Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/79

Rh made on them. The tradesman, therefore, shares or takes part of the fruits of the labour of the poor. The justice of this mode of acquiring wealth is by no means so clear as of the latter of the two above mentioned.

The means enabling tradesmen to share a part of the product of the labour of the poor, is their capital, which puts it in their power to furnish materials to the artificers to work on, and to provide them with immediate subsistence; and on that account is supposed to give the tradesmen a just claim to a part of the productions of the workmen's hands. It becomes necessary, therefore, to inquire into the nature of this capital.

The capitals of tradesmen consist of stores of such article as they get up by means of the labour of artificers that work under them. They may have other wealth, but that is not the subject of the present disquisition. From those stores of goods they can supply the people that are in want of them. A very great proportion of such people are the owners of land, and the occupiers of it; those, to wit, that have in their possession the necessaries of life: the tradesmen or manufacturers, therefore, having such things as the possessors of the necessaries of life stand in need of, or have a desire for, and are supplied with, have a claim on these necessaries of life, and may be