A publication of

sion; upon the confounding together of two things, which

are remarkably different, by failing to distinguish the

double meaning of an ambiguous term. The two senses of

the word consumption are not a little remarkable. We say,

that a manufacturer consumes the wine which is laid up

in his cellar, when he drinks it; we say too, that he has

consumed the cotton, or the wool in his warehouse, when

his workmen have wrought it up: he consumes part of his

money in paying the wages of his footmen; he consumes

another part of it in paying the wages of the workmen in

his manufactory. It is very evident, however, that con-

sumption, in the case of the wine and the livery servants,

means something very different from what it means in the

case of the wool or cotton, and the manufacturing ser-

vants. In the first case, it is plain, that consumption means

extinction, actual annihilation of property; in the second

case, it means more properly renovation, and increase of

property. The cotton or wool is consumed only that it may

appear in a more valuable form; the wages of the work-

men only that they may be repaid, with a profit, in the

produce of their labor. In this manner too, a land propri-

etor may consume a thousand quarters of corn a year, in

the maintenance of dogs, of horses for pleasure, and of

livery servants; or he may consume the same quantity of

corn in the maintenance of agricultural horses, and of

agricultural servants. In this instance too, the consump-

tion of the corn, in the first case, is an absolute destruction

of it. In the second case, the consumption is a renovation

and increase. The agricultural horses and servants will

produce double or triple the quantity of corn which they

have consumed. The dogs, the horses of pleasure, and the

livery servants, produce nothing. We perceive, therefore,

that there are two species of consumption; which are so

far from being the same, that the one is more properly the

very reverse of the other. The one is an absolute destruc-

tion of property, and is consumption properly so called;

the other is a consumption for the sake of reproduction,

and might perhaps with more propriety be called employ-

ment than consumption. Thus the land proprietor might

with more propriety be said to employ, than consume the

corn, with which he maintains his agricultural horses and

servants; but to consume the corn which he expends upon

his dogs, livery servants, etc. The manufacturer too, would

most properly be said to employ, not to consume, that part

of his capital, with which he pays the wages of his manu-

facturing servants; but to consume in the strictest sense of

the word what he expends upon wine, or in maintaining

livery servants. Such being the remarkable difference be-

tween the meanings of the word consumption, the man in

whose reasonings and doctrines those meanings are con-

founded, must arrive at woeful conclusions.

It appears from this very explanation of the meanings

of the term, that it is of importance to the interests of the

country, that as much as possible of its annual produce

should be employed, but as little as possible of it con-

sumed. The whole annual produce of every country is

distributed into two great parts; that which is destined to

be employed for the purpose of reproduction, and that

which is destined to be consumed. That part which is

destined to serve for reproduction, naturally appears

again next year, with its profit. This reproduction, with

the profit, is naturally the whole produce of the country

for that year. It is evident, therefore, that the greater the

quantity of the produce of the preceding year, which is

destined to administer to reproduction in the next, the

greater will naturally be the produce of the country for

that year. But as the whole annual produce of the country

is necessarily distributed into two parts, the greater the

quantity which is taken for the one, the smaller is the

quantity which is left for the other. We have seen, that

the greatness of the produce of the country in any year,

is altogether dependent upon the greatness of the quantity

of the produce of the former year which is set apart for

the business of reproduction. The annual produce is

therefore the greater, the less the portion is which is

allotted for consumption. If by consumption therefore

Mr. Spence means, what we have termed consumption

properly so called, or dead unproductive consumption,

and it does appear that this is his meaning, his doctrine

is so far from being true, that it is the very reverse of the

truth. The interests of the country are the most promoted,

not by the greatest, but by the least possible consumption

of this description.

Let not Mr. Spence, however, be alarmed. Let him rest

in perfect assurance, that the whole annual produce of

the country will be always very completely consumed,

whether his landholders choose to spend or to accumu-

late. No portion of it will be left unappropriated to the

one species of consumption, or to the other. No man, if

he can help it, will let any part of his property lie useless

and run to waste. Nothing is more clear, than that the

self-interest of men, ever has impelled and ever will

impel them, with some very trifling exceptions, to use

every particle of property which accrues to them, either

for the purpose of immediate gratification, or of future

profit. That part, however, which is destined for future

profit, is just as completely consumed, as that which is

destined for immediate gratification. A thousand plough-

men consume fully as much corn and cloth in the course

of a year as a regiment of soldiers. But the difference

between the kinds of consumption is immense. The labor

of the ploughman has, during the year, served to call into

existence a quantity of property, which not only repays

the corn and cloth which he has consumed, but repays it

with a profit. The soldier on the other hand produces

nothing. What he has consumed is gone, and its place is

JAMES MILL

5

ON THE OVERPRODUCTION AND UNDERCONSUMPTION FALLACIES

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