The extent of the power, which the inhabitants of any state may possess, to convert into instruments the materials of which they have the command is however variable; and increases, as we have seen, as their knowledge of the properties, of these materials and of the events, which in consequence of them, they are capable of bringing to pass, increases.Thus the large extent of the knowledge of the.civilized man, compared with that of the savage or barbarian, gives him the power of constructing a much greater number of instruments out of the same materials, and enables the European emigrant to convert the soil and forests or America or New Holland, into means of producing a great mass of desirable events, which it was beyond the capacity of the ignorant native to effect.
CHAPTER IV.EVERY INSTRUMENT MAY BE ARRANGED IN SOME PART OF A SERIES, OF WHICHTHE ORDERS ARE DETERMINED, BY THE PROPORTIONS EXISTING BETWEEN THE LABOREXPENDED IN THE FORMATION OF INSTRUMENTS, THE CAPACITY GIVEN TO THEM, ANDTHE TIME ELAPSING FROM THE PERI6D OF FORMATION TO THAT OF EXHAUSTION.
As by the capacity of instruments is to be understood their power to produce, or bring to an issue, events equivalent to a certain amount of labor, and as they are also formed by labor, it is evident that the capacity given to any of them, and the labor expended in its formation, have determinable numerical relations to each other.The length of time likewise, elapsing between their formation and exhaustion, may be expressed in numbers.If a series then were devised, of such a nature, that any relation that can exist among these three quantities, in consequence of their varying proportions to each other, might be embraced in it, every possible instrument would find a place there.
It is to be observed that, in consequence of a principle soon to be explained, no instruments will be designedly formed, but such as have a greater capacity, or issue in events, equivalent to more than the labor expended in their construction.This circumstance renders the formation of such a series more easy, as it renders it unnecessary to take account, of any other instruments than such as issue in events equivalent to mere than the labor expended in their formation, or, what may be termed, the cost of their formation.To simplify the consideration of the matter, we may, for a little, proceed on the supposition, that every instrument is constructed at one precise point of time, and exhausted at another.In that case, every instrument would find a place, in some part of a series, of which the orders were determined by the period of time at which instruments placed in them, issue, or would issue, if not before exhausted, in events equivalent to double the labor expended in forming them.These orders may he represented by the letters A, B, C, * * Z a, b, c, etc.The relation to each other of the cost of formation, the capacity, and the time elapsing between the period of formation and tltat of exhaustion, of instruments in the order A, is such as may be expressed by saying, they in one year issue in events equivalent to double the labor expended on their formation, or would so issue, if not before exhausted.The relation between these, in instruments of the order B, is such, that in two years they issue in events equivalent to double the labor expended on them, and are then exhausted.
Instruments in the order C, in three years issue in events equivalent to double the cost of fortnation; of the order D, in four years; of the order Z, in twenty-six years; of the order a, in twentyseven years, etc.For the sake of t:acility of expression, instruments in the order A, or in the orders near it, will be said to belong to the more quickly returning orders; instruments in the order Z, or in the orders near it, or beyond it, will be said to belong to the more slowly returning orders.
To imagine, in the first place, as simple a case as possible.An individual, say an Indian trader, is obliged to reside on a particular spot in the interior of North America, for somewhat more than a year.He arrives in autumn, and immediately sets about inclosing and digging up a piece of ground, for the purpose of having it planted with maize.He expends on this twenty days' labor.That labor he reckons equivalent to ten bushels of maize.He gets the maize planted, hoed and harvested next season, by Indian women, agreeing to give them part of the crop.After deducting their portion he has twenty bushels for himself, with which he leaves the place.
The field he formed was then an instrument of the order A.The same individual has to reside a little more than two years in another quarter of the interior.
He clears, or has cleared on his arrival, another piece of ground, and also expends on this operation twenty days' labor.Owing however to the soil being overrun with small roots, and it being necessary to wait till they partially rot before a crop can be put on it, he is aware that it cannot be planted until the second year.It is then planted as before, and, as it happens, with the same event as in the former field, yielding him net twenty bushels maize.This field then was an instrument of the order B.In the same way it is possible to conceive the formation and exhaustion of other instruments of this sort, answering to the orders C, D, E, etc.
the capacity of them all being double the cost of formation, and the times intervening between the periods of formation and exhaustion, being respectively three, four, five, etc.years.Although, however, instruments exactly corresponding to the conditions assumed, may occasionally exist, and although it is possible at least to conceive their existence throughout a lengthened series, yet, in fact, they seldom do exist so as exactly to answer the suppositions.
