
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: advances of capitals in enterprises of industry on their returns
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: and the profits they ought to produce. In early times,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: he that employed laboring people under him furnished the materials himself,
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: and paid from day to day the salaries of the workmen.
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: It was the cultivator or the owner himself, that gave
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: to the spinner the hemp he had gathered, and he
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: maintained her during the time of her working. Thence he
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: passed the yarn to a weaver, to whom he gave
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: every day the salary agreed upon. But those slight daily
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: advances can only take place in the coarsest works. A
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: vast number of arts, and even of those arts indispensable
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: for the use of the most indigent members of society,
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: require that the same materials should pass through many different
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: hands and undergo during a considerable space of time, difficult
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: in various operations. I have already mentioned the preparation of
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: leather of which shoes are made. Whoever has seen the
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: workhouse of a tanner, cannot help feeling the absolute impossibility
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: of one or even several indigent persons providing themselves with leather, lime, tan, utensils,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: et cetera, and causing the requisite buildings to be erected
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: to put the tan house to work and of their
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: living during a certain space of time till their leather
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: can be sold. In this art and many others, must
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: not those that work on it have learned the craft
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: before they presume to touch the materials, lest they should
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: waste them in their first trials. Here, then, is another
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: absolute necessity of advances. Who shall now collect the materials
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: for the manufactory, the ingredients, the requisite utensils for their preparation.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Who is to construct canals, markets, and buildings of every denomination.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: How shall that multitude of workmen subsist till the time
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: of their leather being sold, and of whom none individually
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: would be able to prepare a single skin, And where
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: the emolument of the sale of a single skin could
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: not afford subsistence to any one of them? Who shall
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: defray the expenses for the instruction of the pupils and apprentices,
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: who shall maintain them until they are sufficiently instructed, guiding
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: them gradually from an easy labor proportionate to their age,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: to works that demand and more vigor and ability. It
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: must then be one of those proprietors of capitals or
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: movable accumulated property that must employ them, supplying them with
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: advances in part for the construction and purchase of materials,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: and partly for the daily salaries of the workmen that
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: are preparing them. It is he that must expect the
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: sale of the leather, which is to return him not
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: only his advances, but also an emolument sufficient to indemnify
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: him for what his money would have procured him had
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: he turned it to the acquisition of lands, and moreover
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: of the salary due to his troubles and care, to
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: his risk, and even to his skill. For surely, upon
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: equal profits, he would have preferred living without solicitude on
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: the revenue of land, which he could have purchased with
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: the same capital. In proportion. As this capital returns to
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: him by the sale of his works, he employs it
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: in new purchases for supporting his family and maintaining his manufactory.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: By this continual circulation, he lives on his profits and
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: lays by in store what he can spare, to increase
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: his stock, and to advance his enterprise by augmenting the
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: mass of his capital in order proportionably to augment his profits.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: End of Passages fifty six through sixty Passages sixty one
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: through sixty five of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgou, translated by Nicholas
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: de Condors. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: Sixty one. Subdivisions of the industrious stipendiary class in undertaking,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: capitalists and simple workmen. Thus, the whole class employed inns
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: of applying the different wants of society with an immense
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: variety of works of industry, is, if I may speak,
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: thus subdivided into two classes. The one of the undertakers
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: manufacturers and masters, all proprietors of large capitals, which they
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: avail themselves of by furnishing work to the other class,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: composed of artificers destitute of any property but their hands,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: who advance only their daily labor and receive no profits
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: but their salaries. Sixty two. Another employment of capitals and
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: advances towards undertakings of agriculture. Observations on the use and
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: indispensable profits of capitals and undertakings of agriculture. In speaking
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: first of the placing of capitals in manufacturing enterprises, I
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: had in view to adduce a more striking example of
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: the necessity and effect of large advances, and of the
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: course of their circulation. But I have reversed the natural order,
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: which seemed to require that I should rather begin to
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: speak of enterprises of agriculture, which also can neither be performed,
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: nor extended, nor afford any profit, but by means of
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: considerable advances. It is the proprietors of great capitals who,
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: in order to make them productive, and undertakings of agriculture,
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: take leases of lands and pay to the owner's large rents,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: taking on themselves the whole burthen of advances. Their case
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: must necessarily be the same as that of the undertakers
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: of manufactures. Like them, they are obliged to make the
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: first advances towards the undertaking, to provide themselves with cattle, horses,
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: utensils of husbandry, to purchase the first seeds. Like them,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: they must maintain and nourish their carters, reapers, threshers, servants
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: and laborers of every denomination, who subsist only by their hands,
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: who advance only their labor and reap only their salaries.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: Like them, they ought to have not only their capital,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, all their prior and annual advances returned, but
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: first a profit equal to the revenue they could have
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: acquired with their capital, exclusive of any fatigue. Secondly, the
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: salary and the price of their own trouble, of their
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: risk and their industry. Thirdly, an amoenument to enable them
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: to replace the effects employed in their enterprise, and the
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: loss by waste cattle, dyeing, and utensils wearing out, et cetera,
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: all which ought to be first charged on the productions
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: of the earth. The overplus will serve the cultivator to
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: pay to the proprietor for the permission he has given
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: him to make use of his field in the accomplishing
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: of his enterprise. That is the price of the leasehold,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: the rent of the proprietor, and the clear product for
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: all that the land produces. Until reimbursement of the advances
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: and profits of every kind to him that has made
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: these advances. Cannot be looked upon as a revenue, but
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: only as a reimbursement of the expenses of the cultivation,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: since if the cultivator could not obtain them, he would
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: be loath to risk his wealth and trouble in cultivating
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: the field of another. Sixty three. The competition between the
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: capitalists undertakers of cultivation fixes the current price of leases
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: of lands. The competition between rich undertakers of cultivation fixes
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: the current price of leases in proportion to the fertility
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: of the soil and of the rate at which its
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: productions are sold. Always according to the calculation which farmers
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: make both of their expenditures and of the profits they
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: ought to draw from their advances. They cannot give to
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: the owners more than the overplus. But when the competition
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: among them happens to be or animated, they sometimes render
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: him the whole overplus, the proprietor leasing his land to
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: him that offers the greatest rent. Sixty four. The default
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: of capitalists undertakers limits the cultivation of lands to a
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: small extent, when, on the contrary, there are no rich
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: men that possess capitals large enough to embark in enterprises
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: of agriculture. When, through the low rate of the productions
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: of the earth or any other cause, the crops are
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: not sufficient to insure to the undertakers, besides the reimbursement
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: of their capital emoluments adequate at least to those they
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: would derive from their money by employing it in some
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: other channel. There are no farmers that offer to lease lands.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: The proprietors are constrained to higher mercenaries or met daya
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: which are equally unable to make any advances or duly
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: to cultivate it. The proprietor himself wealth makes moderate advances
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: which only produce him an indifferent revenue. If the land
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: happens to belong to an owner, poor, negligent, and in
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: debt to a widow or a miner, it remains unmanured.
