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 GUIDE 
 
 THE STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
 
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 GUIDE 
 
 THE STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 F.T 
 
 DE. LUIGI COSSA, 
 
 PROFESSOR .IF POIITICAL ECONOMY IV THE UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA. 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 FROM THE SECOND ITALIAN EDITION. 
 
 WITH 
 A PREFACE BY W. STANLEY JEVONS, F.R.S. 
 
 Hontfon : 
 M A C M I L L A N AND CO. 
 
 1880. •
 
 LONDON : 
 
 lì. Clay, Sons, and Taylor 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 £o jjfflr». jPatocctt 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS WITH HER KIND PERMISSION 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE TRANSLATOR.
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 To a reader fairly acquainted with the English 
 Literature of Political Economy it will be evident 
 why this translation of an Italian text-book has been 
 undertaken. The sufficient reason is that no introduc- 
 tion to the study of Economics at all approaching in 
 character to Professor Cossa's Guida allo Studio dell' 
 Economia Politica is to be found in the English tongue. 
 This work presents, in a compendious form, not only a 
 general view of the bounds, divisions, and relations of 
 the science, marked by great impartiality and breadth 
 of treatment, but it also furnishes us with an historical 
 sketch of the science, such as must be wholly new to 
 English readers. 
 
 Every economist would grant that we have in English 
 the works of the father of the science, Adam Smith, 
 and of not a few successors or predecessors who have 
 made the science almost an Engli&h science. But this 
 fact, joined perhaps with the common want of linguistic
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 power in English students, has led our economic writers 
 to ignore too much the great works of the French and 
 Italian economists, as well as the invaluable recent 
 treatises of German writers. The survey of the foreign 
 literature of the subject given in this Guide will enable 
 the English student to fix the bearings of the point of 
 knowledge which he has reached, and to estimate the 
 fraction of the ocean of economic literature which he 
 has been able to traverse. 
 
 Of course it is not to be expected, nor even to be 
 desired, that English students of Economics should at 
 once endeavour to master treatises in the French, 
 German, Italian, and other languages. A few may be 
 able thus to extend their studies ; and it is believed 
 that they will find in Dr. Cossa a safe pilot to the 
 course of reading they may best pursue for their 
 special purposes. The ordinary student must neces- 
 sarily be contented with a second-hand and superficial 
 acquaintance with the masses of literature here indi- 
 cated. But it would be a mistake to treat such 
 knowledge as worthless. The late Professor De 
 Morgan said, or at least very happily repeated the 
 saying, that " true education consists in knowing 
 everything of something and something of every- 
 thing." Applying this maxim to our science, the 
 judicious student of Economics must necessarily select 
 the works of Adam Smith, of Ricardo, of J. S. Mill, 
 of Cairnes, or of some one or a very few leading
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 English economists, and must study them, so to say, 
 completely. They will be the something of which he 
 must learn everything. But, when this has been suf- 
 ficiently accomplished, he cannot do better than learn 
 the something of everything in economic literature, 
 which is admirably given in this Guide. 
 
 One valuable result which will probably be derived 
 from the reading of Professor Cossa's work is the con- 
 viction that the historical method must play a large 
 part in economic science. Without for a moment ad- 
 mitting, with some extreme advocates of that method, 1 
 that there is no such thing as an abstract science of 
 Economics, the student will readily become convinced 
 that in such matters as land tenure, agriculture, the 
 organisation of industry, taxation, <fec, theory must be 
 applied with very large allowances for physical and 
 historical circumstances. National character, ancient 
 custom, political condition, and many other conditions, 
 are economic factors of great importance. Although 
 some of our best English economists were fully alive 
 to this fact, there is nevertheless an almost inevitable 
 tendency to regard the complicated industrial organi- 
 sation of England as if it were the natural and best 
 organisation, to which other nations have failed, in a 
 more or less serious degree, to attain. Wider study 
 
 1 See, for instance, Professor Cliffe Leslie's Essay on the " Philo- 
 sophical Method of Political Economy," in Hermaihena, No. iv., 
 1876.
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 will show that economic as well as political and social 
 development must bear relation to the historical and 
 physical circumstances of the race. It is surely time 
 to abandon the idea, for instance, that the landlord 
 system of land-tenure of England, even supposing 
 that it is the best for English agriculture, is Leces- 
 sarily the best for France, Belgium, Norway, India, 
 Australia, Ireland, and the rest of the habitable world 
 in general. In the fourth chapter of the First Part 
 Dr. Cossa has very clearly refuted some of the 
 prevailing errors on the subject of the historical 
 method. 
 
