Chapter One: Wealth

Abstract: Cantillon defines wealth as the consumption goods produced by land and labor. This contrasted with the Mercantilists who thought money was wealth.

LAND IS THE SOURCE or matter from which all wealth is drawn; man’s labor provides the form for its production, and wealth in itself is nothing but the food, conveniences, and pleasures of life.

Land produces grass, roots, grain, flax, cotton, hemp, shrubs and several kinds of trees, with fruits, bark, and foliage like that of the mulberry tree for silkworms, and it supplies mines and minerals. From these, the labor of man creates wealth.

Rivers and seas provide fish for the food of man, and many other things for his enjoyment. But these seas and rivers belong to the adjacent lands or are common to all, and man’s labor extracts fish and other advantages from them.