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: Such is the principle of the difference I have observed
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: between provinces where the lands are cultivated by opulent farmers,
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: as in Normandy and the Isle de France, and those
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: where they are cultivated only by indigent mercenaries, as in
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: n Mooizon, Angunuis, Foubenet and several others. Sixty five subdivisions
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: of the class of cultivators into undertakers or farmers and
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: hired persons, servants and day laborers. Hence, it follows that
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: the class of cultivators may be divided, like that of manufacturers,
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: into two branches. The one of undertakers or capitalists who
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: make the advance is the other of simple stipendiary workmen.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: It results also that capitals alone can form and support
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: great enterprises of agriculture that give to the lands an
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: unvariable value, if I may use the expression, and that
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: secure to the proprietors a revenue always equal and the
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: largest possible. End of Passages sixty one through sixty five.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: Passages sixty six through seventy of Reflections on the Formation
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: and Distribution of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgo, translated
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: by Nicholas de Condorse. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: public domain. Sixty six. Fourth employment of capitals in advances
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: for enterprises of commerce necessity of the interposition of merchants,
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: properly so called between the producers of the commodities and
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: the consumers. The undertakers, either in cultivation or manufacture, draw
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: their advances and profits only from the sale of the
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: fruits of the earth or the commodities fabricated. It is
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: always the once and the ability of the consumer that
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: sets the price on the sale. But The consumer does
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: not want the produce prepared or fitted up at the
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: moment of the crop or the perfection of the work. However,
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: the undertakers want their stocks immediately and regularly reimbursed to
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: embark in fresh enterprises. The maneuring and the seed ought
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: to succeed the crops without interruption. The workmen of a
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: manufacture are unceasingly to be employed in beginning other works
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: in proportion as the first are distributed, and to replace
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: the materials in proportion as they are consumed. It would
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: not be advisable to stop short in an enterprise once
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: put in execution, nor is it to be presumed that
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: it can be begun again at any time. It is
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: then the strictest interest of the undertaker to have his
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: capital quickly reimbursed by the sale of his crop or commodities.
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, it is the consumer's interest to find, when,
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: in where he wishes it, the things he stands in
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: need of. It would be extremely inconvenient for him to
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: be necessitated to make at the time of the crop
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: his provision for the whole course of a year. Among
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: the objects of usual consumption, there are many that require
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: long and expensive labors, labours that cannot be undertaken with
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: profit except on a large quantity of materials, and on
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: such as the consumption of a small number of inhabitants
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: of a limited district may not be sufficient for even
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: the sale of the work of a single manufactory. Undertakings
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: of this kind must then necessarily be in a reduced number,
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: at a considerable distance from each other, and consequently very
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: distant from the habitations of the greater number of consumers.
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: There is no man not so oppressed under the extremest misery,
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: that is not in a situation to consume several things
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: which are neither gathered nor fabricated, except in places considerably
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: distant from him, and not less distant from each other.
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: A person that could not procure himself the objects of
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: his consumption, but in buying it directly from the hand
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: of him that gathers or works it, would be either
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: unprovided with many commodities, or pass his life in wandering
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: after them. This double interest which the person producing and
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: the consumer have, the former to find a purchaser, the
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: other to find where to purchase, and yet not to
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: waste useful time in expecting a purchaser, or in finding
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: a seller has given the idea to a third person
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: to stand between the one and the other. And it
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: is the object of the mercantile profession who purchases goods
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: from the hands of the person who produces them, to
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: store them in warehouses. Whither the consumer comes to make
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: his purchase. By these means, the undertaker, assured of the
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: sale and the re acquisition of his funds, looks undisturbed
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: and indefatigably out for new productions, and the consumer finds
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: within his reach and at once the objects of which
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: he is in want. Sixty seven different orders of merchants.
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: They all are alike employed in purchasing to sell again,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: and their traffic is supported by advances which are to
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: revert with a profit to be engaged in new enterprises.
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: From the green woman who exposes her wear in a
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: market to the merchants of nant or Kadis, who traffic
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: even to India and America. The profession of a trader,
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: or what is properly called arms, divides into an infinity
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: of branches, and it may be said of degrees. One
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: trader confines himself to provide one or several species of
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: commodities which he sells in his shop to those who choose.
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: Another goes with certain commodities to a place where they
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: are in demand, to bring from thence in exchange such
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: things as are produced there and are wanted in the
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: place from whence he departed. One makes his exchanges in
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: his own neighborhood, and by himself. Another, by means of correspondence,
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: and by the interposition of carriers whom he pays, employes,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: and sends from one province to another, from one kingdom
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: to another, from Europe to Asia, and from Asia back
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: to Europe. One sells his merchandized by retail to those
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: who use them. Another only sells in large parcels at
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: a time to other traders, who retail them out to
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: the consumers. But all have this in common, that they
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: buy to sell again, and that their first purchases are advances,
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: which are returned to them only in course of time
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: they ought to be returned to them, like those of
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: the cultivators and manufacturers, not only within a certain time,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: to be employed again in new purchases, but also one
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: with an equal revenue to what they could acquire with
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: their capital without any labor, two with the value of
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: their labor, of their risk, and of their industry. Without
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: being assured of this return and of these indispensable profits,
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: no trader would enter into business, nor could any one
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: possibly continue therein tis. In this view, he governs himself
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: in his purchases on a calculation he makes of the
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: quantity and the price of the things which he can
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: hope to dispose of in a certain time. The retailer
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: learns from experience, by the success of limited trials made
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: with precaution, what is nearly the wants of those consumers
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: who deal with him. The merchant learns from his correspondence
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: of the plenty or scarcity, and of the price of
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: merchandise in those different countries to which his commerce extends.
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: He directs his speculations accordingly. He sends his goods from
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: the country where they bear a low price to those
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: where they are sold dearer, including the expense of transportation
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: in the calculation of the advances he ought to be reimbursed.
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: Since trade is necessary, and it is impossible to undertake
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: any commerce without advances proportionable to its extent, we here
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: see another method of employing personal property, a new use
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: that the possessor of a parcel of commodities reserved and
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: accumulated of a sum of money, in a word, of
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: a capital may make of it to procure himself subsistence
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: and to augment his riches. Sixty eight. The true idea
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: of the circulation of money we see by what has
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: been just now said, how the cultivation of lands, manufactures
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: of all kinds, and all the branches of trade depend
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: on a mass of capital, or the accumulation of personal property, which,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: having been at first advanced by the undertakers in each
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: of these different branches, ought to return to them again
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: every year with a regular profit. That is, the capital
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: to be again invested and advanced in the continuation of
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: the same enterprises, and the profits employed for the greater
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: or less subsistence of the undertakers. It is this continued
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: advance and return which constitutes what ought to be called
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: the circulation of money, this useful and fruitful circulation, which
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: animates all the labour of society, which supports all the motion,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: and is the life of the body politic, and which
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: is with great reason compared to the circulation of the
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: blood in the human body. For if by any disorder
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: in the course of the expenses of the different orders
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: of society. The undertakers cease to draw back their advances
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: with such profit as they have a right to expect,
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: it is evident they will be obliged to reduce their undertakings,
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: that the total of the labour, of the consumption, of
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: the fruits of the earth, of the productions, and of
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: the revenue would be equally diminished. That poverty will succeed
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: to riches, and that the common workmen, ceasing to find employee,
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: will fall into the deepest misery. Sixty nine. All extensive undertakings,
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: particularly those of manufactures and of commerce, must indispensably have
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: been very confined before the introduction of gold and silver
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: in trade. It is almost unnecessary to remark that undertakings
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: of all kinds, but especially those of manufactures, and above
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: all those of commerce, must unavoidably be very confined before
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: the introduction of gold and silver in trade, since it
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: was almost impossible to accumulate considerable capitals, and yet more
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: difficult to multiply and divide payments so much as is
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: necessary to facilitate and increase the exchanges to that extent
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: which a spirited commerce and circulation require. The cultivation of
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: the land only may support itself to a certain degree,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: because the cattle are the principal cause of the advances
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: required therein, and it is very probable there is then
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: no other adventurer in cultivation but the proprietor. As to
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: arts of all kinds, they must necessarily have been in
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: the greatest languor before the introduction of money. They were
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: confined to the coarsest works, for which the proprietors supported
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: the advances by nourishing the workmen and furnishing them with materials,
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: or they coused them to be made in their own
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: head houses by their servants. Seventy capitals being as necessary
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: to all undertakings as labor and industry. The industrious man
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: shares voluntarily the profits of his enterprise with the owner
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: of the capital, who furnishes him the funds he is
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: in need of, since capitals are the indispensable foundation of
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: all lucrative enterprises. Since with money we can furnish means
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: for culture, establish manufactures, and raise a commerce, the profits
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: of which, being accumulated and frugally laid up, will become
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: a new capital. Since in a word, money is the
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: principal means to beget money. Those who with industry and
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: the love of labor, are destitute of capital, and have
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: not sufficient for the undertaking they wish to embark in.
