Among a highly civilized people, a great amount of capital in use, as compared with the productive capital of the country, may be considered a sure sign of great wealth. When this is the case, the people, without losing the desire of further acquisition, think that they have enough to richly enjoy the present. I need only call to mind the munificence displayed by the middle classes in England, in their silver plate and other domestic utensils. But the people of Russia, and Mexico also, can make no mean display of silverware.(284) Here luxury is only a symptom of the disinclination or inability of the inhabitants of the country to use their capital in the production of wealth. How much richer would Spain be to-day, if it had employed the idle capital spent in the ornamentation of its churches in constructing roads and canals!(285) Most nations in a low state of civilization suffer from the absence of legal guarantees. Each one is compelled to turn his property into a shape in which it can be most easily transferred from one place to another and hidden. This is the principal reason why the Orientals possess, relatively speaking, so many precious stones and so much of the precious metals. The same cause accounts for the simplicity of their dwellings.(286) On the other hand, productive capital is to be found in the greatest proportion among civilized nations which are making very rapid strides towards wealth, the people of the United States, for instance. Section XLIV. Capital.—Fixed Capital, And Circulating Capital.