 Now and again we meet opinions and expressions 
 in the Guide in which it is impossible to coincide. 
 On page 124 of this translation, for instance, the 
 author speaks of " the notable advantages to indus- 
 trial organisation and progress," which he thinks have 
 been conferred in its time by the Protective System. 
 Few, or probably no English economist, would now 
 accept this opinion, unless with qualifications and 
 explanations which would really reverse the writers 
 meaning. Nor is this, as we think, the only scientific 
 or doctrinal blemish of the work. Yet after all ex- 
 ception is taken it must be allowed that the author 
 has performed his difficult task in a most judicious 
 and impartial manner. 
 
 As Dr. Cossa has passed over without mention most 
 of his own economic labours, it should be stated that
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 he has been, since the year 1858, Professor of Political 
 Economy in the University of Pavia. During nearly 
 a quarter of a century he has devoted himself entirely 
 to the promotion and dissemination of economic science, 
 and not a few of the rising economists of Italy owe 
 their success to his instructions. Among his principal 
 works may be mentioned the Primi Elementi di Econo- 
 mia Politica, first published at Milan in 1875, of which 
 a fourth edition, considerably augmented, appeared in 
 1878. Spanish and German translations were printed 
 in 1878 and 1879. His second work was the Primi 
 Elementi di Scienza delle Finanze (1875), of which a 
 third edition is about to appear. Various essays on 
 economic subjects have been reprinted in a volume 
 under the title Saggi di Economia Politica (Milan, 
 1878). 
 
 The Guida allo Studio dell' Economia Politica, of which 
 the following pages contain an English version, was ori- 
 ginally published at Milan in 1876 ; a second revised 
 and enlarged edition being issued in 1878. A Spanish 
 translation was printed at Valladolid in 1878, and it is 
 said that a German translation by Dr. Edward Moor- 
 meister is to appear during the course of the present 
 year at Freiburg. The considerable use which is thus 
 evidently being made of Professor Costa's text-books 
 will not surprise a reader who can appreciate the ex- 
 traordinary extent and accuracy of Dr. Costa's know- 
 ledge of the economic literature of almost all nations.
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 This characteristic of his works may be partly 
 explained by the fact that he was in early life a 
 pupil of that most learned and eminent economist, 
 Professor Wilhelm Roscher. In England we cannot 
 hope to compete with the polyglot learning of a 
 Roscher or a Cossa, but it is to be hoped that not a 
 few English students of economics, who are seldom 
 polyglots, will use this translated Guide in order to 
 make themselves a little less insular than they would 
 otherwise be. 
 
 The work of translation has been carried out by a 
 former lady student in one of the excellent classes of 
 Political Economy, conducted under the superintend- 
 ence of the Cambridge Society for the Extension of 
 University Teaching. Acknowledgments are due to 
 Professor Cossa for corrections and additions, which 
 bring up the work to the present year. 
 
 W. STANLEY JEVONS.
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In publishing the Second Edition of my Guide, 
 corrected and enlarged, more particularly in the later 
 chapters, it is with much pleasure that I acknowledge 
 the valuable suggestions and advice which have 
 lightened my labours. Still more grateful am I for 
 the services rendered by my excellent colleague, Pro- 
 fessor Mariano Mariani, and by my distinguished 
 pupil and friend, Dr. Feruccio Nicolini. The former 
 took upon himself the task of correcting the manu- 
 script and proofs, both of this and other works of 
 mine, and the latter compiled the accurate Alphabetical 
 Index of Authors, which makes the book much more 
 useful to those who wish to study, side by side with 
 the Historical Part, the original writings and sources 
 of information pointed out in the text. 
 