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: Have no difficulty in resolving to give up to the
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: proprietors of such capital or money who are willing to
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: talk trust them a portion of the profits which they
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: are in expectation of gaining over and above their advances.
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: End of Passages sixty six through seventy Passages seventy one
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: through seventy five of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: of Wealth by n. Robert JACQ Durgo, translated by Nicholas
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: de Condorse. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: Seventy one fifth Employment of capitals, Lending on interest nature
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: of a loan. The possessors of money balance the risk
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: their capital may run if the enterprise does not succeed
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: with the advantage of enjoying a constant profit without toil
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: and regulate themselves thereby to require more or less profit
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: or interest for their money, or to consent to lend
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: it for such an interest as the borrower offers. Here,
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: another opportunity opens to the possessor of money viz. Lending
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: on interest or the commerce of money. Let no one
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: mistake me here. Lending on interest is only a trade
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: in which the lender is a man who sells the
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: use of his money, and the borrower one who buys,
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: precisely the same as the proprietor of an estate or
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: the person who farms it, buys and sells, respectively, the
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: use of the hired land. The Latin term for a
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: loan of money or interest expresses it exactly. Usura pecunia,
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: a word which adopted into the French language. Is become
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: odious by a consequence of false ideas being adopted on
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: the interest of money seventy two false ideas on lending
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: a upon interest. The rate of interest is by no
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: means founded, as may be imagined, on the profit the
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: borrower hopes to make with the capital of which he
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: purchases the use. This rate, like the price of all
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: other merchandise, is fixed by the circumstances of buyer and seller,
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: by the proportion of the sum offered with the demand.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: People borrow with every kind of view and with every
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: sort of motive. One borrows to undertake an enterprise, that is,
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: to make his fortune, another to buy an estate, another
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: to pay his losses at play, another to supply the
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: loss of his revenue of which some accident has deprived him.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: Another to exist on in expectation of what he is
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: able to gain by his labor. But all these motives
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: which determine the borrower are very indifferent to the lender.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: He attends to two things, tause only the interest he
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: is to receive and the safety of his capital. He
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: never attends to the use the borrower puts it to,
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: as a merchant does not care to what use the
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: buyer applies the commodities he sells him. Seventy three errors
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: of the schoolmen refuted. It is for want of having
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: examined the lending of money on interest in its true
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: point of view, that moralists more rigid than enlightened would
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: endeavor to make us look on it as a crime.
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: Scholastic theologists have concluded that, as money itself was not prolific,
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: it was unjust to require a premium for the loan
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: of it. Full of these prejudices, they have fancied their
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: doctrine was sanctioned by this passage in the Gospel. Multum
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: Datuni indesperentes those theologians who have adopted more reasonable principles
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: on the subject of interest of money have been branded
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: with the harshest reproaches from those who adopt the other
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: side of the question. Nevertheless, there are but few reflections
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: necessary to expose the trifling reasons that are adduced to
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: condemn the taking of interest. A loan of money is
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: a reciprocal contract, free between both parties, and entered into
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: only by reason of its being mutually advantageous. It is
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: evident if the lender finds an advantage in receiving an
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: interest for his money, the borrower is not less interested
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: in finding that money he stands in need of, since
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: otherwise he would not borrow and submit himself to the
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: payment of interest. Now, on this principle, can any one
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: look on such an advantageous contract as a crime in
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: which both parties are content, and which certainly does no
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: injury to any other person. Let them say the lender
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: takes advantage of the war wants of the borrower to
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: force the payment of interest. This is talking as absurd
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: as if we were to say that a baker who
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: demands money for the bread he sells takes advantage of
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: his customers wants. If in this lighter case, the money
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: is an equivalent for the bread the buyer receives. The
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: money which the borrower receives today is equally an equivalent
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: for the capital and interest he agrees to pay at
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: the expiration of a certain time. For in fact, it
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: is an advantage to the borrower to have during that
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: interval the use of the money he stands in need of,
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: and it is a disadvantage to the lender to be
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: deprived of it. This disadvantage may be estimated, and it
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: is estimated the interest is the rate. This rate ought
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: to be larger if the lender runs a risk of
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: losing his capital by the borrower becoming insolvent. The bargain
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: therefore is perfectly equal on both sides, and consequently fair
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: and honest. Money considered as a physical substance, as a
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: mass of metal, does not produce anything but money made
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: use of and advances in cultivation. In manufacture, in commerce
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: produces a certain profit. With money, we can acquire land
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: and thereby procure a revenue. The person, therefore, who lends
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: his money does not only give up the unfruitful possession
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: of such money, but deprives himself of the profit which
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: it was in his power to procure by it, and
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: the interest which indemnifies him from this loss cannot be
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: looked upon as unjust. The schoolmen, compelled to acknowledge the
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: justice of these considerations, have allowed that interest for money
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: may be taken provided the capital is alienated. That is,
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: provided the lender gave up his right to be reimbursed
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: his money in a certain time, and to permit the
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: borrower to retain it as long as he was inclined
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: to pay the interest thereof. Only the reason of this
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: toleration was that then it is no longer a loan
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: of money for which an interest is paid, but a
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: purchase which is bought with a sum of money, as
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: we purchase lands. This was a mode to which they
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: had recourse to comply with the absolute necessity which exists
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: of borrowing money in the course of the transactions of society,
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: without fairly avowing the fallacy of those principles upon which
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: they had condemned the practice. But this cause for the
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: alienation of the capital is not an advantage to the borrower,
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: who remains equally indebted to the lender until he shall
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: have repaid the capital, and whose property always remains as
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: a security for the safety of such capital. It is
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: even a disadvantage, as he finds it more difficult to
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: borrow money when he is in want of it. For
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: persons who would willingly consent to lend for a year
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: or two a sum of money which they had destined
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: for the purchase of an estate, would not lend it
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: for an uncertain time. Besides, if they are permitted to
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: sell their money for a perpetual rent, why may they
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: not lend it for a certain number of years for
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: a rent which is only to continue for that term.
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: If an interest of one thousand divivre per annum is
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: equivalent to the sum of twenty thousand vivra from him
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: to keep such a sum in perpetuity, one thousand vivre
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: will be an equivalent for the possession of that sum
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: for one year seventy four true foundation of interest of money.
