Henry George

“ For if wages are drawn, not from capital, but from the produce of labour, all remedies, whether proposed by professors of Political Economy or working men, that look to the alleviation of poverty either by the increase of capital or the restriction of the number of labourers or the efficiency of their work, must be condemned.
If each labourer in performing the labour really creates the fund from which his wages are drawn, then wages cannot be diminished by the increase of labourers. ”

“ By permitting the division of labour and thus, on the one hand, increasing the efficiency of the human factor by the utilization of special capabilities, the acquisition of skill and the reduction of waste; and on the other hand, calling in the powers of the natural factor at their highest, by taking advantage of the diversities of soil, climate and situation, so as to obtain each particular species of wealth where nature is most favourable to its production. ”

“ A community in which capital has been swept away by war, conflagration, or convulsion of nature, and, possibly, a community composed of civilized people just settled in a new land, seem to furnish the only examples. Yet how quickly the capital it habitually uses is reproduced in a community that has been swept by war has long been noticed, while the rapid production of the capital it can use, or is disposed to use:, is equally noticeable in the case of a new community. ”

“ That capital may limit the form of industry is clear. Without the factory, there could be no factory operatives; without the sewing machine, no machine sewing; without the plough, no ploughman; and without a great capital engaged in exchange, industry could not take the many special forms that are concerned with exchanges. ”

“ We have seen that capital does not advance wages or subsist labourers, but that its functions are to assist labour in production with tools, seed, etc., and with the wealth required to carry on exchanges. ”

“ On the contrary, as the efficiency of labour manifestly increases with the number of labourers, the more labourers, other things being equal, the higher should wages be. But this necessary proviso, other things being equal, brings us to a question which must be considered and disposed of before we can proceed further. That question is: Do the productive powers of nature tend to diminish with the increasing drafts made upon them by increasing population? ”

“ These modes, which require little capital, are in themselves rude and inefficient, but when the conditions of such communities are considered, they will be found in reality the most effective. A great factory with all the latest improvements is the most efficient instrument that has yet been devised for turning wool or cotton into cloth, but only so where large quantities are to be made. The cloth required only for a little village could be made with far less labour by the spinning wheel and handloom. ”