Of the Effect of Productive Consumption.

This chapter explains the nature of productive consumption. The trader, manufacturer, and cultivator, purchase the raw material and productive agency, which they consume in the preparation of new products. The first, the productive agency of the labourer, is the effect of his muscular power and skill, which is itself a positive product, bearing value like any other. The second is a portion of capital, given by the adventurer in exchange for that productive agency. In China, they make a great saving, in the consumption of seed-corn, by following the drilling, in lieu of the broad-cast, method. The effect of this saving is precisely the same, as if the land were, in China, proportionately more productive than in Europe. A saving of productive agency, whether of industry, of land, or of capital, is equally real and effectual, as a saving of raw material. Such savings generally operate in a very short time to the benefit of the community at large.