 L. C. 
 
 Pavia, December 2, 1877.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 GENERAL PART. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DEFINITION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 
 
 CHAFTEE IE 
 
 DIVISION OF POLITICAI ECONOMY 11 
 
 CHAPTEE TIL 
 
 RELATION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY TO OTHER SCIENCES . . 20 
 
 PRIVATE ECONOMY 21 
 
 MORALS 22 
 
 HISTORY 24 
 
 STATISTICS 25 
 
 LAW 27 
 
 politics 31 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 33 
 
 CHAFTEE V. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 51
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN 
 
 MADE TO THE STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY .... 57 
 
 HISTORICAL PART. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONCEPTION, DIVISION, METHOD, AND SOURCES OF THE 
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 73 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT TIMES AND IN THE MIDDLE 
 
 AGES 85 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES 108 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL . .112 
 
 CHAPTER V: 
 
 ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS 161 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY . . .174 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 I nNTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS 210 
 
 INDEX 231
 
 GUIDE 
 
 THE STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEFINITION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 In common language economy sometimes means 
 frugality or thrift, sometimes a well-ordered system of 
 things. This is the case, for instance, in such phrases 
 as the economy of the universe, the economy of the 
 human body. The name as thus used always implies 
 the conception of order, proportion, harmony. On the 
 other hand, the etymological meaning of economy (from 
 oTkoc, house, and vo/uoq, law) is the law of the house, the 
 government of the family, or else, though in a subjective 
 sense, the science or art that treats of these matters. 
 Again, in a somewhat more restricted sense economy 
 may mean the management of the patrimony or of the 
 wealth of the family. And when the adjective politicai 
 (from irókvs, city or state) is added to the substan- 
 tive, economy comes to mean the direction of the state, 
 
 lì
 
 2 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 or, here again in a narrower sense, the direction of 
 its wealth, and is thus the counterpart of what is 
 called by pleonasm domestic economy. Therefore in a 
 subjective sense political economy might be either an 
 equivalent of politics, the science of government, or else 
 of the science of state finance. 
 
 Neither the ordinary nor the etymological sense of 
 the word corresponds precisely to the conventional 
 scientific meaning which is now generally attached to 
 the phrase political economy. And in truth political 
 economy ought not to be confounded with the doctrine 
 of the state. By an extreme hypothesis it might 
 exist apart from a state. Neither ought it to be con- 
 founded with the doctrine of state finance, because it 
 is concerned not only with public but with all social 
 wealth, whether public or private, individual or col- 
 lective. 
 
 Political economy, or, as it is variously called, public, 
 social, civil, national economy, the economy of nations 
 and of states, &c, is the science of the social ordering of 
 wealth, that which examines its general laws in order to 
 deduce from them guiding principles for the wise adminis- 
 tration of public and private wealth. In other words, 
 political economy studies the social phenomena to which 
 wealth gives rise, with the double purpose of investi- 
 gating its causes and considering its relation to public 
 and private well-being. 
 
 Political economy has an object in common with 
 other branches of knowledge also called economic, and 
 these form with it a more complex science which might be 
 called simply economy, economics, or the science of wealth. 
 But they are distinguished from one another by differ- 
 ences in the aspect under which they regard their common
 
 l.] DEFINITION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 3 
 
 subject matter, wealth. And in our days, the special point 
 of view taken with respect to any given class of phe- 
 nomena is the characteristic that distinguishes one 
 science from another and determines the position of 
 each in the encyclopaedia of human knowledge, that 
 indivisible unity which we from mere didactic necessity 
 divide and subdivide, unable by reason of the imper- 
 fection of our intellect to grasp as a whole the complex 
 existence of physical and moral facts. 
 
 Political economy must then be first distinguished 
 from domestic economy, which studies wealth in its re- 
 lation to the family, seeking for the best method of 
 regulating the patrimony in the interest of the members 
 who compose it. 
 
 Political economy must also be distinguished from 
 technology in the wider sense of the term, meaning the 
 application of physical and mathematical science to 
 separate industries, enabling producers to carry them 
 on more profitably. And it comprehends agriculture 
 (and the branches of knowledge connected with it), 
 the technology of manufactures, commercial technology, 
 and the science of those arts called liberal. 
 
 Political economy is also distinguished from in- 
 dustrial economy, the science of the administrative 
 organisation of industrial affairs in respect to the 
 interests of individual employers. 
 
