Page:Munera pulveris.djvu/63

Rh examination: namely, the powers of selection, direction, and provision.

The power of relates to things of which the supply is limited (as the supply of best things is always). When it becomes matter of question to whom such things are to belong, the richest person has necessarily the first choice, unless some arbitrary mode of distribution be otherwise determined upon. The business of the economist is to show how this choice may be a Wise one. The power of arises out of the necessary relation of rich men to poor, which ultimately, in one way or another, involve the direction of, or authority over, the labour of the poor; and this nearly as much over their mental as their bodily labour. The business of the economist is to show how this direction may be a Just one.

The power of is dependent upon the redundance of wealth, which may of course by active persons be made available in preparation for future work or future profit; in which function riches have generally received the name of capital ; that is to say, of head-, or source-material. The business of the