“These distinctions seem to rest on no good foundations. Portions of stock employed without any immediate view to production, are often by far the most productive. The stock, for example, that Arkwright and Watt employed in their own consumption, and without which they could not have subsisted, was laid out as _revenue_; and yet it is quite certain that it contributed infinitely more to increase their own wealth, as well as that of the country, than any equal quantity of stock expended on the artisans in their service. It is always extremely difficult to say whether any portion of stock is, or is not, productively employed; and any definition of capital which involves the determination of this point, can only serve to embarrass and obscure a subject that is otherwise abundantly simple. In our view of the matter, it is enough to constitute an article capital, if it can either directly contribute to the support of man, or assist him in appropriating or producing commodities; but the question respecting the mode of employing an article ought certainly to be held to be, what it obviously is, perfectly distinct from the question whether that article is capital. For any thing that we can _à priori_ know to the contrary, a horse yoked to a gentleman’s coach may be just as productively employed as if he were yoked to a brewer’s dray, though it is quite plain, that whatever difference may really obtain in the two cases, the identity of the horse is not affected; he is equally possessed, in the one case as well as the other, of the capacity to assist in production, and so long as he possesses that capacity, he ought to be viewed, independently of all other considerations, as a portion of the capital of the country.”[34] If these doctrines were admitted, there would be an end, at once, of all classifications, and of all those appropriate designations which so essentially assist us, in explaining what is going forward in society. If the distinction between the whole mass of the products of a country, and those parts of it which are applied to perform particular functions, rests on no solid foundation, it may be asked, on what better foundation does the distinction between the mass of the male population of a country, and the classes of lawyers, physicians, manufacturers, and agriculturists rest? They all equally come under the general denomination of men; but particular classes are most usefully distinguished by particular appellations founded on the particular functions which they generally perform.