begin and end with the enjoying, and therefore admits of being
accumulated.

But the _skill_ of the musician is a permanent source of enjoyment, as
well as the instrument which he plays upon: and although skill is not a
material object, but a quality of an object, viz., of the hands and mind
of the performer; nevertheless skill possesses exchangeable value, is
acquired by labour and capital, and is capable of being stored and
accumulated. Skill, therefore, must be considered as wealth; and the
labour and funds employed in acquiring skill in anything tending to the
advantage or pleasure of mankind, must be considered to be productively
employed and expended.

The skill of a productive labourer is analogous to the machinery he
works with: neither of them is enjoyment, nor conduces directly to it,
but both conduce indirectly to it, and both in the same way. If a
spinning-jenny be wealth, the spinner's skill is also wealth. If the
mechanic who made the spinning-jenny laboured productively, the spinner
also laboured productively when he was learning his trade: and what they
both consumed was consumed productively, that is to say, its consumption
did not tend to diminish, but to increase the sum of the permanent
sources of enjoyment in the country, by effecting a new creation of
those sources, more than equal to the amount of the consumption.

The skill of a tailor, and the implements he employs, contribute in the
same way to the convenience of him who wears the coat, namely, a remote
way: it is the coat itself which contributes immediately. The skill of
Madame Pasta, and the building and decorations which aid the effect of
her performance, contribute in the same way to the enjoyment of the
audience, namely, an immediate way, without any intermediate