Front matter
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Book I. Production
CnAPTEE I. — Of the Requisites of Production.
§ 1. Requisites of production, what 63
§ 2. Of labor as an agent of production 55
§ 3. Of capital as a requisite of production 57
Ciiapter II. — Of Unproductive Labor.
§ I. Definition of productive and unproductive labor . . . . .60
§ 2. Productive and Unproductive Consumption 61
§ 3. Distinction between labor for the supply of Productive Consumption
and labor for the supply of Unproductive Consumption . . .62
Ciiaptek 111. — Of Capital.
§ 1. Capital is wealth appropriated to reproductive employment . . .65 § 2. More capital devoted to production than actually employed in it . . 68 § 3. Examination of cases illustrative of the idea of capital . . .70
Chapter IV. — Fundamental Propositions respecting Capital.
§ 1. Industry is limited by capital 74
§ 2. Increase of capital gives increasad employment to labor, without assignable bounds 75 viii CONTENTS.
PAGE
§ 3. Capital is the result of saving, and all Capital is consumed . . 79
§ 4. Capital is kept up by perpetual reproduction, as shown by the recovery
of countries from devastation 81
§ 5. Effects of defraying government expenditure by loans . . .83
§ 6. Demand for commodities is not demand for labor . . . .87
Chapter V. — Of Circulating and Fixed Capital.
§ 1. Fixed and Circulating Capital, what 93
§ 2. Increase of fixed capital, when, at the Expense of Cir culating, might be
detrimental to the laborers . . . . . . . .95
§ 3. — this seldom, if ever, occurs 97
Chapter VI. — Of Causes affecting the Efficiency of Production.
§ 1. General causes of superior productiveness 99
§ 2. Combination and division of labor increase productiveness . . . 101
§ 3. Advantages of division of labor , 104
§ 4. Production on a large and production on a small scale . . . 108
Chapter VII. — Of the Law of the Increase of Labor.
§ 1. The law of the increase of production depends on those of three elements — Labor, Capital, and Land 112
§ 2. The Law of Population 112
§ 3. By what checks the increase of population is practically limited . .115
Chapter VIII. — Of the Law of the Increase of Capital.
§ 1. Means for saving in the surplus above necessaries .... 120 § 2. Motive for saving in the strength of the effective desire of accumulation 122
§ 3. Examples of deficiency in the strength of this desire .... 124 § 4. Examples of excess in this desire 127
Chapter IX. — Of the Law of the Increase of Production from Land.
§ 1. The law of production from the soil, a law of diminishing return in
proportion to the increased application of labor and capital . .130 § 2. Antagonist principle to the law of diminishing return ; the progress of
improvements in production 134
§3. — in railways 136
§ 4. — in manufactures . 138
§ 5. Law holds true of mining 142
CONTEXTS.
IX
Chapter X. — Consequences of the Foregoing Laws.
PAGE
§ 1. Remedies for weakness of the principle of accumulation . . . 144 § 2. Even where the desire to accumulate is strong, population must be
kept within the limits of production from land .... 145 § 3. Necessity of restraining population not superseded by free trade in
food 148
§ 4. — nor by emigration 150
Book II. Distribution
* Ciiapteb I. — Of Property.
§ 1. Individual Property and its opponents 155
§ 2. The case for Communism against private property presented . . 158
§ 3. The Socialists who appeal to state-help 160
§4. Of various minor schemes, Communistic and Socialistic . . .165
§ 5. The Socialist objections to the present order of Society examined . 168
§6. Property in land different from property in movables . . . . 171
Chapter II. — Of Wages
§ 1. Of Competition and Custom . . 175
§ 2. The Wages-fund, and the objections to it considered . . . .177
§ 3. Examination of some popular opinions respecting wages . . . 183 § 4. Certain rare circumstances excepted, high wages imply restraints on
population 188
§ 5. Due restriction of population the only safeguard of a laboring-class . 190 v Chapter III. — Of Remedies for Low Wages.
§ 1. A legal or customary minimum of wages, with a guarantee of employment 193
§ 2. — would require as a condition legal measures for repression of population 196
§ 3. Allowances in aid of wages and the standard of living . . . 198
§ 4. Grounds for expecting improvement in public opinion on the subject
of population 200
§ 5. Twofold means of elevating the habits of the laboring-people ; by education, and by foreign and home colonization 202
CONTENTS.
