◆¹ And now as to Capital and Ability, and the _eight hundred millions_ produced by them, what has just been said can be put in a simpler way. Capital is not only the material means through which Ability acts on and assists Labour, but it is a material means which Ability has itself created. So long as Labour alone was the principal productive agent, those vast accumulations which are distinctive of the modern world were unknown and impossible. Professor Thorold Rogers has pointed out how small was the Capital of this country at so late a date as the close of the seventeenth century. Labour alone was unable to supply a surplus from which any such accumulation as we now call Capital could be taken. These became possible only by the increasing action of Ability. They were taken from the products which Ability added to the products of Labour, Capital therefore _is_ Ability in a double sense—not only in the sense that as a productive agent it represents Ability, but in the sense that Ability has created it. We may therefore for the present leave Capital entirely out of our discussion, regarding it as comprehended under the term and the idea of Ability; although when we come to consider the question of distribution, we shall have to take account of the distinction between the two. But for the present we are concerned with the problem of production only; and in dealing with that part of it which alone is now before us, we have to do only with two, and not three forces—not with Labour, Ability, and Capital, but with Labour and Ability only. The calculation, therefore, which was put forward just now may be expressed in yet simpler terms. Of our present national income of _thirteen hundred millions_, Labour produces _five hundred millions_ and Ability _eight hundred_. And now comes another point which yet remains to be mentioned. When we speak of Labour, we mean not an abstract quality: what we mean is labouring men. Similarly, when we talk of Ability, we do not mean an abstract quality either: we mean men who possess and exercise it. But whereas when we talk of Labour we mean an immense number of men, when we talk of Ability—as I shall show presently—we mean a number that by comparison is extremely small. The real fact then on which I am here insisting, and which I shall now proceed to substantiate and explain further, is that, whilst the immense majority of the population of this country produce little more than one-third of the income, a body of men who are comparatively a mere handful actually produce little less than two-thirds of it. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————— BOOK III AN EXPOSURE OF THE CONFUSIONS IMPLIED IN SOCIALISTIC THOUGHT AS TO THE MAIN AGENT IN MODERN PRODUCTION ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————— CHAPTER I