ABSTRACT
The 19th-century economists gradually came round to seeing human capital as a social process that determines accumulation. However, their view remained incomplete, for it contrasted with the assumption that workers' consumption could not grow significantly. Smith also examined the different wage levels, where higher wages are repayment for the labour employed in acquiring a skill. While the former passage has attracted little attention, the latter raised a great deal of comment, leading many historians to believe that Smith was only interested in human capital as individual investment. At the turn of the century, Jovellanos clearly pointed out the connection between education and labour productiveness. J. S. Mill acknowledged that skill, teaching and research increase social wealth, but he stuck to Smith's idea that accumulation can only consist of material goods. Some neoclassical economists had the great merit of overcoming the classical standstill on human capital due to the assumption of wages at low levels.
