It may be urged that, in order to form wealth, the land should be fertile, the soil should be good, the rivers and lakes abounding in fish, and the forests full of good timber. Under the ground there should be plenty of coal, iron, copper, reefs of gold, &c. If, in addition to these, there is a good climate, plenty of sunlight, and enough, but not too much, water, then the country is certainly rich. It is true that these things have been called #natural riches#; but I mention them in order to point out that they are not in themselves wealth. People may live upon land full of natural riches, as the North American Indians lived upon the country which now forms the United States; nevertheless they may be very poor, because they cannot, or they will not labour, in such a way as #to turn the natural riches into wealth#. On the other hand, people like the Dutch live upon very poor bits of land, and yet become wealthy by skill, industry and providence. The fact is that wealth is more due to labour and ingenuity than to a good soil or climate; but all these things are needed in order that people shall become as rich as the inhabitants of England, France, the United States, or Australia. #5. What is Wealth?# Nassau Senior, one of the best writers on political economy, defined #wealth# in these words: #Under that term we comprehend all those things, and those things only, which are transferable, are limited in supply, and are directly or indirectly productive of pleasure, or preventive of pain.# It is necessary to understand, in the first place, exactly what Senior meant. According to him, whatever is comprehended under wealth must have three distinct qualities, and whatever has these three qualities must be a part of wealth. If these qualities are rightly chosen, we get a correct definition, which, as explained in the _Logic Primer_ (section 44), is a precise statement of the qualities which are just sufficient to make out a class, and to tell us what things belong to it and what do not. Instead, however, of the long phrase "directly or indirectly productive of pleasure or preventive of pain," we may substitute the single word #useful#, and we may then state the definition in this simple way:-- { (1) #transferable#. #Wealth = what is# { (2) #limited in supply#. { (3) #useful#. We still need to learn exactly what is meant by the three qualities of wealth; we must learn what it is to be transferable, limited in supply, and useful.