It is to labour… and to labour only, that man owes every thing possessed of exchangeable value. Labour is the talisman that has raised him from the condition of the savage — that has changed the desert and the forest into cultivated fields… Labour tho that has covered the earth with cities and the ocean with ships — of wealth that has given us plenty, comfort, and elegance, instead of want, misery, and barbarism.
The principle of laissez-faire may be safely trusted to in some things but in many more it is wholly inapplicable; and to appeal to it on all occasions savors more of the policy of a parrot than of a statesman or a philosopher.
Suppose that a cask of new wine, which cost ?50, is put into a cellar, and that, at the end of twelve months, it is worth ?55, the question is: Should the ?5 of additional value, given to the wine, be considered as a compensation for the time the ?50 worth of capital has been locked up, or should it be considered as the value of additional labour actually laid out in the wine?