Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/117

90 up in the chests of misers: all these things have a value, and the sum of all these values may reach a considerable amount in rich nations; but, considerable or no, it is still true that it ought to be added to the sum of the price of landed estates, and to that of the advances circulating in enterprise of every kind, in order to make up the sum total of the riches of a nation. However, it is not necessary to say that, although we may very well define, as we have just done, wherein the sum of the riches of a nation consists, it is probably impossible to discover how much they amount to; at least so long as one does not find some rule whereby to determine the relation between the total commerce of a nation and the revenue of its lands: a thing perhaps feasible, but which has not yet been executed in such a way as to dispel all doubts.

S93
In which of the three classes of the Society the capitalist lenders of money are to be placed.

Let us see now how this exposition of the different ways of employing capitals agrees with what we have before established as to the division of all the members of the Society into three classes, the productive class or that of the husbandmen, the industrial or commercial class and the disposable class or that of the proprietors.

S94
The capitalist lender of money belongs to the disposable class so far as his person is concerned.