Chapter IV. — Of the Differences of Wages in Different Employments. PAGE
§ 1. Differences of wages arising from different degrees of attractiveness in
different employments 205
§ 2. Differences arising from natural monopolies 208
§ 3. Effect on Wages of the competition of persons having other means of
support 210
§ 4. Wages of women, why lower than those of men ..... 213
§ 5. Differences of wages arising from laws, combinations, or customs . 214
Chaptek V. — Of Profits.
§ 1. Profits include interest and risk ; but, correctly speaking, does not include wages of superintendence 216
§ 2. The minimum of profits ; what produces variations is the amount of
§ 3. General tendency of profits to an equality 220
§4. The cause of the existence of any profit; the advances of capitalists
consist of wages of labor 224
§ 5. The rate of profit depends on the Cost of Labor 226
Chaptek YI— Of Bent.
§ 1. Rent the effect of a natural monopoly 232
§ 2. No land can pay rent except land of such quality or situation as
exists in less quantity than the demand 233
§ 3. The rent of land is the excess of its return above the return to the
worst land in cultivation 235
§ 4. — or to the capital employed in the least advantageous circumstances. 236
§ 5. Opposing views to the law of rent . 240
§ 6. Rent does not enter into the cost of production of agricultural produce. 244
Chapter I. — Of Value and the Laws of Value
§ 1. Definitions of Value in Use, Exchange Value, and Price . . . 249 § 2. Conditions of Value : Utility, Difficulty of Attainment, and Transfera-
bleness 252
CONTEXTS. x i
PAGE
§ 3. Commodities limited in quantity governed by the law of Demand and
Supply : general working of this law ...... 254
§ 4. Miscellaneous cases falling under this law ...... 257
§ 5. Commodities which are susceptible of indefinite multiplication without
increase of cost. Law of their Value Cost of Production . . 259
§ 6. The Value of these commodities conform, in the long run, to their
Cost of Production through the operation of Demand and Supply . 261
Chapter II. — Ultimate Analysis of Cost of Production
§ 1. Of Labor, the principal element in Cost of Production . . . 264 § 2. Wages affect values, only if different in different employments ; " non-competing groups " 266
§ 3. Profits an element in Cost of Production 267
§ 4. Cost of Production properly represented by sacrifice, or cost, to the laborer as well as to the capitalist ; the relation of this conception to
Cost of Labor 267
§ 5. When profits vary from employment to employment, or are spread
over unequal lengths of time, they affect values accordingly . . 272 § 6. Occasional elements in Cost of Production ; taxes and ground-rent . 275
Chapter III. — Of Rent, in its Relation to Value
§ 1. Commodities which are susceptible of indefinite multiplication, but not without increase of cost. Law of their Value, Cost of Production in the most unfavorable existing circumstances ..... 277
§ 2. Such commodities, when produced in circumstances more favorable,
yield a rent equal to the difference of cost 279
§ 3. Rent of mines and fisheries and ground-rent of buildings, and cases
of gain analogous to rent 282
§ 4. Resume of the laws of value of each cf the three classes of commodities . . .285
Chapter IV. — Of Money
§ 1. The three functions of Money — a Common Denominator cf Value, a
Medium of Exchange, a " Standard of Value " 286
§ 2. Gold and Silver, why fitted for those purposes 290
§ 3. Money a mere contrivance for facilitating exchanges, which docs not
affect the laws of value 292
v Chapter V. — Of the Value of Money, as dependent on Demand and
Supply.
§ 1. Value of Money, an ambiguous expression 2P4
§ 2. The Value of Money depends, ceteris paribus, on its quantity . . 204 xu
CONTENTS.
PAGE
§ 3. — together with the rapidity of circulation 297
§ 4. Explanations and limitations of this principle . . • . . 299
Chaptee VI. — Of the Value of Money, as dependent on Cost of Production.
§ 1. The value of money, in a state of freedom, conforms to the value of
the bullion contained in it 302
g 2. — which is determined by the cost of production .... 303 § 3. This law, how related to the principle laid down in the preceding
chapter 309
Chapter VII. — Of a Double Standard, and Subsidiary Coins.
§ 1. Objections to a double standard 312
§ 2. The use of the two metals as money, and the management of Subsidiary Coins 315
§ 3. The experience of the United States with a double standard from 1*792
Chaptee VIII. — Of Credit, as a Substitute for Money.
§ 1. Credit not a creation but a transfer of the means of production . .325
§ 2. In what manner it assists production . 325
§ 3. Function of credit in economizing the use of money .... 327
§ 4. Bills of Exchange 328
§ 5. Promissory notes 331
§ 6. Deposits and checks 332
Chaptee IX. — Influence of Credit on Prices.