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: A man then may lend his money as lawfully as
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: he may sell it, and the possessor of money may
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: either do one or the other. Not only because money
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: is a equivalent to a revenue and a means to
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: procure a revenue, not only because the lender loses during
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: the continuance of the loan. The revenue he might have
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: procured by it, not only because he risks his capital,
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: not only because the borrower can employ it in advantageous
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: acquisitions or in undertakings, from whence he will draw a
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: large profit. The proprietor of money may lawfully receive the
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: interest of it. By a more general and decisive principle,
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: Even if none of these circumstances should take place, he
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: will not have the less right to require an interest
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: for his loan, for this reason only that his money
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: is his own. Since it is his own, he has
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: a right to keep it. Nothing can imply a duty
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: in him to lend it. If then he does lend,
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: he may annect such a condition to the loan as
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: he chooses. In this he does no injury to the borrow,
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: since the latter agrees to the conditions and has no
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: sort of right over the sum lent. The profit which
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: the money can procure the borrower is doubtless one of
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: the most prevailing motives to determine him to borrow on interest.
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: It is one of the means which facilitates his payment
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: of the interest. But this is by no means that
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: which gives a right to the lender to require it.
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: It is sufficient for him that the money is his own,
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: and this is a right inseparable from property. He who
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: buys bread does it for his support. But the right
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: the baker has to exact a price is totally independent
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: of the use of bread. The same right he would
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: possess in the sale of a parcel of stones, a
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: right founded on this principle only that the bread is
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: his own, and no one has any right to oblige
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: him to give it up for nothing seventy five answer
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: to an objection. This reflection brings us to the consideration
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: of the application made by an author of the text
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: gutum datum nihiu inde sperintis, and shows how false that
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: application is and how distant from the meaning of the Gospel.
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: The passage is clear, as interpreted by modern and reasonable divines,
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: as a precept of charity. All mankind are bound to
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: assist each other. A rich man who should see his
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: fellow creature in distress, and who, instead of gratuitously assisting,
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: should sell him what he needed, would be equally deficient
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: in the duties of Christianity and of humanity. In such circumstances.
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: Charity does not only require us to lend without interest.
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: She orders us to lend and even to give if necessary.
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: To convert the precept of charity into a precept of
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: strict justice is equally repugnant to reason and the sense
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: of the text. Those whom I here attack do not
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: pretend that it is a duty of justice to lend
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: their money. They must be obliged, then, to confess that
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: the first words of the passage mutun datum contain only
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: a precept of charity. Now I demand why they extend
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: the latter part of this passage to a principle of justice.
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: What is the duty of lending not a strict precept?
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: And shall its accessory only the condition of the loan
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: be made one it would have been said to man.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: It is free for you to lend or not to lend.
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: But if you do lend, take care you do not
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: require any interest for your money. And even when a
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: merchant shall require a loan of you for an undertaking
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: in which he helps to make a large profit, it
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: will be a crime in you to accept the interest
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: he offers you. You must absolutely either lend to him
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: gratuitously or not lend to him. All you have. Indeed,
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: one method to make the receipt of interest lawful. It
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: is to lend your capital for an indefinite term, and
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: to give up all right to be repaidd which is
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: to be optional to your debtor when he pleases, or
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: when he can, if you find any inconvenience on the
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: score of security, or if you foresee you shall want
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: your money in a certain number of years. You have
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: no other course to take, but not to lend. It
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: is better for you to deprive this merchant of this
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: most fortunate opportunity than to commit a sin by assisting him.
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: This is what they must have seen in these five
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: words mutum datum nihidsperentes, when they have read them under
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: these false prejudices. Every man who shall read this text
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: unprejudiced will soon find its real meaning. That is, as men,
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: as Christians, you are all brothers, all friends. Act towards
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: each other as brethren and friends. Help each other in
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: your necessities. Let your purses be reciprocally open to each other.
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: And do not sell that assistance which you are mutually
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: indebted to each other. In requiring an interest for a
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: loan which charity requires of you as a duty. This
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: is the true sense of the passage in question. The
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: obligation to lend without interest and to lend have evident
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: relation to each other. They are of the same order,
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: and both inculcate a duty of charity and not a
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: precept of rigorous justice, applicable to all cases of lending.
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: End of Passages seventy one through seventy five. Passage is
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: seventy six through eighty of Reflections on the Formation and
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: Distribution of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgou, translated by
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: Nicholas de Condorsi. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: Seventy six The rate of interest ought to be fixed
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: as the price of every other merchandise by the course
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: of trade alone. I have already said that the price
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: of money borrowed is regulated, like the price of all
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: other merchandise, by the proportion of the money at market
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: with the demand for it. Thus, when there are many
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: borrowers who are in want of money, the interest of
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: money rises. When there are many possessors who are ready
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: to lend, it falls. It is therefore an error to
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: believe that the interest of money in trade ought to
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: be fixed by the laws of princes. It has a
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: current price fixed like that of all other merchandise. The
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: price varies a little according to the greater or less
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: security which the lender has, But on equal security he
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: ought to raise and fall his price in proportion to
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: the abundance of the demand. And the law no more
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: ought to fix the interest of money than it ought
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: to regulate the price of any other merchandises which have
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: a currency in trade. Seventy seven. Money has in commerce
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: two different valuations. One expresses the quantity of money or
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: silver we give to procure different sorts of commodities. The
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: other expresses the relation a sum of money has to
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: the interest it will procure in the course of trade.
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: It seems, by this explanation of the manner in which
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: money is either sold or lend for an annual interest,
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: that there are two ways of valuing money in commerce.
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: In buying and selling, a certain weight of silver represents
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: a certain quantity of labor or of merchandise of every species.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: For example, one ounce of silver is equal to a
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: certain quantity of corn, or to the labor of a
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: man for a certain number of days. In lending and
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: in the commerce of money, a capital is the equivalent
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: of an equal rent to a determinant portion of that capital,
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: and reciprocally, an annual rent represents a capital equal to
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: the amount of that rent, repeated a certain number of times,
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: according as interest is at a higher or lower rate
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: Seventy eight. These two valuations are independent of each other
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: and are governed by quite different principles. These two different
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: methods of fis mixing of value have much less connection
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: and depend much less on each other than we should
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: be tempted to believe at first sight. Money may be
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: very common in ordinary commerce, may hold a very low
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: value answer to a very small quantity of commodities, and
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: the interest of money may at the same time be
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: very high. I will suppose there are one million ounces
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: of silver and actual circulation in commerce, and that an
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: ounce of silver is given in the market for a
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: bushel of corn. I will suppose that there is brought
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: into the country, in some manner or other another million
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: of ounces of silver, and this augmentation is distributed to
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: every one in the same proportion as the first million,
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: so that he who had before two ounces now has four.
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: The silver considered as a quantity of metal will certainly
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: diminish in price, or which is the same thing commodities
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: will be purchased dearer, and it becomes necessary in order
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: to procure the same measure of corn which he had
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: before with one ounce of silver, to give more silver,
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: perhaps two ounces instead of one. But it does not
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: by any means follow from thence that the interest of
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: money falls if all this money is carried to market
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: and employed in the current expenses of those who possess it,
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: as it is supposed the first million of ounces of
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: silver was for the interest of money falls only when
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: there is a greater quantity of money to be lent
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: in proportion to the wants of the borrowers than there
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: was before. Now, the silver which is carried to market
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: is not to be lent. It is money which is
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: hoarded up which forms the accumulated capital for lending. And
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: the augmentation of the money in the market, or the
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: diminution of its price in comparison with commodities in the
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: ordinary course of trade, are very far from cause, infallibly
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: or by unnecessary consequence, a decrease in the interest of money.
