Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/487

Rh W E A W E A 461 brown plumage passing in parts into grey or chestnut, and relieved by black, white, and yellow all of the purest tint the external feature which has invited most attention is the &quot;sealing-wax&quot; (already mentioned) which tips some of the secondary or radial quills, and occasionally those of the tail. 1 This is nearly as much exhibited by the kindred species, A. ccdrorum the well-known Cedar-bird of the English in North America which is easily dis tinguished by its smaller size, less black chin-spot, the yellower tinge of the lower parts, and the want of white on the wings. In the A. phcenicopterus of south-eastern Siberia and Japan, the remiges and rectrices are tipped with red in the ordinary way without dilatation of the shaft of the feathers. Both the Waxwing and Cedar-bird seem to live chiefly on insects in summer, but are marvellously addicted to berries during the rest of the year, and will gorge themselves if opportunity allow. Hence they are not pleasant cage-birds, though quickly becoming tame. The erratic habits of the &quot;Waxwing are probably due chiefly to the supplies of food it may require, prompted also by the number of mouths to be fed, for there is some reason to think that this varies greatly from one year to another, according to season. The flocks which visit Britain and other countries outside the breeding range of the species naturally contain a very large proportion of young birds. The systematic position of the genus Ampdis is very doubt ful. It can hardly be said to have any near ally, for neither of the Neotropical and Antillean genera, Ptilogonys and Myiodectes (often erroneously spelt Jfyiadestes), can as yet be safely declared of kin to it, as has been alleged. (A. x) WEALTH. The mast commonly accepted definition of wealth is that it consists of all useful and agreeable things which possess exchange value, and this again is generally regarded as coextensive with all desirable things except those which do not involve labour or sacrifice for their acquisition in the quantity desired. On analysis it will be evident that this definition implies, directly, preliminary conceptions of utility and value, and, indirectly, of sacrifice and labour, and these terms, familiar though they may appear, are by no means simple and obvious in their meaning. Utility, for the purposes of economic reasoning, is usually held to mean the capacity to satisfy a desire or serve a purpose (J. S. Mill), and in this sense is clearly a much wider term than wealth. Sunshine and fresh air, good temper and pleasant manners, and all the infinite variety of means of gratification, material and immaterial, are covered by utility as thus defined. Wealth is thus a species of utility, and in order to separate it from other species some differentia must be found. This, according to the general definition, is exchange value, but a little reflexion will show that in some cases it is necessary rather to contrast value with wealth. &quot; Value,&quot; says Ricardo, expanding a thought of Adam Smith, &quot; essentially differs from riches, for value depends not on abundance but on the difficulty or facility of production.&quot; According to the well-known tables ascribed to Gregory King, a deficiency of a small amount in the annual supply of corn will raise its value far more than in proportion, but it would be paradoxical to argue that this rise in value indicated an increase in an important item of national wealth. Again, as the mines of a country are exhausted and its natural resources otherwise impaired, a rise in the value of the remainder may take place, and as the free gifts of nature are appropriated they become valuable for exchange, but the country can hardly be said to be so much the wealthier in consequence. And these difficulties are rather increased then diminished if we substitute for value the more familiar concrete term &quot; money-price,&quot; for the contrast between the quantity of wealth and its nominal value becomes more sharply marked. Suppose, for example, that in the total money value of the national inventory a 1 The structure of these appendages has been carefully described by Herr Andersen ((Efvers, K. Vct.-Ak. Fiirhandlingar, 1859, pp. 219- 231, pi. ii.). Their development seems chiefly due to age, though, as Wolley shewed, they are perceptible in the nestling plumage. Mi- Turner states (Contr. Nat. Hist. Alaska, p. 177) that the Eskimo name of the Waxwing means a &quot;killer of small birds,&quot; these append ages being held to be &quot; the clotted blood of its victims&quot; ! decline were observed to be in progress, whilst at the same time, as is quite possible, an increase was noticed in the quantity of all the important items and an improvement in their quality, it would be in accordance with common- sense to say that the wealth of the country was increasing and not decreasing. So great are these difficulties that some economists (e.g., Ricardo) have proposed to take utility as the direct measure of wealth, and, as Mr Sidgwick has pointed out, if double the quantity meant double the utility this would be an easy and natural procedure. But even to the same individual the increase in utility is by no means simply proportioned to the increase in quantity, and the utility of different commodities to different individuals, and a fortiori of different amounts, is proverbial. The very same things may to the same individual be productive of more utility simply owing to a change in his tastes or habits, and a different distribution of the very same things, which make up the wealth of a nation, might indefinitely change the quantity of utility, but it would be paradoxical to say that the wealth had increased because it was put to better uses. We thus seem thrown back on value as the essential characteristic, allowance being made for any change in the standard of value ; but there are still difficulties to be overcome. Some things that undoubtedly possess value or that can command a price are immaterial, e.g., the advice of a lawyer or physician or the song of a prima donna, and, although perhaps the skill of a workman (in any grade of the social scale) might be considered as at tached to the man, as a coal mine is attached to a place, it is more in accordance with popular usage to consider skill as immaterial, whilst at the same time it seems equally natural prima facie to confine the term wealth to material things in the common sense. Again, the credit system of a country is a product of great labour and sacrifice, it is most closely connected with the production of its material wealth in the narrowest sense, and it certainly commands a pecuniary value, and yet credit is more generally held to be a representative rather than a part of wealth, owing apparently to its insubstantial character. Apart from the question of materiality some writers have insisted on relative permanence and possibility of accumulation as essential attributes of wealth, and have thus still further narrowed the scope of the definition. There can be no doubt that it is on many grounds desirable in economics to use terms as far as possible in their popular acceptations ; but this rule must always be subordinate to the primary object in view. In nearly every department of knowledge in which popular terms have been retained it has been found necessary either con stantly to use qualifying adjectives where the context is not a sufficient guide, and in some cases, when analysis discloses very different elements, to make a selection. Sometimes it has been found convenient to use a term with some variation in the definition according to the branch of the subject in hand. 2 Applying these rules to the definition of wealth, perhaps the best solution is that which is generally connected with German economists (e.g., Held). Wealth consists of utilities, and in the first great department of economics the consumption of wealth it is utility with which we are principally concerned, the idea of value, for example, being overshadowed. The most general law of the consumption of wealth is that successive portions of any stock give a diminishing amount of utility when consumed. Then in the department of the production of wealth the most important characteristics are the labour and sacrifice necessary to put the utilities 2 On the uses and difficulties of definitions in political economy compare Mr Sidgwick s Principles, bk. i. ch. ii,, and Cairues s Logical Method of Political Economy.