e, but in any case we shall see
that it is due in great part to the laws of nature.

The part of our subject which we are now going to consider is called the
#distribution of wealth#, because it teaches us how the wealth produced
is distributed (Latin, _dis_, apart, and _tribuere_, to allot) between
the labourers, the owners of land, the owners of capital, and the
government. The part which the labourer gets is called #wages#; the
share of the land owner is called #rent#; that of the capitalist is
#interest#; and the government take #taxes#. We may say that, as a
general rule, the produce of work is divided into four shares, which may
be thus shown:

#produce = wages + rent + interest + taxes.#

#39. The Labourer's Share--Wages.# It ought to be carefully remembered
that the names #wages#, #rent#, and #interest#, as here used, do not
exactly agree in meaning with the names as we employ them in common
life. The wages paid to workmen are sometimes more than wages, being
partly interest; the rent almost always consists partly of interest; and
what is called interest may in some degree be really wages or rent.

By #wages# we mean, in political economy, nothing but what goes to pay
for the trouble of labour. But many workmen own their own tools; masons
have a boxful of chisels, mallets, rules, &c.; carpenters often require
twenty or thirty pounds' worth of planes and other implements; a
pianoforte maker sometimes owns seventy pounds' worth of tools; even
gardeners require spades, rakes, a barrow, scythe, or perhaps a mowing
machine and a roller. Now, all such tools represent so much invested
capital, and a certain amount of interest must be paid for this capital.
A pianoforte maker might expect five pounds a year as interest upon the
cost of his tools. But true wages, are what remains after allowance has
been made for such interest, and it would be proper to subtract also
what is paid to the government as taxes.

#40. The Land Owner's Share--Rent#, the second part of the produce,
means, in political economy, what is paid for the use of a natural
agent, whether land, or beds of minerals, or rivers, or lakes. The rent
of a house or factory is, therefore, not all rent in our meaning of the
word. Capital has been spent in building the house or factory, and
interest must be paid on this capital; we must then deduct this interest
from what is commonly called the rent, before we can find out what is
really rent. The ground ren