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, it may happen that the cause which
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: augments the quantity of money in the market, and which
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: consequently increases the price of other commodities. By lowering the
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: value of silver is precisely the same cause which augments
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: the hire of money or the rate of interest. In effect,
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: I will suppose for a moment that all the rich
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: people in a country, instead of saving from the revenue
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: or from their annual profits, shall expend the whole that
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: not satisfied with expending their whole revenue, they dissipate a
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: part of their capital. That a man who has a
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand livres in money, instead of employing them in
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: a profitable manner, are lending them, consumes them by degrees
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: and foolish expenses. It is apparent that on one side
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: there will be more silver employed in common circulation to
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: satisfy the wants in humors of each individual, and that
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: consequently its value will be lowered. On the other hand,
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: there will certainly be less money to be lent, and
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: as many people will, in this situation of things ruin themselves,
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: there will clearly be more borrowers. The interest of money
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: will consequently augment, while the money itself will become more
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: plenty in circulation, and the value of it will fall.
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: Precisely by the same cause, we shall no longer be
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: surprised at this apparent inconsistency if we consider that the
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: money brought into the market for the purchase of corn
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: is that which is daily circulated to procure the necessaries
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: of life, but that which is offered to be lent
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: on interest is what is actually drawn out of that
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: circulation to be laid by and accumulated into a capital.
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: Seventy nine. In comparing the value of money with that
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: of commodities, we consider silver as a metal, which is
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: an object of commerce. In estimating the interest of money,
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: we attend to the use of it during a determinate
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: time in the market. A measure of corn is purchased
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: with a certain weight of silver, or a quantity of
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: silver is bought with a certain commodity. It is this
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: quantity which is valued and compared with the value of
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: other commodities and alone upon interest. The object of the
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: valuation is the use of a certain quantity of property
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: during a certain time. It is in this case no
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: longer a mass of silver compared with a quantity of corn,
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: but it is a portion of effects compared with a
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: certain portion of the same, which has become the customary
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: price of that mass. For a certain time. Let twenty
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: thousand ounces of silver be an equivalent in the market
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: for twenty thousand measures of corn, or only for ten thousand.
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: The use of those twenty thousand ounces of silver for
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: a year is not worth less on a loan than
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: the twentieth part of the principal sum, or one thousand
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: ounces of silver. If interest is at five percent eighty.
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: The price of interest depends immediately on the proportion of
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: the demand of the borrowers with the offer of the lenders,
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: And this proportion depends principally on the quantity of personal
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: property accumulated by an excess of revenue and of the
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: annual produce to form capitals, whether these capitals exist in
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: money or in any other kind of effects having a
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: value in commerce. The price of silver in sca circulation
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: has no influence but with respect to the quantity of
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: this metal employed in common circulation. But the rate of
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: interest is governed by the quantity of property accumulated and
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: laid by to form a capital. It is indifferent whether
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: this property is in metal or other effects, provided these
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: effects are easily convertible into money. It is far from
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: being the case that the massive metal existing in a
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: state is as large as the amount of the property
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: lent on interest in the course of a year. But
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: all the capitals in furniture, merchandised tools, and cattle supply
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: the place of silver and represented. A paper signed by
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: a man who is known to be worth one hundred
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: thousand livres, and who promises to pay one hundred marks
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: in a certain time, is worth that sum. The whole
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: property of the man who has signed this note is
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: answerable for the payment of it in whatever the nature
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: of these effects consists, provided they are in value one
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand rivas. It is not, therefore, the quantity of
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: silver existing as merchandise, which causes the rate of interest
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: to rise or fall, or which brings more money in
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: the market to be lent. It is only the capitals
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: existing in commerce, that is to say, the actual value
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: of personal property of every kind, accumulated successively saved out
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: of the revenues and profits to be employed by the
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: possessors to procure them new revenues and new profits. It
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: is these accumulated savings which are offered to the borrowers,
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: and the more there are of them, the lower the
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: interest of money will be at least if the number
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: of borrowers is not augmented in proportion. End of Passages
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: seventy six through eighty Passages eighty one through eighty five
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth by
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: n Robert Jacques Durgou, translated by Nicholas de Condorse. This
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Eighty one. The
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: spirit of economy continually augments the amount of capitals. Luxury
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: continually tends to destroy them. The spirit of economy in
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: any nation tends incessantly to augment the amount of the capitals,
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: to increase the number of lenders, and to diminish that
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: of the borrowers. The habit of luxury has precisely a
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: contrary effect. And by what has been already remarked on
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: the use of capitals in all undertakings, whether of cultivation, manufacture,
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: or commerce, we may judge if luxury enriches a nation
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: or impoverishes it. Eighty two. The lowering of interest proves
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: that in Europe economy has in general prevailed over luxury.
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: Since the interest of money has been constantly diminishing in
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: Europe for several centuries, we must conclude that the spirit
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: of economy has been more general than the spirit of luxury.
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: It is only people of fortune who run into luxury,
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: and among the rich, the sensible part of them confine
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: their expenses within their incomes, and pay great attention not
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: to touch their capital. Those who wish to become rich
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: are far more numerous in a nation than those which
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: are already so. Now in the present state of things,
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: as all the land is occupied, there is but one
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: way to become rich. It is either to possess or
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: to procure, in some way or other a revenue or
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: an annual profit above what is absolutely necessary for subsistence,
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: and to lay up every year in reserve to form
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: a capital, by means of which they may obtain an
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: increase of revenue or annual profit, which will again produce
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: another saving and become capital. There are consequently a great
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: number of men interested and employed in amassing capitals. Eighty
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: three recapitulation of the five different methods of employing capitals.
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: I have reckoned five different methods of employing capitals, or
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: of placing them, so as to procure a profit. First,
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: to buy an estate which brings in a certain revenue.
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: Second to employ money in undertakings of cultivation, in leasing
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: lands whose produce should render back besides the expenses of farming,
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: the interest on the advances, and a recompense for the
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: labor of him who employs his property and attention of
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: the cultivation. Third, to place a capital in some undertaking
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: of industry or manufactures, Fourth to employ it in commerce.
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: Fifth to lend it to those who want it for
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: an annual interest. Eighty four the influence which the different
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: methods of employing money have on each other. It is
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: evident that the annual returns which capitals placed in different
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: employees will produce are proportionate to each other, and all
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: have relation to the actual rate of the interest of money.
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: Eighty five. Money invested in land necessarily produces less. The
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: person who invests his money in land let to a
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: solvent tenant procures himself a revenue which gives him very
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: little trouble in receiving, at which he may dispose of
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: in the most agreeable manner by indulging all his inclinations.
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: There is a greater advantage in the purchase of this
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: species of property than of any other, since the possession
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: of it is more guarded against accidents. We must therefore
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: purchase a revenue in land at a higher price, and
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: must content ourselves with a less revenue for an equal capital.
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: End of Passages eighty one through eighty five. Passages eighty
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: six through ninety of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: of Wealth by m. Robert Jacques Durgou, translated by Nicholas
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: de Condresse. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: Eighty six Money on interest ought to bring a little
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: more income than land purchased with an equal capital. He
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: who lends his money on interest enjoys it still more
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: peaceably and freely than the possessor of land. But the
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: insolvency of his debtor may endanger the loss of his capital.
