person. Those talents, as they make a part of his fortune, so do they
likewise that of the society to which he belongs. The improved dexterity of
a workman may be considered in the same light as a machine or instrument of
trade which facilitates and abridges labour, and which, though it costs a
certain expense, repays that expense with a profit.

The third and last of the three portions into which the general stock of the
society naturally divides itself, is the circulating capital, of which the
characteristic is, that it affords a revenue only by circulating or changing
masters. It is composed likewise of four parts.

First, of the money, by means of which all the other three are circulated
and distributed to their proper consumers.

Secondly, of the stock of provisions which are in the possession of the
butcher, the grazier, the farmer, the corn-merchant, the brewer, etc. and
from the sale of which they expect to derive a profit.

Thirdly, of the materials, whether altogether rude, or more or less
manufactured, of clothes, furniture, and building which are not yet made up
into any of those three shapes, but which remain in the hands of the
growers, the manufacturers, the mercers, and drapers, the timber-merchants,
the carpenters and joiners, the brick-makers, etc.

Fourthly, and lastly, of the work which is made up and completed, but which
is still in the hands of the merchant and manufacturer, and not yet disposed
of or distributed to the proper consumers; such as the finished work which
we frequently find ready made in the shops of the smith, the cabinet-maker,
the goldsmith, the jeweller, the china-merchant, etc. The circulating
capital consists, in this manner, of the provisions, materials, and finished