Note 398 — Chapter I · : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL

On this point we must dissociate ourselves from the interpretation placed upon the passage by M. Aftalion in his otherwise excellent monograph, L’Œuvre économique de Simonde de Sismondi (Paris, 1899), as well as from the view expressed by M. Denis (Histoire des Systèmes économiques, vol. ii, p. 306). But Sismondi’s text appears to us to leave no room for doubt. “As against land we might combine the other two sources of wealth, life which enables a man to work and capital which employs him. These two powers when united possess an expansive characteristic, so that the labour which a worker puts in his work one year will be greater than that put in the preceding year—upon the product of which the worker will have supported himself. It is because of this surplus value [mieux value], which increases as the arts and sciences are progressively applied to industry, that society obtains a constant increment of wealth.” (Nouveaux Principes, vol. i, p. 103.)