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THE NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME

CHAPTER 1
. WEALTH
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THE term “ wealth” is used in this book to signify material
objects owned by human beings. According to this definition,
 an object, to be wealth, must conform to only two
conditions: it must be material, and it must be owned. To
these, some writers add a third condition, namely, that it
must be useful. But while utility is undoubtedly an essential
 attribute of wealth, it is not a distinctive one, being
implied in the attribute of appropriation; hence it is redundant
 in a definition. Other writers, like Cannan, while
specifying that an object, to be wealth, must be useful,
do not specify that it must be owned. They therefore
define wealth as “useful material objects.” This definition,
however, includes too much. Rain, wind, clouds, the
Gulf Stream, the heavenly bodies — especially the sun,
from which we derive most of our light, heat, and energy
— are all useful, but are not appropriated, and so are not
wealth as commonly understood. Still other writers
insist, that an article, to be wealth, must be “exchangeable.”
But this restriction would exclude parks, Houses of Parliament,
 the Hague Temple of Peace, and much other
trusteed wealth; all wealth, in fact, which happens to fall
into permanent hands. Although it is essential that wealth
should be owned, it is not essential that it should eontin-8