]
I have so far taken my examples from human inventions, but will now go
on to speak of natural advantages.
In every article of production, nature and man must concur. But the
portion of nature is always gratuitous. Only so much of the usefulness
of an article as is the result of human labor becomes the object of
mutual exchange, and consequently of remuneration. The remuneration
varies much, no doubt, in proportion to the intensity of the labor, of
the skill, which it requires, of its being _a-propos_ to the demand of
the day, of the need which exists for it, of the momentary absence of
competition, &c. But it is not the less true in principle, that the
assistance received from natural laws, which belongs to all, counts
for nothing in the price.
We do not pay for the air we breathe, although so useful to us, that
we could not live two minutes without it. We do not pay for it,
because nature furnishes it without the intervention of man's labor.
But if we wish to separate one of the gases which compose it for
instance, to fill a balloon, we must take some [time and] labor; or if
another takes it for us, we must give him an equivalent in something
which will have cost us the trouble of production.
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