§ 1. What acts on prices is Credit, in whatever shape given . . . 335
§ 2. Credit a purchasing power, similar to money 336
§ 3. Great extensions and contractions of credit. Phenomena of a commercial crisis analyzed 337
§ 4. Influence of the different forms of credit on prices .... 339
§ 5. On what the use of credit depends 341
§ 6. What is essential to the idea of money ? 342
Chaptee X. — Of an Inconvertible Paper Currency.
§ 1. What determines the value of an inconvertible paper money ? . . 344 § 2. If regulated by the price of bullion, an inconvertible currency might
be safe, but not expedient 350
CONTENTS. xiii
PAGE
§ 3. Examination of the doctrine that an inconvertible currency is safe, if
representing aciual property 352
§4. Experiments with paper money in the United States . . . .355
§ 5. Examination of the gain arising from the increase and issue of paper
currency 360
§ 6. Resume of the subject of money 363
Chapter XL — Of Excess of Supply.
§ 1. The theory of a general over-supply of commodities stated . . . 365 § 2. The supply of commodities in general can not exceed the power of
purchase 366
§ 3. There can never be a lack of demand arising from lack of desire to
consume 367
§4. Origin and explanation of the notion of general over-supply . . 369
Chapter XII. — Of some Peculiar Cases of Value.
§ 1. Values of commodities which have a joint cost of production . . 372 § 2. Values of the different kinds of agricultural produce . • . .374
Chapter XIII. — Of International Trade.
§ 1. Cost of Production not a regulator of international values. Extension
of the word " international " 377
§ 2. Interchange of commodities between distant places determined by differences not In their absolute, but in their comparative, costs of production 380
§ 3. The direct benefits of commerce consist in increased efficiency of the
productive powers of the world 384
§ 4. — not in a vent for exports, nor in the gains of merchants . . 386
§ 5. Indirect benefits of commerce, economical and moral ; still greater
than the direct 388
Chapter XIV. — Of International Values.
§ 1. The values of imported commodities depend on the terms of international interchange 391
§ 2. The values of foreign commodities depend, not upon Cost of Production, but upon Reciprocal Demand and Supply .... 392
§ 3. — as illustrated by trade in cloth and linen between England and Germany 396
§ 4. The conclusion stated in the Equation of International Demand . . 398
§ 5. The cost to a country of its imports depends not only on the ratio of
exchange, but on the efficiency of its labor 402
X JV CONTENTS.
Chapter XV. — Of Money considered as an Imported Commodity,
PAGE
1. Money imported in two modes ; as a commodity, and as a medium of
2. As a commodity, it obeys the same laws of value as other imported
commodities 405
Chapter XVI. — Of the Foreign Exchanges.
§ 1. Money passes from country to country as a medium of exchange,
through the exchanges 410
§ 2. Distinction between variations in the exchanges which are self-adjusting and those which can only be rectified through prices . . .415
Chapter XVII. — Of the Distribution of the Precious Metals through the Commercial World.
§ 1. The substitution of money for barter makes no difference in experts
and imports, nor in the law of international values . . . .418
§ 2. The preceding theorem further illustrated 422
§ 3. The precious metals, as money, are of the same value, and distribute themselves according to the same law, with the precious metals as a commodity 426
§ 4. International payments entering into the " financial account " . . 427
Chapter XVIII. — Influence of the Currency on the Exchanges and on Foreign Trade.
§ 1. Variations in the exchange, which originate in the currency . . 430 "\
§ 2. Effect of a sudden increase of a metallic currency, or of the sudden ^
creation of bank-notes or other substitutes for money . . .431 "*■ § 3. Effect of the increase of an inconvertible paper currency. Real and
nominal exchange .......... 436
Chapter XIX. — Of the Rate of Interest.
§ 1. The rate of interest depends on the demand and supply of loans . . 440 § 2. Circumstances which determine the permanent demand and supply of
loans 441
§ 3. Circumstances which determine the fluctuations 444
§ 4. The rate of interest not really connected with the value of money, but
often confounded with it 447
§ 5. The rate of interest determines the price of land and of securities . 448
CONTENTS.
XV
Chaptee XX. — Of the Competition of Different Countries in the same
Market.
