To enable either the master manufacturer or the labourer to devote himself to any particular occupation,it is only necessary that he should possess --not,as political economists say,a stock of commodities,or circulating capital,but a conviction that while he is labouring at his particular occupation the things which he does not produce himself will be provided for him,and that he will be able to procure them and pay for them by the produce of his own labour.This conviction arises,in the first instance,without any reflection from habit.As we expect that the sun will rise tomorrow,so we also expect that men in all time to come will be actuated by the same motives as they have been in times past.If we push our inquiries still further,all that we can learn is,that there are other men in existence who are preparing those things we need,while we are preparing those which they need.The conviction may,perhaps,ultimately be traced them to our knowledge that other men exist and labour,but never to any conviction or knowledge that there is a stored-up stock of commodities.It is labour which produces all things as they are wanted,and the only thing which can be said to be stored up or previously prepared is the skill of the labourer.If the skill of the baker,butcher,grazier,tailor,weaver,etc.,was not previously created and stored up,the commodities which each of them purchases could not be obtained;but where that skill exists,these commodities may always be procured when wanted.

We may suppose that the operation of cotton-spinning is completed,and the produce brought to market,so as to be exchanged or sold within a year;but there are many operations which are not completed within this period;and if it be true,as I have endeavoured to show,that there is not stock of food and clothing prepared,even for those labourers whose operations are completed within the period of two successive harvests,how much more evident must this truth be of those operations which are not completed within a year?All the labourers engaged in them have to rely on the baker,miller,butcher,etc.,completing their part of the social task;and they must rely on the farmer,and that he will till his ground,and sow it,and reap the harvest of the following year.Mr Mill says and says justly,"what is annually produced is annually consumed."So that,in fact,to enable men to carry on all those operations which extend beyond a year there cannot be any stock of commodities stored up.Those who undertake them must rely,therefore,not on any commodities already created,but that other men will labour and produce what they are to subsist on till their own products are completed.

Thus should the labourer admit that some accumulation of circulating capital is necessary for operations terminated within the year --and I have show how very limited that admission ought to be,if made at all --it is plain that in all operations which extend beyond a year the labourer does not,and he cannot,rely on accumulated capital.

The operations not terminated within the year are neither few nor unimportant.The time necessary to acquire a knowledge of any species of skilled labour,so as to practise it to advantage,which includes almost every art,whether it create wealth or merely contribute to amusement --the time necessary to perform all distant voyages,and construct most of the canals,roads,harbours,docks,large steam-engines and ships,all of which are afterward to be such powerful instruments in the hands of the labourer,is considerably more than a year,and is,in many cases,several years.All those who set about such undertakings have a practical conviction,though it is seldom expressed,that while they are teaching the rising generation skilled labour,and instructing their children in the useful arts,while they are making canals,roads,docks,ships,steam-engines,etc.,that the farmer will continue to grow corn and the miller to grind it,that the baker will make it into bread,the grazier will fatten his cattle and the butcher slaughter them as they are needed,that the cotton and woollen manufacturers will go on preparing cloth and the tailor be always ready to make it up for them into clothes whenever it is ordered.Beyond this conviction they have nothing;they possess no stock of circulating capital themselves,nor do the persons who are afterwards to supply food and clothing during the whole time such undertakings are in progress possess any such stock at the moment when they are commenced.