2. The second important thing to remember about Capital is that, being Wealth, _it is at last consumed, as all other Wealth is_. Capital is consumed in the process of using it to make more Wealth, and as it is consumed it has to be replaced, or the process of production will break down. Take the case of the farmer we gave just now. He had to start, as we saw, with so much Capital--horses and a plough and a stock of wheat and a stock of oats, etc.; and only by the use of this capital could he procure his harvest of 100 sacks of wheat at the end of the year; but if he is going on producing wheat year after year he must replace the wastage in his capital year after year. His stock of wheat for food and for seed will have disappeared in the year; so will his stock of hay and oats for keeping his horses. His plough will be somewhat worn and will need mending; and his horses, after a certain time, will grow old and will have to be replaced. Therefore, if production is to be continuous, that is, if there are to be harvests year after year, each harvest must be at least enough to replace all the wastage of capital which goes on during the process of production. 3. The third thing to remember about Capital is that Capital is _always the result of saving_: That is, the only way in which people can get Capital is by doing without some immediate enjoyment of goods, and putting them by to use them up in creating wealth for the future. This ought to be self-evident; but people often forget it, because the person who _controls_ the capital is very often quite a different person from the person who _really accumulated_ it. The owner of the capital is very often a person who never thinks of saving. Nevertheless, the saving has been done by _someone_ in the past, and saving must go on the whole time, for if it did not the Capital could not come into existence, and could not be maintained once it was in existence. Suppose, for instance, a man inherits £10,000 worth of Capital invested in a Steamship Company. This means that he has a share in a number of hulls, engines, stocks of coal and food, and clothing for the crews, and other things which have to be provided before the steamships can go to sea and create wealth by so doing. All this capital has been saved by someone. Not by the man himself; he has merely inherited the wealth--but by someone. Someone at some time, his father or whoever first got the capital together, must have forgone immediate enjoyment and put by wealth for future production, or the capital could not have come into existence. Thus, if the first accumulator of the capital had used his wealth for the purchase of a yacht in which to travel for his amusement, the labour and natural forces used in the production of that yacht would have made wealth consumed in immediate enjoyment, and it would not have been used for future production as is a cargo ship.