It robs the population of the capital, which is the source of wages, as soon as it is created.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 215 to 217 (in French)
La République française, February 28th, 1848

In this article, Frédéric Bastiat shares with Le National the feeling that France is not under threat of invasion by its neighbours. However, he believes that the level of militarisation of other European powers is a risk for peace and that it is not possible to reduce military spending in these circumstances. He begs again the neighbouring countries to reduce their military spending first because they are not at risk to be attacked by France, which is busy constructing the Second Republic.

Today’s quote is part of his argument but of a more universal reach, it seems fondamental to me and misunderstood still nowadays in France where it is in fashion to club the capitalists with new taxes each time that the government tries a little bit to streamline public finances. Capital as a source of wages is counter-intuitive for the spirit of the French who have been brainwashed with marxist thoughts. However, it is undeniable and in two different aspects. Fixed capital is indeed necessary to create productivity gains, which are absolutely necessary to increase production, hence the wealth of the country. Besides, working capital is what allows the capitalist to “make advances”, be it on wages or any other input for the production of goods (a car manufacturer needs to buy steal and pay salaries before producing a car and selling it, which will then generate a profit). This aspect of the economy is not well understood but absolutely obvious – if the attacks on profits are too strong, the aggregate capital in the country will not increase and the people will be the first to suffer from it.