Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/77

50 as the price of all other articles of commerce varies in accordance with the varying proportion between supply and demand.

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''Every capital in money, or every sum of value whatever it may be, is the equivalent of a piece of land producing a revenue equal to a definite fraction of that sum. First employment of capitals. Purchase of an estate of land.''

Let us now go back to the time just after the introduction of money: the ease with which it can be accumulated has soon made it the most sought after of moveable riches, and has furnished the means to augment its quantity unceasingly simply by means of economy. Whoever, either from the revenue of his land, or from the wages of his labour or of his industry, receives each year more values than he needs to spend, may place this superfluity in reserve and accumulate it: these accumulated values are what is called a capital. The timid Miser, who amasses money only to quiet his imagination against the apprehension of needing the necessaries of life in an uncertain future, keeps his money in a hoard. If the dangers he foresaw should be realised and if he should be reduced by poverty to live each year upon his treasure, or if it should happen that a prodigal Heir should spend it by degrees, this treasure would soon be exhausted and the capital entirely lost to the Possessor: the latter can do much better with it. Since an estate of land of a certain revenue is but the