[De la richesse commerciale, Sismondi, 1803, Original, 56-59]
Plus la population et la richesse font de progrès, plus il devient impossible qu’il se fasse aucun travail, sans qu’un capital le mette en mouvement. Avec l’avancement de la civilisation, les besoins de chaque homme se multiplient; or, il faut un capital pour avancer à l’ouvrier de quoi les satisfaire, jusqu’à ce que les produits de son travail soient vendus; il en faut un second pour lui procurer les matières premières et les outils sans lesquels il ne peut; enfin, il en faut souvent un troisième, pour pourvoir à sa consommation et à son instruction jusqu’à ce qu’il soit rendu capable de faire l’ouvrage dont il s’est chargé. Le capital qui l’a mis en mouvement, n’est donc autre chose que les alimen[t]s, les vêtemen[t]s, les outils, et les matières premières qu’il a consommées; ce n’est point le numéraire qui les représente, et au moyen duquel il les à obtenues; car s’il a toutes ces choses et point d’argent, il travaillera fort bien, mais s’il a de l’argent, et qu’il ne puisse l’échanger contre toutes ces choses il lui sera impossible de travailler. Un homme actif et industrieux, ne pourra donc trouver aucune occupation utile, s’il n’obtient préalablement un capital qui le nourrisse pendant qu’elle dure, et jusqu’à ce qu’elle soit achevée, d’autres capitaux qui aient mis à sa disposition les matières premières, les outils, et même le talent nécessaire à son ouvrage, le capital d’un marchand qui se charge de le porter au consommateur dès qu’il sera achevé, et qui en attendant remplace le sien. (1). L’horloger Genevois qui destine partie de ses montres aux consommateurs des grandes Indes, s’il ne trouvoit [trouvait] pas un capital déjà consacré au commerce d’horlogerie, et tout prêt à remplacer le sien, seroit [serait] obligé au moment où il auroit [aurait] terminé ses montres, de s’en procurer un pour faire les frais nécessaires à leur envoi aux Indes, et un second pour continuer l’ouvrage pendant leur voyage, jusqu’à ce qu’elles fussent vendues, payées, et que la valeur du payement fût rentrée entre ses mains: or, comme ce retour se fait attendre au moins deux ou trois ans, quoiqu’il eût les fonds nécessaires pour faire une première montre, il seroit [serait] obligé de fermer son atelier, s’il n’en avoit [avait] pas toujours de nouveaux, pour continuer pendant ce long espace de tem[p]s. Tout travail est donc le fruit d’un capital; aussi seroit-il [serait-il] fort inutile d’augmenter le besoin du premier chez une nation, si l’on n’augmentoit [augmentait] en même tem[p]s le second, qui seul peut appeler les gens industrieux à l’ouvrage; maxime importante, souvent oubliée, et que nous aurons lieu de rappeler plusieurs fois.
[Translation]
The more progress the population and wealth make, the more impossible it is that a capitalist obtains any labour without capital to employ it. According to advancement of civilisation, wants of each human being multiply. A portion of capital is necessary to advance a labourer as much as to satisfy his wants until the produce of his labour has been sold. Another portion is necessary to procure him raw materials and tools without which he cannot labour. Finally, still another portion is often necessary to satisfy his consumption and instruction, until he is enabled to achieve the tasks of which he is in charge. The capital which has put him at work therefore consists of nothing but foods, clothing, tools, and raw materials all of which he has consumed. It does not consist of specie which represents them and by means of which he has obtained them. The reason is that he will labour properly if he has all these and has no money, but that it will be impossible for him to labour if he has some money but cannot exchange it for all these. A practical and industrious man will try in vain to find any useful occupation if he does not have a form of capital in advance which would feed him while it lasts and until it has been finished, some other forms of capital which would have put at his disposition raw materials, tools and even talent necessary for his work, and the capital of a merchant which carries on the traspoart to consumers as soon as it is finished, and which supplements his capital for the time being (1). Let us suppose that a Genevan watchmaker, who distributes some of his watches to consumers in India, did not find any capital already allocated for the trade of watches and ready to supplement his capital. Then, the moment he has completed his watches, he would be obliged to use a part of his capital in order to pay the cost necessary to send them to India, and another part in order to continue the work during the transport, until the watches have been sold and paid for and the value of the payment has got in his hands. And yet this return takes at least two or three years. He would be obliged to close his shop, if he had the stocks necessary to make a watch at first, but if he did not always had some new stocks in order to continue during this long time. Every portion of labour is therefore the fruitage of capital; so it would be useless to increase the demand for labour among a nation, if you did not increase capital at the same time, which is the only way in which you can put the industrious at work. This is an important maxim, which we have often forgotten and of which we will have every reason to be reminded repeatedly.
