Item 243 - William Whewell to Richard Jones

Canterbury - WW has read RJ's sheets with great interest and gives his suggestions on how to improve its structure and detail ['Lectures on the Political Economy of Nations', 1845?]. RJ should give an example of capital: 'This is important, because the conception of auxiliary capital is one of the most characteristic and decisive parts of your speculations'. WW sees 'no objection to your using the term motive force and power as you do, except that I think you ought to say mechanical power, as otherwise you will incur ambiguity in many cases'. Estimating travail does not depend on the mode of working: 'I have called travail, laboring force, which is your power. What you call the motive force of steam is rather the motive force of fire. The sources of labouring forces as I enumerate them, are water, wind, fire, muscular force of man and animals'.