MRS. B

I HAVE some further remarks to make to you on the nature of capital.

A land owner, when he increases his capital by savings from his income, may probably, instead of employing the whole of his additional capital on husbandmen, find it more advantageous to lay out some part of it on workmen to build barns and outhouses, to store his crops and shelter his cattle; he may plant trees to produce timber, build cottages, and bring into cultivation some of the waste land on his farm.

A manufacturer also, in proportion as he increases the number of his workmen, must enlarge his machinery or implements of industry.

CAROLINE

But the capital laid out in buildings, tools, and machinery will not yield a profit, like that which is employed in the payment of workmen, the produce of whose labour is brought to market?

MRS. B

The farmer and manufacturer would not lay out their capital in this way, did they not expect to reap a profit from it. If a farmer has no barn or granary for his corn, he will be compelled to sell his crops immediately after the harvest, although he might probably dispose of them to greater advantage by keeping them some time longer. So a manufacturer, by improving or enlarging his machinery, can, with less labour, perform a greater quantity of work, and his profits will be proportionate.

Thus, for instance, when a manufacturer can afford to establish a steam-engine, and employ a stream of vapour as a substitute for the labour of men and horses, he saves the expense of more than half the number of hands he before employed.