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: He will not therefore content himself with an interest equal
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: to the revenue of the land, which he could buy
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: with an equal capital. The interest of money lent must
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: consequently be larger than the revenue of an estate purchased
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: with the same capital. For if the proprietor could find
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: an estate to purchase of an equal income, he would
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: prefer that eighty seven. Money employed in cultivation, manufactures, or
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: commerce ought to produce more than the interest of money
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: on loan. By a like reason, money employed in agriculture,
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: in manufactures, or in commerce ought to produce a more
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: considerable profit than the revenue of the same capital employed
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: in the purchase of lands, or the interest of money
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: on loan. For these undertakings, besides the capital advanced, requiring
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: much care and labor, and if they were not more lucrative,
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: it would be much better to secure an equal revenue,
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: which might be enjoyed without labor. It is necessary, then,
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: that besides the interest of the capital, the undertaker should
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 1: draw every year a profit to recompense him for his care,
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: his labor, his talents, the risk he runs, and to
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: replace the wear and tear of that portion of his
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: capital which he is obliged to invest in effects capable
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: of receiving injury and exposed to all kinds of accidents
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 1: eighty eight. Meantime, the freedom of these various employments are
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: limited by each other, and maintain, notwithstanding their inequality, a
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: species of equilibrium. The different uses of the capitals produce
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: very unequal profits, but this inequality does not prevent them
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 1: from having a reciprocal influence on each other, nor from
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: establishing a species of equilibrium among themselves, like that between
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: two liquors of unequal gravity, and which communicate with each
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: other by means of a reversed siphon the two branches
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 1: of which they feel, there can be no height to
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: which the one can rise or fall, But the liquor
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: in the other branch will be affected in the same manner.
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: I will suppose that on a sudden a great number
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: of proprietors of lands, or desirous of selling them. It
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: is evident that the price of lands will fall, and
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: that with a less sum we may acquire a larger revenue.
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: This cannot come to pass without the interest of money rising,
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: For the possessors of money would choose rather to buy
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: lands than to lend at a lower interest than the
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 1: revenue of the lands they could purchase. The the borrowers
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: want to have money, they will be constrained to pay
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: a greater rate. If the interest of the money increases,
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: they will prefer lending it to setting out in a
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: hazardous manner on enterprises of agriculture, industry, and commerce. And
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: they will be aware of any enterprises but those that
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: produce besides the retribution for their trouble and emolument. By
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: far greater than the rate of the lender's produce. In
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: a word, if the profits springing from any use of
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: money augment or diminish, the capitals are converted by withdrawing
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: them from other employees, or are withdrawn by converting them
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: to other ends, which necessarily alters in each of those
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: employments the proportion of profits on the capital to the
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: annual product. Generally, money converted into property in land does
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: not bring in so much as money on interest, and
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: money on interest brings less less than money used in
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: laborious enterprises. But the produce of money laid out in
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: any way whatever cannot augment or decrease without implying a
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: proportionate augmentation or decrease in other employments of money. Sec.
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: Eighty nine. The current interest of money is the standard
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: by which the abundance or scarcity of capitals may be judged.
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: It is the scale on which the extent of a
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: nation's capacity for enterprises in agriculture, manufactures, and commerce may
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: be reckoned. Thus, the current interest of money may be
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 1: considered as a standard of the abundance or scarcity of
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: capitals in a nation, and of the extent of enterprises
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: of every denomination in which she may embark. It is
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 1: manifest that the lower the interest of money is, the
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: more valuable is the land. A man that has an
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: income of fifty thousand livres, if the land is sold
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: but at the rate of twenty years purchase, is an
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: owner of only one million. He has two millions if
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: the land is sold at the rate of forty If
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 1: the interest is at five percent, any land to be
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 1: brought into cultivation would continue fallow if, besides the recovery
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: of the advances and the retribution due to the care
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: of the cultivator, its produce would not afford five percent.
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 1: No manufactory, no commerce can exist that does not bring
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: in five percent exclusively of the salary and equivalents for
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: the risk and trouble of the undertaker. If there is
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: a neighboring nation in which the interest stands only at
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: two percent, not only it will engross all the branches
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: of commerce from which the nation where an interest at
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: five percent is established is excluded, but its manufacturers and merchants,
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: enabled to satisfy themselves with a lower interest, will also
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: sell their goods at a more moderate price, and will
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: attract the almost exclusive commerce of all articles which they
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: are not prevented to sell by particular circumstances of excessive
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: dearth and expenses of carriages from the nation in which
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 1: the interest bears five percent ninety influence of the rate
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: of interest of money on all lucrative enterprises. The price
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 1: of the interest may be looked upon as a kind
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: of level under which all labor, culture, industry, or commerce acts.
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: It is like a sea expanded over a vast country.
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 1: The tops of the mountains rise above the surface of
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: the water and form fertile and cultivated islands. If this
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: sea happens to give way in proportion as it descends
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: sloping ground, then plains and valleys appear, which cover themselves
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: with productions of every kind. It wants no more than
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: a foot elevation or falling to inundate or to restore
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: culture to unmeasurable tracts of land. It is the abundance
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 1: of capitals that animates enterprise, and a low interest of
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 1: money is, at the same time the effect and a
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 1: proof of the abundance of capitals. In Passages eighty six
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 1: through ninety Passages ninety one through ninety five of Reflections
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth by annroal Beerjachtirgo
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 1: translated by Nicholas de Condorce. This LibriVox recording is in
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Ninety one. The total riches of a
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: nation consists one in the clear revenue of all the
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: real estates, multiplied by the rate of the price of land.
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: Two in the sum of all the movable riches existing
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: in a nation. States are equivalent to any capital equal
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: to their annual revenue, multiplied by the current rate at
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 1: which lands are sold. Thus, if we add the revenue
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: of all lands vis the clear revenue they render to
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: the proprietor, and to all those that share in the property,
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: as the lord that levies a rent, the curate that
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 1: levies the tithe, the sovereign that levies the tax. If
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: I say we should add all these sums and multiply
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: them by the rate at which lands are sold, we
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: would have the sum of all the wealth of a
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: nation and real estates. To have the whole of a
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: nation's wealth, the movable riches ought to be joined, which
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 1: consist in the sum of capitals converted into enterprises of culture, industry,
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: and commerce, which is never lost. As all advances in
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: any kind of undertaking must unceasingly return to the undertaker,
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: to be unceasingly converted into enterprises, which, without them that
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: could not be continued. It would be a gross mistake
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: to confound the immense mass of movable riches with the
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: mass of money that exists in a state. The latter
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: is a small object in comparison with the other. To
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: convince one's self of this, we need only remember the
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: immense quantity of beasts, utensils, and seed which constitute the
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: advances of agriculture, the materials, tools, movables, and merchandises of
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: every kind that fill up the workhouses, shops and warehouses
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: of all manufacturers, of all merchants, and of all traders.
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: And it will be plain that in the totality of riches,
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: either real or movable, of a nation, the specie makes
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 1: but an inconsiderable part. But all riches and money, being
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: continually exchangeable, they all represent money, and money represents them all.
