◆¹ Here lies the danger of reckless social legislation, and even of the reckless formation of vague public opinion; for public opinion, in a democratic country like ours, is legislation in its nebular stage: and hence the only way to avert this danger is, first to do what we have just now been doing,—to consider the amount and character of the wealth with which we have to deal,—and secondly, to examine the causes to which the production of this wealth has been due, and on which the maintenance of its continued production must depend. [Sidenote ◆1 We will therefore, in the following Book, examine what these causes are.] ◆¹ Let the social reformer lay the following reflections to his heart. Some of the more ardent and hopeful of the leaders of the Labour Party to-day imagine that considerable changes in the distribution of the national income may be brought about by the close of the present century. In other words, they prophesy that the Government will seven years hence do certain things with that year’s national income. But the national income of that year is not yet in existence; and what grounds have those sanguine persons for thinking that when it is produced it will be as large, or even half as large, as the national income is to-day? What grounds have they for believing that, if the working-classes then take everything, they will be as rich as they are now when they take only a part? The only ground on which such a belief can be justified is the implied belief that the same conditions and forces which have swelled the national income to its present vast amount, will still continue in undisturbed operation. We will now proceed to consider what these conditions and forces are. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————— BOOK II THE CHIEF FACTOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE NATIONAL INCOME ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————— CHAPTER I _Of the various Factors in Production, and how to distinguish the Amount produced by each._ The inquiry on which we are entering really comprises two. I will explain how. Although, as we have seen, of the yearly income of the nation a part only consists of material things, yet the remainder depends upon these, and its amount is necessarily in proportion to them. Accordingly, when we are dealing with the question of how the income is produced, we may represent the whole of it as a great heap of commodities, which every year disappears, and is every year replaced by a new one. Here then we have a heap of commodities on one side, and on the other the subjects of our inquiry—namely, the conditions and forces which produce that heap. [Sidenote ◆1 Land, Capital, and Human Exertion are the three factors in production; but at present we may omit Capital.]