59. Another employment for money in advances for enterprises
of manufacture or industry.
I have already observed, that all kinds of labour, either of
cultivation or industry, required advances. And I have shewn how
the earth, by the fruits and herbages it spontaneously produces
for the nourishment of men and animals, and by the trees, of
which man has first formed his utensils, had furnished the first
advances for cultivation; and even of the first manual works a
man can perform for his own service. For instance, it is the
earth that provides the stone, clay, and wood, of which the first
houses were built; and, before the division of professions, when
the same man that cultivated the earth provided also for his
other wants by his own labour, there was no need of other
advances. But when a great part of society began to have no
resource but in their hands, it was necessary that those who
lived thus upon salaries, should have somewhat before hand, that
they might either procure themselves the materials on which they
laboured, or subsist during the time they were waiting for their
salary.