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: Ninety two. The sum of lent capitals cannot be understood
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: without a twofold reckoning. We must not include in the
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 1: calculation of the riches of a nation the sum of
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 1: lent capitals, for the capitals could only be lent either
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: to proprietors of lands or to undertakers to enhance their
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: value in their enterprises. Since there are but these two
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: kinds of people that can answer for a capital and
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: discharge the interest, a sum of money lent to people
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 1: that have neither a state nor industry would be a
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 1: dead capital and not an active one. If the owner
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: of land of four hundred thousand livres borrows one hundred thousand,
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 1: his land is charged with the rent that diminishes his
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 1: revenue by that sum. If he should sell it out
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 1: of the four hundred thousand livres, he would receive one
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand or the property of the creditor. By these means,
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: the capital of the lender would always form in the
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 1: calculation of existing riches a double estimate. The land is
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: always worth four hundred thousand when the proprietor borrows one
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand, that does not make five hundred thousand. It
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: only follows that in the four hundred thousand, one hundred
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 1: thousand belongs to the lender, and that there remains no
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: more than three hundred thousand to the borrower. The same
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: double estimate would have a place in the calculation if
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 1: we should comprehend in the total calculation of capitals the
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: money lent to an undertaker to be employed in advance
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 1: for his undertaking. It only results that that sum and
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 1: the part of the profits which represents the interests, belongs
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 1: to the lender. Let a merchant employ ten thousand livres
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: of his property in his trade and engross the whole profit.
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: Or let him have those ten thousand livres borrowed of another,
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: to whom he pays the interest, and is satisfied with
• 2:29:05
  Speaker 1: the overplus of profit and the salary of his industry.
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: It still makes only ten thousand de livres. But if
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 1: we cannot include, without making a double estiment, in the
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: calculation of national riches, the capital of the money lent
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: on interest, we ought to call in the other kinds
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: of movables, which, though originally forming an object of expense
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: and not carrying any profit, become, however, by their durability,
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: a true capital that constantly increases, and which, as it
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: may occasionally be exchanged for money, is as if it
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: were a stock in store, which may enter into commerce
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 1: and make good when necessary. The loss of other capitals.
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 1: Such are the movables of every kind, Jewels, plates, paintings, statues,
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: ready money shut up in chess by misers. All those
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: matters have a value, and the sum of all those
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: values may make a considerable object among wealthy nations. Yet,
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 1: be it considerable or not, it must always be added
• 2:30:14
  Speaker 1: to the price of real estates and to that of
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: circulating advances in enterprises of every denomination, in order to
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 1: form the total sum of the riches of a nation.
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 1: As for the rest, it is superfluous to say. Though
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: it is easy to be defined, as we have just done,
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 1: in what consists the totality of the riches of a nation,
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: it is probably impossible to discover to how much they amount,
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: unless some rule be found out to fix the proportion
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: of the total commerce of a nation with the revenue
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: of its land, a feasible thing, but which has not
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: been executed as yet in such a manner as to
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 1: dispel all doubts ninety three in which of the three
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: classes of society the lenders of money are to be ranked.
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: Let us see now how what we have just discussed
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 1: about the different ways of employing capitals agrees with what
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 1: we have before established about the division of all the
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 1: members of society into three classes. The one the productive
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: class of husbandmen, the industrious or trading class, and the
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 1: disposing class or the class of proprietors ninety four. The
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: lender of money belongs, as to his persons, to the
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: disposing class. We have seen that every rich man is
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 1: necessarily possessor either of a capital and movable riches or
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 1: funds equivalent to a capital. Any a state and land
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: is of equal value with a capital. Consequently, every proprietor
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 1: is a capitalist, but not every capitalist. A proprietor of
• 2:32:07
  Speaker 1: a real estate and the possessor of a movable capital
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 1: may choose to confer it on acquiring funds or to
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 1: improve it in enterprises of the cultivating class or of
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: the industrious class. The capitalist turned an undertaker in culture
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: or industry is no more of the disposing class than
• 2:32:27
  Speaker 1: the simple workmen. In these two lines, they are both
• 2:32:30
  Speaker 1: taken up in the continuation of their enterprises. The capitalist
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 1: who keeps to the lending money lends it either to
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 1: a proprietor or to an undertaker. If he lends it
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 1: to a proprietor, he seems to belong to the class
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 1: of proprietors, and he becomes co partitioner in the property.
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: The income of the land is destined to the payment
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: of the interest of his trust. The value of the
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 1: funds is equal to the security of his capital. If
• 2:33:02
  Speaker 1: the money lender has lent to an undertaker, it is
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 1: certain that his person belongs to the disposing class, but
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: his capital continues destined to the advances of the enterpriser,
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 1: and cannot be withdrawn without hurting the enterprise, or without
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: being replaced by a capital of equal value ninety five.
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 1: The use which the money lender makes of his interest, indeed,
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 1: the interest he draws from that capital, seems to make
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: him of the disposing class, since the undertaker and the
• 2:33:38
  Speaker 1: enterprise may shift without it. It seems also we may
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: form an inference that in the profits of the two
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 1: laborious classes, either in the culture of the earth or industry,
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: there is a disposable portion, namely that which answers to
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 1: the interest of the advances calculated on the current rate
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: of interest of money lent. It appears also that this
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 1: conclusion seems to agree with what we have said, that
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: the mere class of proprietors had a revenue properly so
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: called a disposing revenue, and that all the members of
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 1: the other classes had only salaries or profits. This merits
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: some future inquiry. If we consider the thousand crowns that
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: a man receives annually, who has lent sixty thousand divras
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: to a merchant in respect to the use he may
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: make of it, there is no doubt of this being
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 1: perfectly disposable, since the enterprise may subsist without it. End
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: of Passages ninety one through ninety five. Passage is ninety
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: six through one hundred and one of Reflections on the
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: Formation and Distribution of Wealth by Annual beerschach Urgaux, translated
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: by Nicholas de Condorsay. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 1: public domain. Ninety six. The interest of the money is
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: not disposable in one sense, viz. So as the state
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: may be authorized to appropriate, without any inconvenience a part
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 1: to supply its wants. But it does not ensue that
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: they are of the disposing class in such a sense
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 1: that the state can appropriate to itself with propriety a
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 1: portion for the public wants. Those one thousand crowns are
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: not a retribution which culture or commerce bestows gratuitously on
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 1: him that makes the advance. It is the price and
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 1: the condition of this advance, independently of which the enterprise
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: could not subsist. If this retribution is diminished, the capitalist
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 1: will withdraw his money, and the undertaking will cease. This
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: retribution ought then to be inviolable and enjoy an entire immunity,
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 1: because it is the price of an advance made for
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 1: the enterprise, without which the enterprise could not exist. To
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 1: encroach upon it would cause an augmentation in the price
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: of advances in all enterprises, and consequently diminish the enterprises themselves,
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 1: that is to say, cultivation, industry, and commerce. This answer
• 2:36:24
  Speaker 1: should lead us to infer that if we have said
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: that the capitalist who had lent money to a proprietor
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 1: seemed to belong to the class of proprietors, this appearance
• 2:36:35
  Speaker 1: had somewhat equivocal in it, which wanted to be elucidated.
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: In fact, it is strictly true that the interest of
• 2:36:44
  Speaker 1: his money is not more disposable, that is, it is
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 1: not more susceptible of retrenchment than that of money lent
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 1: to the undertakers in agriculture and commerce. But the interest
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 1: is equally the price of the free agreement, and they
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 1: cannot retrench any part of it without altering or changing
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 1: the price of the loan, for it imports little to
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 1: whom the loan has been made. If the price decreases
• 2:37:11
  Speaker 1: or augments for the proprietor of lands, it will also
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: decrease and augment for the cultivator, the manufacturer, and the merchant.
