production, and the produce which they enable him to raise, is the
_rate_ of his _profit_. If he must give for labour and tools four-fifths
of what they will produce, the remaining fifth will constitute his
profit, and will give him a rate of one in four, or twenty-five per
cent, on his outlay.

It is necessary here to remark, what cannot indeed by any possibility be
misunderstood, but might possibly be overlooked in cases where attention
to it is indispensable, viz., that we are speaking now of the _rate_ of
profit, not the gross profit. If the capital of the country is very
great, a profit of only five per cent upon it may be much more ample,
may support a much larger number of capitalists and their families in
much greater affluence, than a profit of twenty-five per cent on the
comparatively small capital of a poor country. The _gross_ profit of a
country is the actual amount of necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries,
which are divided among its capitalists: but whether this be large or
small, the rate of profit may be just the same. The rate of profit is
the proportion which the profit bears to the capital; which the surplus
produce after replacing the outlay, bears to the outlay. In short, if we
compare the _price paid_ for labour and tools with what that labour and
those tools will _produce_, from this ratio we may calculate the rate of
profit.

As the gross profit may be very different though the rate of profit be
the same; so also may the absolute price paid for labour and tools be
very different, and yet the proportion between the price paid and the
produce obtained may be just the same. For greater clearness, let us
omit, for the present, the consideration of tools, materials, &c, and
conceive production as the result solely of labour. In a certain
country, let us suppose, the wages of each labourer are one quarter of