 Domestic economy and industrial economy, sometimes 
 comprised under the generic term givate economy, 
 and technology in like manner, are distinguished from 
 political economy in that they consider economic pheno- 
 mena from a different and narrower point of view than 
 the one proper to that science, which occupies itself with 
 general laws and social relations. Private economy and 
 
 b 2
 
 4 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [char 
 
 technology, on the contrary, treat of physical laws, 
 technical irrocesses and relations which are merely 
 individual. 
 
 Political economy, as a science which examines the 
 social relations arising from wealth or from the economic 
 activity of men united in civilised societies, is further 
 connected with another group of sciences called social 
 .«•if/ ices because they investigate the natural laws of 
 the formation and progress of civilised communities in 
 general. 
 
 But political economy only studies society in its 
 relation to wealth, and therefore cannot claim to in- 
 clude in itself all the social sciences, which treat of 
 civilised life under its various aspects, having regard 
 not only to economic matters but also to physical, 
 intellectual, and moral considerations, which must be 
 held of more importance than those purely material. 
 
 However, political economy does not differ from the 
 othar social sciences simply in having a narrower field of 
 investigation, but also in its particular mode of regard- 
 ing the ohject which is in part common to them all, that 
 is, the social ordering of wealth. 
 
 Hence it should be distinguished from that part of 
 social morals which on account of its subject might be 
 called economic and which treats of the right use of 
 wealth in the highest interests of man, looking at it 
 therefore in relation to the influence it may have over 
 human conduct, either as a means or an obstacle to that 
 exercise of virtue which is the ultimate end of morals. 
 
 Equally necessary is it to distinguish political economy 
 from that department of civil history which is occupied 
 with economic facts and analogous institutions, studied 
 in their chronological order and in their outward forms.
 
 i.] DEFINITION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 5 
 
 The narration and even the explanation of concrete 
 manifestations, though always brought into connection 
 with a particular class of phenomena, is a very different 
 thing from the examination of the natural laws by which 
 they are governed. It is, for example, one thing to 
 relate the history of English commerce in the nineteenth 
 century, and quite another thing to investigate the laws 
 that explain in its intimate workings the economic 
 function of commerce at all times and in all places. 
 
 Again, political economy must not be confounded with 
 economic statistics, a branch of applied statistics which 
 expounds in an orderly manner the facts relating 
 to industries, presenting them in a form which sums 
 up their total result, and stating them where it is 
 possible in the exact language of figures. It treats of 
 phenomena in their external form and in their variable 
 and contingent manifestations, not of natural laws or 
 necessary and constant relations. The statistics of prices 
 during the last ten years in the market of London, 
 or Hamburg, or New York, are a very different thing 
 from the general theory of prices. 
 
 Finally, political economy must be clearly dis- 
 tinguished from those legal sciences which deal with 
 economic facts and institutions, and which comprise 
 the whole of commercial custom and the greater part of 
 civil law. Both these branches of jurisprudence study 
 the rights and obligations springing from economic facts, 
 that is from the relations of debtor and creditor, whether 
 in their correspondence with the immutable laws of 
 justice (pldlosophical law) or as resulting from legisla- 
 tion (positive law). Political economy, on the other hand, 
 seeks for the primary causes of these same facts, and 
 deduces from them general laws for the good guidance of
 
 6 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 public and private administration. It is one thing to 
 examine the legal foundation of private property or its 
 conditions in Italian law, another to determine its 
 economic function, to show what are its advantages, 
 its various aspects, and the necessary limits to it in 
 the general interest. 
 
 From the definition of political economy already given 
 results, not only its special mode of considering its sub- 
 ject, but also its twofold office, from which the exact 
 nature of the science may be more clearly inferred. The 
 office of political economy, or, as some would say, its 
 function, is twofold, because it comprehends two fields of 
 inquiry, each having special characteristics which ought 
 to be accurately observed. 
 
 In the first place there is an economic science, in the 
 strict sense of the word, which includes the explanation 
 of economic phenomena and the examination of their 
 causes and of their laws. This is the pure science, of 
 which the object is to expound that which is, to explain 
 theorems, to solve problems, and, as we shall see later, 
 to construct theories by a mixed process of deduction 
 and induction. 
 
 There exists also an economic art, an aprplied political 
 economy, which from the knowledge of those natural 
 laws which govern economic phenomena deduces guiding 
 principles for the good management of public and private 
 wealth, or in other words for the enlightenment of 
 practice. 
 
