ABSTRACT
Wealth may exist not only without any sign of exchange, or without money, but even without any possibility of exchange, or without trade. On the other hand, it cannot exist without labor, any more than without the desires and wants this labor must satisfy. The history of wealth is, in all cases, comprised within the limits now specified—the labour which creates, the economy which accumulates, the consumption which destroys. An article which has not been wrought, or has not mediately or immediately received its value from labour, is not wealth, however useful, however necessary, it may be for life. Labour producing no enjoyment is useless; labour, whose fruits are naturally incapable of being stored up for future consumption, is unproductive; whilst the only productive kinds of labour—the only kinds producing wealth—are such as leave behind them, in the estimation even of our Solitary, a pledge equal in value to the trouble they have cost.