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: In a word, the proprietor who lends money ought to
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: be considered as a dealer in a commodity absolutely necessary
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: for the production of riches, and which cannot be at
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 1: too low a price. It is also as unreasonable to
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 1: charge this commerce with duties as it would be to
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 1: lay a duty on a dunghill which serves to manure
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 1: the land. Let us conclude from hints that the person
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: who lends money belongs properly to the disposable class as
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 1: to his person, because he has nothing to do, but
• 2:37:57
  Speaker 1: not as to the nature of his property. Whether the
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: interest of his money is paid by the proprietor of
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 1: land out of a portion of his income, or whether
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: it is paid by an undertaker out of a part
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: of his profits designed to pay the interest of his advances.
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 1: Ninety seven objection. It may doubtless be objected that the
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 1: capitalist may indifferently either lend his money or employ it
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 1: in the purchase of land, that in either case he
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: only receives an equivalent for his money, and whichever way
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: he has employed it, he ought not the less to
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 1: contribute to the public charges. Ninety eight. Answer to this objection,
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: I answer first that, in fact, when the capitalist has
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 1: purchased an estate, the revenue will be equal as to
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: him to what he would have received for his money
• 2:39:02
  Speaker 1: by lending it. But there is this essential difference with
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 1: respect to the state, that the price which he gives
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: for his land does not contribute in any respect to
• 2:39:13
  Speaker 1: the income it produces. It would not have produced a
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 1: less income if he had not purchased it. This income,
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 1: as we have already explained, consists in what the land
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 1: produces beyond the salary of the cultivators of their profits
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 1: and the interest of their advances. It is not the
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: same with the interest of money. It is the express
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 1: condition of the loan, the price of the advance, without
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 1: which the revenue or profits which serve to pay it
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: could never exist. I answer in the second place, that
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: if the lands were charged separately with the contribution to
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 1: the public expenses, as soon as that contribution shall be
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 1: once regulated. The capitalists who shall purchase these lands will
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 1: not reckon as interest for his money that part of
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: the revel which is affected by this contribution. The same
• 2:40:03
  Speaker 1: as a man who now buys an estate does not
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 1: buy the tithe which the curate or clergy receives, but
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 1: the revenue which remains after that tithe is deducted. Ninety nine.
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 1: There exists no revenue strictly disposable in a state, but
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 1: the clear produce of lands. It is manifest by what
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: I have said, that the interest of money lent is
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: taken on the revenue of lands, or on the profits
• 2:40:34
  Speaker 1: of enterprises of culture, industry and commerce. But we have
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 1: already shown that these profits themselves were only a part
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: of the production of lands. That the produce of land
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 1: is divided in two portions, that the one was designed
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: for the salary of the cultivator, for his profits, for
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 1: the recovery and interest of his advances, and that the
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 1: other was the part of the proprietor or the revenue
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 1: which the proprietor expended at his option, and from whence
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: he contributes to the general expenses of the state. We
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 1: have demonstrated that what the other classes of society received
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: was merely the salaries and profits paid either by the
• 2:41:14
  Speaker 1: proprietor upon his revenue or by the agents of the
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: productive class on the part destined to their wants and
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: which they are obliged to purchase of the industrious class.
• 2:41:26
  Speaker 1: Whether these profits be now distributed in wages to the workmen,
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: in profits to undertakers, or in interests of advances, they
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 1: do not change the nature or augment the sum of
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 1: the revenue produced by the productive class over and above
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 1: the price of their labor, in which the industrious class
• 2:41:44
  Speaker 1: does not participate, but as far as the price of
• 2:41:47
  Speaker 1: their labor extends. Hence, it follows that there is no
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 1: revenue but the clear produce of land. That all other
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: profit is paid either by that revenue or makes part
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 1: of the expenditure that serves to be produce the revenue.
• 2:42:04
  Speaker 1: One hundred. The land has also furnished the total of
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: movable riches or existing capitals, and which are formed only
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: by a portion of its production preserved every year. Not
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: only there does not exist, nor can exist, any other
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 1: revenue than the clear produce of land, but it is
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: the earth also that has furnished all capitals that form
• 2:42:30
  Speaker 1: the mass of all the advances of culture and commerce.
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: It has produced, without culture, the first gross and indispensable
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: advances of the first laborers. All the rest are the
• 2:42:42
  Speaker 1: accumulated fruits of the economy of successive ages, since they
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 1: have begun to cultivate the earth. This economy has effect
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 1: not only on the revenues of proprietors, but also on
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 1: the profits of all the members of laborious classes. It
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 1: is even generally true that though the proprietors have more
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 1: overpluss they spare less for having more treasure. They have
• 2:43:05
  Speaker 1: more desires and more passions. They think themselves better insured
• 2:43:09
  Speaker 1: of their fortune, and are more desirous of enjoying it
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 1: contentedly than to augment it. Luxury is their pursuit. The
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 1: stipendiary class, and chiefly the undertakers of the other classes,
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 1: receiving profits proportionate to their advances, talents, and activity, have
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: though they are not possessed of a revenue properly so
• 2:43:30
  Speaker 1: called a superfluity beyond their subsistence, but absorbed, as they
• 2:43:36
  Speaker 1: generally are, only in their enterprises, and anxious to increase
• 2:43:40
  Speaker 1: their fortune, restrained by their labor from amusements and expensive passions,
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 1: they save their whole superfluity to reconvert it in other
• 2:43:49
  Speaker 1: enterprises and augment it. The greater part of the undertakers
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 1: in agriculture borrow but little, and they almost all rest
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: on the capital of their own funds. The undertakers of
• 2:44:01
  Speaker 1: other businesses, who wish to render their fortune stable, strive
• 2:44:05
  Speaker 1: likewise to attain to the same state. Those that make
• 2:44:08
  Speaker 1: their enterprises on borrowed funds are greatly in danger of failing. However,
• 2:44:14
  Speaker 1: although capitals are formed in part by the saving of
• 2:44:17
  Speaker 1: profits in the laborious classes, yet as those profits spring
• 2:44:21
  Speaker 1: always from the earth, they are almost all repaid either
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 1: by the revenue or in the expenses that serve to
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 1: produce the revenue. It is evident that the capitals are
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 1: derived from the earth as well as the revenue, or
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 1: rather that they are but an accumulation of a part
• 2:44:37
  Speaker 1: of the riches produced by the earth, which the proprietors
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: of the revenue or those that share it, are able
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: to lay by every year in store, without consuming it
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 1: on their wants. One hundred and one. Although money is
• 2:44:51
  Speaker 1: the direct object in saving, and it is, if we
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 1: may call it so, the first foundation of capitals, yet
• 2:44:58
  Speaker 1: money and specie form but an insensible part in the
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 1: total sum of capitals. We have seen what an inconsiderable
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 1: part money forms in the total sum of existing capitals,
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: but it makes a very large one in the formation
• 2:45:14
  Speaker 1: of them. In fact, almost all savings are only in money.
• 2:45:18
  Speaker 1: It is in money that the revenue is paid to
• 2:45:21
  Speaker 1: the proprietors, that the advances and profits are received by
• 2:45:24
  Speaker 1: the undertakers of every kind. It is their money which
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 1: they save, and the annual increase of capitals happens in money.
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: But all the undertakers make no other use of it
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: than immediately to convert it into the different kinds of
• 2:45:38
  Speaker 1: effects on which their enterprise is turned. Thus money returns
• 2:45:42
  Speaker 1: into circulation, and the greater part of capitals exists only
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 1: as we have already explained it. In Effects of different natures.
• 2:45:50
  Speaker 1: End of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth
• 2:45:54
  Speaker 1: by Ann Robertshachtgo, translated by Nicholas de Condorcey. Recording by
• 2:46:00
  Speaker 1: Jeff Edward Dumas.