 These two departments of economic theory, the science 
 and the art, the distinction between which may be com- 
 pared, as Mill says, to that between the indicative and 
 the imperative moods, are yet strictly connected, the first 
 being the foundation of the second, while the second in
 
 U] DEFINITION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 7 
 
 its turn increases the importance of the first, converting 
 its truths into principles of useful application. They 
 thus mutually support one another and in a manner 
 complete one another, together tending to promote, each 
 in its own way, directly or indirectly, the common end 
 of jniblic and private prosperity . 
 
 In logical order, science precedes art and art precedes 
 practice, because people ought not to act without a rule 
 of action. Neither can there be an infallible rule without 
 full knowledge. In the historical order however the 
 series is inverted ; instinctive action is followed by an 
 empirical art, and then comes the science which finally 
 reconstructs the whole. Verses are made, instruments 
 are played upon, illnesses are cured, houses are built, 
 long before people become acquainted with the musical 
 and poetic arts, or the sciences of medicine and archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 It should be noticed that the science of political 
 economy seeks for what are called natural laws, 
 not being, like positive laws, the result of human in- 
 vention. They must nevertheless not be confounded 
 with physical laws, as they have a psychological 
 character, being subject to the influence of the free 
 and intellectual element manifested in the human will. 
 They are also called general laics, to distinguish 
 them, according to what has before been said, from 
 the particular laws and the technical processes of the 
 different arts, which lie in the sphere of industrial 
 economy and technology. 
 
 As to the applied part of political economy, it is well 
 to observe that it enlightens the actions of private 
 individuals in the same degree as that of public 
 rulers. It is therefore incorrect to consider political
 
 8 STUDY OF TOLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 economy, as some do, merely as an art pertaining to 
 government, although it cannot be denied that the 
 most important applications of the science refer to the 
 management of public affairs. On the other hand, 
 that reasoning seems exaggerated which would separate 
 political economy as a science from its most useful 
 applications, on the ground that the art of beneficially 
 governing even the material interests of nations must 
 be guided, sometimes in the highest degree, by considera- 
 tions very different from those it suggests. For though 
 this observation is without doubt most just, inasmuch 
 as it tends to place in its true light the science and 
 art of public administration, it does not afford any 
 argument against the deduction of the principles of 
 economic art from the laws of pure political economy. 
 Indeed those writers, mostly English, as for example, 
 Senioi', J. S. Mill, and Cairnes, who argue for the ab- 
 solute separation of the economic science from the art 
 of government, are inconsistent with their own strict 
 principle— -felix culpa ! to which we owe those admirable 
 illustrations of the fundamental principles of economics 
 to be found in the works of the said writers, and 
 of others. 
 
 Having explained our definition of political economy, 
 and specified its subject, its point of view, its functions 
 and its aim, we will not here attempt a minute criticism 
 of other definitions. From the great number of these 
 definitions, almost equalling that of economic writers, 
 such a criticism would be necessai-ily incomplete. Nor 
 would its results compensate for the loss of time it 
 would involve. 
 
 We will content ourselves with the observation that 
 the greater number of such definitions err either by
 
 i.] DEFINITION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 9 
 
 deficiency or by excess. Those definitions, for example, 
 err by deficiency which state that either value, or ex- 
 change, or commerce, is the subject of the science. These 
 are all facts of great importance, no doubt, but none of 
 them sum up the whole class of economic phenomena. 
 For the same reason those conceptions are erroneous, 
 which either refer only to the abstract, or only to the 
 applied part of economic doctrine. 
 
 But more frequently do definitions of political economy 
 err by excess. Either they assign to it too wide a 
 subject, as when it is stated that political economy 
 is the science of wealth or of material interests, thus 
 confounding it with economy in general. Or they 
 confound it with morals, with politics, or with law, 
 subordinating it to other sciences with the false idea 
 of giving it added dignity and importance. Sometimes 
 again they identify it with the entire social science or, 
 as many now call it, sociology, which has, as we have 
 already seen, a much wider subject-matter, and exceeds 
 the limits of investigations relating only to wealth. 
 
