The production of wealth, therefore, depends not on the will and exertions of a single man, but on the proper bringing together of land, labour, and capital, by different persons and classes of persons. These different persons must have their several shares of the wealth produced; if they furnish something requisite for producing, they can make a bargain and ask for more or less of the produce. But #it is not mere chance or caprice which governs the sharing of wealth, and we have to learn the natural laws according to which the distribution takes place#. We must ascertain how it is that many of the population get so little, and some so much. Men work very hard on a farm and raise crops; the landlord comes and takes away a large part as rent, so that the labourers have barely enough to live upon. When we are able to understand why the labourer gets so little at present, we shall see, perhaps, how he might manage to get more, but in any case we shall see that it is due in great part to the laws of nature. The part of our subject which we are now going to consider is called the #distribution of wealth#, because it teaches us how the wealth produced is distributed (Latin, _dis_, apart, and _tribuere_, to allot) between the labourers, the owners of land, the owners of capital, and the government. The part which the labourer gets is called #wages#; the share of the land owner is called #rent#; that of the capitalist is #interest#; and the government take #taxes#. We may say that, as a general rule, the produce of work is divided into four shares, which may be thus shown: #produce = wages + rent + interest + taxes.# #39. The Labourer's Share--Wages.# It ought to be carefully remembered that the names #wages#, #rent#, and #interest#, as here used, do not exactly agree in meaning with the names as we employ them in common life. The wages paid to workmen are sometimes more than wages, being partly interest; the rent almost always consists partly of interest; and what is called interest may in some degree be really wages or rent. By #wages# we mean, in political economy, nothing but what goes to pay for the trouble of labour. But many workmen own their own tools; masons have a boxful of chisels, mallets, rules, &c.; carpenters often require twenty or thirty pounds' worth of planes and other implements; a pianoforte maker sometimes owns seventy pounds' worth of tools; even gardeners require spades, rakes, a barrow, scythe, or perhaps a mowing machine and a roller. Now, all such tools represent so much invested capital, and a certain amount of interest must be paid for this capital. A pianoforte maker might expect five pounds a year as interest upon the cost of his tools. But true wages, are what remains after allowance has been made for such interest, and it would be proper to subtract also what is paid to the government as taxes.