Jean-Baptiste Say (1767 – 1832)
French economist and businessman.
Capital in the hands of a national government forms a part of the gross national capital.
The occupation of the stock-jobber yields no new or useful product; consequently having no product of his own to give in exchange, he has no revenue to subsist upon, but what he contrives to make out of the unskilfulness or ill-fortune of gamesters like himself.
A shop-keeper in good business is quite as well off as a pedlar that travels the country with his wares on his back. Commercial jealousy is, after all, nothing but prejudice: it is a wild fruit, that will drop of itself when it has arrived at maturity.
It is a melancholy but an undoubted fact, that, even in the most thriving countries, part of the population annually dies of mere want. Not that all who perish from want absolutely die of hunger; though this calamity is of more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed.
The wants of mankind are supplied and satisfied out of the gross values produced and created, and not out of the net values only.
But, is it possible for princes and ministers to be enlightened, when private individuals are not so?