 This disagreement, owing chiefly to the mania that 
 some economists have for originality, is certainly 
 deplorable, and is with reason lamented by our, own 
 Pellegrino Rossi. Inasmuch as it concerns the limits 
 of the science it serves to alienate the respect of 
 outsiders. Besides, the inconsistency is really smaller 
 than would appear at first sight, it having been several 
 times aptly remarked that such differences may often 
 be reduced to questions merely of words. Whence it 
 comes that the same questions are discussed in the same 
 manner and with the same conclusions by writers whose 
 definitions are incompatible. It is also undeniable that 
 equally great discrepancies are to be found in the
 
 10 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. i. 
 
 definitions of other sciences, on the importance and pro- 
 gress of which there can now exist no reasonable doubt. 
 The same remarks apply to the many phrases which 
 it is proposed to substitute for the term political 
 economy. Almost all these, and some in a higher 
 degree, have the same fault of inexactness which is 
 complained of in that term, while many of them could 
 not obtain an easy acceptance among students. These 
 circumstances make it inadvisable, in our opinion, to 
 introduce innovations in the scientific language more 
 generally in use, which is on the whole well enough 
 adapted to our educational methods.
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 DIVISION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 The doctrines comprehended in political economy- 
 may be distributed and arranged in different ways ac- 
 cording to the principle upon which these distinctions 
 are founded ; and they are of more or less importance 
 in proportion to the service they render to an adequate 
 treatment of the subject. 
 
 A distinction may first be founded on the nature of 
 the special function of political economi/. This is two- 
 fold : it first investigates the natural laws of economic 
 phenomena ; and secondly lays down guiding principles 
 for the advantageous management of public and private 
 wealth. Accordingly we have : 
 
 (1) Pure, rational, abstract political economy, the 
 science in the strict sense of the word, which studies 
 the economic order of things, that is the social relations 
 arising from wealth, in and by itself. Its immediate 
 aim is purely speculative, to discover the intimate 
 nature and the various aspects of the mass of social 
 facts, to investigate their causes, and to trace them 
 to their general laws. 
 
 (2) Appdied political economy, the economic art, which 
 studies economic phenomena with the immediate aim
 
 12 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 of providing safe rules fox* administration, or of dix - ect- 
 ing economic institutions so that they may conduce 
 to the general welfare. Its aim is therefore immedi- 
 ately practical, since it does not investigate the how or 
 why of certain facts, but seeks rules for doing certain 
 things well. 
 
 Applied political economy is closely connected with 
 the pxire science, as it necessarily px-esupposes it. Be- 
 sides the identity of their ultimate aim [the general well 
 being), it is resolved by ultimate analysis into a series 
 of deductions drawn from truths discovex-ed by rational 
 political economy. It is not possible to conceive of 
 ruling principles having any other foixndation than that 
 of an exact and profound knowledge of the phenomexia 
 to which they refer. 
 
 And here we mixst bewax"e of confounding, as is often 
 the case even with men well acquainted with the subject, 
 the distinction between science and art with that, nxore 
 commonly discixssed, between theory and practice. For 
 both science and art belong to the order of ideas and 
 exist in the sphere of thought, while practice signifies 
 either action or the skill acquired by it. The rules 
 for doing things in the right way, suggested by art, 
 lead up to and enlighten practice and prevent it from 
 degenex-ating ixxto empix'icism. But they cannot in any 
 way be considered identical with it, because they are 
 wholly ideal and speculative axxd hence belong no less 
 than the pure science to the domain of theory. 
 
 Another method of classifying the subjects of political 
 economy (connected with the px-eceding in many 
 respects, yet quite distinct fx-om it), is based on a dis- 
 tinction which is made, more especially by German 
 writers, between :
 
 II.] DIVISION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 13 
 
 1. Political economy in the sense naturally belonging 
 to the word, or, as some would call it, national economy, 
 which studies the social fact of wealth in its relations 
 to the welfare of the nation considered as something 
 different from and independent of the State, or the 
 government to which it is subjected ; and 
 
 2. State economy, called also economic legislation or 
 economic politics, which studies the phenomena of wealth 
 in relation to the economic action of the State and of 
 other political bodies. 
 