PAGE
§ 1. Causes which enable one country to undersell another . . . . 450
§ 2. High wages do not prevent one country from underselling another . 452 § 3. Low wages enable a country to undersell another, when peculiar to
certain branches of industry 457
§ 4. — but not when common to all . . . . . . . . 460
§ 5. Low profits as affecting the carrying trade 463
Chapter XXI. — Of Distribution as affected by Exchange.
§ 1. Exchange and money make no difference in the law of wages . . 465
§ 2. In the law of rent 468
§ 3. — nor in the law of profits 469
Book IV. Influence Of The Progress Of Society On Production And Dis- Tribution
Chapter I. — hifluence of the Progress of Industry and Population on Values and Prices.
§ 1. Tendency of the progress of society toward increased command over the powers of nature ; increased security, and increased capacity of co-operation 475
§ 2. Tendency to a decline of the value and cost of production of all commodities 477
§3. — except the products of agriculture and mining, which have a tendency to rise 479
§ 4. — that tendency from time to time counteracted by improvements in
§ 5. Effect of the progress of society in moderating fluctuations of value . 485
Chapter II. — Influence of the Progress of Industry and Population on Bents, Profits, and Wages.
§ 1. Characteristic features of industrial progress 489
§ 2. First two cases, Population and Capital increasing, the arts of production stationary 488
XVI
CONTENTS.
PAGE
§ 3. The arts of production advancing, capital and population stationary . 491 § 4. Theoretical results, if all three elements progressive .... 492 § 5. Practical results 493
Chapter III. — Of the Tendency of Profits to a Minimum.
§ 1. Different theories as to the fall of profits 497
§ 2. "What determines the minimum rate of profit ? 499
§ 3. In old and opulent countries, profits habitually near to the minimum . 501
g 4, — prevented from reaching it by commercial revulsions . . . 504
g 5. — by improvements in production 506
§ 6. — by the importation of cheap necessaries and implements . . 507
§ 7. — by the emigration of capital 510
Chapter IV. — Consequences of the Tendency of Profits to a Minimum, and the Stationary State.
§ 1. Abstraction of capital not necessarily a national loss . . . .511 § 2. In opulent countries, the extension of machinery not detrimental but
beneficial to laborers 512
§ 3. Stationary state of wealth and population dreaded by some writers,
but not in itself undesirable . , 514
Chapter V. — The Future of the Laboring- Class
§ 1. The possibility of improvement while laborers remain merely receivers
of wages . . . .518
§ 2. — through small holdings, by which the landlord's gain is shared . 522
§ 3. — through co-operation, by which the manager's wages are shared . 523
§ 4. Distributive Co-operation 523
§ 5. Productive Co-operation 526
§ 6. Industrial Partnership 529
§ 7. People's Banks ., . . . 532
Chapter I. — On the General Principles of Taxation
1. Four fundamental rules of taxation 537
2. Grounds of the principle of Equality of Taxation .... 539
CONTENTS.
XV11
PAGE
§ 3. Should the same percentage be levied on all amounts of income ? . 540 § 4. Should the same percentage be levied on perpetual and on termiuable
incomes ? 544
§ 5. The increase of the rent of land from natural causes a fit subject of
peculiar taxation 546
§ 6. Taxes falling on capital not necessarily objectionable .... 548
Chapter II. — Of Direct Taxes
§ 1. Direct taxes either on
§ 2. Taxes on rent
§ 3. — on profits
§ 4. — on wages
§ 5. An Income-Tax
8 6. A House-Tax ncome or expenditure
550 550 551 553 555 557
Chapter III. — Of Taxes on Commodities, or Indirect Taxes
§ 1. A tax on all commodities would fall on profits 562
§ 2. Taxes on particular commodities fall on the consumer . . . 563
§ 3. Peculiar effects of taxes on necessaries 565
§ 4. — how modified by the tendency of profits to a minimum . . . 568
§ 5. Effects of discriminating duties 570
§ 6. Effects produced on international exchange by duties on exports and
on imports 574
Chapter IV. — Comparison between Direct and Indirect Taxation
1. Arguments for and against direct taxation .
2. What forms of indirect taxation are most eligible ? .
3. Practical rules for indirect taxation ....
: 4. Taxation systems of the United States and other countries j 5. A resume of the general principles of taxation .
583 587 588 590 594
Chapter V. — Of a National Debt
§ 1. Is it desirable to defray extraordinary public expenses by loans ? . 596 § 2. Not desirable to redeem a national debt by a general contribution . 599 § 3. In what cases desirable to maintain a surplus revenue for the redemption of debt 601 xviii CONTENTS.
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