Wealth1.All wealth consists of desirable things; that is, things which satisfy human wants directly or indirectly: but not all desirable things are reckoned as wealth.The affection of friends, for instance, is an important element of wellbeing, but it is not reckoned as wealth, except by a poetic licence.Let us then begin by classifying desirable things, and then consider which of them should be accounted as elements of wealth.
In the absence of any short term in common use to represent all desirable things, or things that satisfy human wants, we may use the term Goods for that purpose.
Desirable things or goods are Material, or Personal and Immaterial.Material goods consist of useful material things, and of all rights to hold, or use, or derive benefits from material things, or to receive them at a future time.Thus they include the physical gifts of nature, land and water, air and climate;the products of agriculture, mining, fishing, and manufacture;buildings, machinery, and implements; mortgages and other bonds;shares in public and private companies, all kinds of monopolies, patent-rights, copyrights; also rights of way and other rights of usage.Lastly, opportunities of travel, access to good scenery, museums, etc.are the embodiment of material facilities, external to a man; though the faculty of appreciating them is internal and personal.
A man's non-material goods fall into two classes.One consists of his own qualities and faculties for action and for enjoyment; such for instance as business ability, professional skill, or the faculty of deriving recreation from reading or music.All these lie within himself and are called internal.The second class are called external because they consist of relations beneficial to him with other people.Such, for instance, were the labour dues and personal services of various kinds which the ruling classes used to require from their serfs and other dependents.But these have passed away; and the chief instances of such relations beneficial to their owner now-a-days are to be found in the good will and business connection of traders and professional men.(1*)Again, goods may be transferable or non-transferable.Among the latter are to be classed a person's qualities and faculties for action and enjoyment (i.e.his internal goods); also such part of his business connection as depends on personal trust in him and cannot be transferred, as part of his vendible good will;also the advantages of climate, light, air, and his privileges of citizenship and rights and opportunities of making use of public property.(2*)Those goods are free, which are not appropriated and are afforded by Nature without requiring the effort of man.The land in its original state was a free gift of nature.But in settled countries it is not a free good from the point of view of the individual.Wood is still free in some Brazilian forests.The fish of the sea are free generally: but some sea fisheries are jealously guarded for the exclusive use of members of a certain nation, and may be classed as national property.Oyster beds that have been planted by man are not free in any sense; those that have grown naturally are free in every sense if they are not appropriated; if they are private property they are still free gifts from the point of view of the nation.But, since the nation has allowed its rights in them to become vested in private persons, they are not free from the point of view of the individual; and the same is true of private rights of fishing in rivers.But wheat grown on free land and the fish that have been landed from free fisheries are not free: for they have been acquired by labour.
2.We may now pass to the question which classes of a man's goods are to be reckoned as part of his wealth.The question is one as to which there is some difference of opinion, but the balance of argument as well as of authority seems clearly to incline in favour of the following answer.
When a man's wealth is spoken of simply, and without any interpretation clause in the context, it is to be taken to be his stock of two classes of goods.
In the first class are those material goods to which he has (by law or custom) private rights of property, and which are therefore transferable and exchangeable.These it will be remembered include not only such things as land and houses, furniture and machinery, and other material things which may be in his single private ownership, but also any shares in public companies, debenture bonds, mortgages and other obligations which he may hold requiring others to pay money or goods to him.On the other hand, the debts which he owes to others may be regarded as negative wealth; and they must be subtracted from his gross possessions before his true net wealth can be found.
Services and other goods, which pass out of existence in the same instant that they come into it, are, of course, not part of the stock of wealth.(3*)In the second class are those immaterial goods which belong to him, are external to him, and serve directly as the means of enabling him to acquire material goods.Thus it excludes all his own personal qualities and faculties, even those which enable him to earn his living; because they are internal.And it excludes his personal friendships, in so far as they have no direct business value.But it includes his business and professional connections, the organization of his business, and - where such things exist - his property in slaves, in labour dues, etc.