 Such action presents two orders of facts, because it 
 may affect either the economic influence of social power 
 on private wealth, or the management of that portion of 
 wealth which specially constitutes the patrimony of the 
 State, the Province, or the Commune. Hence economic 
 "politics is in its turn subdivided into two parts, namely : 
 (a) economic politics in the strict sense, which directs 
 the action of public powers with regard to private 
 wealth, and (b) the science of finance, which sets forth 
 guiding principles for the better administration of the 
 public wealth. 
 
 But this science of finance can now be considered as 
 totally distinct from political economy. It is even treated 
 in separate works because of the increased amount and 
 importance of its theories, and also because its principles 
 are not deduced from the laws of pure economics alone. 
 They are also derived from other sources of eqtial and 
 in some cases of even greater importance, that is, from 
 the principles of law and politics. And in the same way 
 economic legislation draws its inspiration not only from 
 economic maxims but also from those founded on the 
 study of law and polities. It thus becomes a separate 
 science, or rather a part of that other applied science of
 
 14 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 a more complex kind, the science of public administration, 
 now being specially studied in Germany with the ex- 
 tensive and thorough investigation required by the 
 subject. 
 
 We have said that the distinction between political 
 economy in its proper sense and economic politics, is not 
 equivalent to that between pure and applied political 
 economy. The guiding principles furnished by the 
 economic art refer to private no less than to public 
 affairs. Thus, as has before been noticed, an economic 
 art might exist on the hypothesis of a human society 
 with no political constitution and no need of govern- 
 ment, in which case there could of course be no such 
 thing as economic politics. 
 
 Another quite different division of economic doctrine 
 considers the various phases and stages, movements and 
 aspects, presented by economic phenomena. It has its 
 root therefore in the intimate structure of the organism 
 of wealth. 
 
 On the ground of such considerations J. B. Say, one 
 of the masters of the science, divides its subjects into the 
 three heads of jyroduction, distribution, and consumption. 
 He assumes these distinctions even in his definition of 
 the science and in the title of his principal work 
 (Traité, 1803). The formation of wealth, its partition 
 among men, and its destination to the uses of life, 
 present themselves naturally, and in that order, as the 
 three principal aspects under which the movements of 
 social wealth may be studied. This division has there- 
 fore been accepted by most economists, as, for instance, 
 Gioja, de Tracy, Rau, and MacCulloch. 
 
 Other writers, particularly those of more modern 
 date, add to these three heads that of circidation, or
 
 n.] DIVISION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 15 
 
 as some less accurately call it, the exchange of wealth. 
 And the importance of those phenomena of which cir- 
 culation is the result is indeed very great — phenomena 
 relating to the removal of wealth from one place to 
 another (transport) and from one person to another 
 (exchange). These constitute a complete and interesting 
 system, and merit separate examination. They should 
 not be treated as a mere appendix to production (v. Say) 
 or to distribution (v. Rau, MacCulloch). This arrange- 
 ment has the support of many writers of authority, as, 
 for instance, James Mill, Florez Estrada, Mangoldt, 
 Messedaglia, and Nazzani. 
 
 Other writers, following in the steps of Eoscher, add 
 a fifth head, that of ptopulation ; but this proposal 
 has, and we think with reason, had few supporters. 
 For the important theories which have enriched the 
 recent discussions on this subject have now reached 
 such dimensions as to constitute by themselves an addi- 
 tional science, which some have already distinguished 
 by the name of Demography, and others by that (which 
 seems to us better) of Demology. Nor are there 
 wanting treatises which embrace all the aspects of the 
 problem of population. But it should not be foi'gotten 
 that for economic purposes population is only considered 
 in its relation to subsistence, that is, from a subordinate 
 point of view, which makes it more fitly treated under 
 the head of distribution. 
 
 Other innovations tend to simplify or variously 
 modify the threefold division of Say. 
 
 Rossi, for example, considers consumption to be foreign 
 to political economy, and to belong to hygiene, morals, 
 and domestic economy, in so far as it refers to the 
 unproductive consumption of individuals ; while he wishes
 
 16 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap, 
 
 productive consumption, or in other words the employment 
 of capital, to be treated under the head of production. 
 The subject of taxation, which he reduces to unproductive 
 public consumption, can be treated under the head of dis- 
 tribution ; his final conclusion being thus that political 
 economy should only be divided into the two heads of pro- 
 duction and distribution. This opinion w r as held in the 
 last century by Turgot, and aniong contemporaries is 
 supported by J. S. Mill in his Essays (1844), though 
 Mill's reasoning differs slightly from that of Rossi. 
 
 There are writers, also modern, who, though suppress- 
 ing the head of consumption, add to the two given by 
 Rossi that of circulation referred to above. We may 
 mention Mill in his Principles of Political Economy 
 (1848) ; after him A. E. Cherbuliez (1862), H. Fawcett 
 (1863), and Mrs. Fawcett, in her brief compendium 
 of her husband's work. 
 
 We think it better to retain consumption as a distinct 
 head. If we take away the foreign matter which, as 
 Rossi justly objects, is sometimes brought in under 
 it, and if we take away the science of finance which 
 ought to be studied by itself, there yet remains a con- 
 siderable body of doctrine which considers consumption 
 in its true economic function and with regard to its 
 influence on production and distribution, a subject of 
 the first importance. And it should not be forgotten 
 that consumption, or in other words the practical appli- 
 cation of wealth to the uses of life, is the end to which 
 all production tends. Thus by giving it its due place 
 we take away the pretext of those enemies of political 
 economy who, as we shall see, reproach it with giving 
 its whole attention to products, regardless of the lot of 
 those who create and consume them.
 
 ir.] DIVISION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 17 
 
 We will finally touch upon two other modes of 
 dividing political economy suggested or followed by 
 other writers, but which for several reasons do not 
 commend themselves to us. 
 
 The one, widely accepted and applying both to the 
 science and the art, divides them both into two parts : 
 a general part where economic questions are treated in 
 relation to industry considered as a whole ; and a special 
 part where they are examined in relation to the different 
 industries. 
 
 This system has the defect of involving useless 
 repetitions ; it presents the danger of bringing into 
 consideration special technical details (agricultural, 
 technological, commercial,) foreign to the science. This 
 is a danger which the most praiseworthy authors have 
 fallen into, e.g. Eau, Roscher, Nazzani. It not un- 
 commonly leads to the. consideration of phenomena 
 which are common to all industries in sole relation to 
 one industry, as in the subject of grande et petite culture, 
 which is nothing but a particular case of production on 
 a large and small scale. Real specialities of separate 
 industries may either be brought in as examples, or 
 explained in seasonable appendices to, or digressions 
 from, discussions of general economic laws. 
 
 Others, and principally Ferrara, wish both the science 
 and the ai't to be divided into the three branches of 
 individual, social, and international economy, distinc- 
 tions evidently suggested by the well-known division of 
 jurisprudence into private, public internal, and inter- 
 national law. 
 
 This system incurs in a still greater degree than the 
 preceding the dangers of repetition, for economic phe- 
 nomena do not invariably present themselves in these 
 
 G
 
 18 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 three phases ; besides, it tends to incorporate with 
 political economy a great part of private economy. This 
 was clearly perceived by an able pupil of Ferrara, Pro- 
 fessor Ileymond, who accordingly modifies the system of 
 his master, by suppressing in his treatise the division 
 of individual economy. But this is not enough ; for 
 there is no analogy between the sciences of political 
 economy and law on which to found the division into 
 social and international economy preserved by Reymond. 
 
 And in fact there do not exist from the economic 
 point of view those wide differences between States 
 which we observe in their legal and political conditions 
 — differences which produce important modifications in 
 their subordinate relations. The character of economic 
 phenomena is to a great extent rather universal 
 than national, while the matters discussed in what is 
 called international economy, such as the questions 
 relating to free exchange, commercial treaties, emigration 
 and colonies, find their natural place under the head of 
 the circulation of wealth. 
 
 It seems to us necessary in conclusion to draw 
 attention to the true nature of these controversies on 
 the division and order of treatment of the subjects 
 included under political economy. It should be under- 
 stood that- any division whatever must be not only 
 in a measure inexact but also arbitrary, since economic 
 phenomena constitute in reality an undivided unity 
 — an organism* in constant motion and not a mere 
 mechanism. On the other hand, science by didactic 
 necessity must proceed with the help of existing 
 analogies, must artificially arrest the motion of pheno- 
 mena, must break them up into parts, and having 
 separately observed the; e parts, mu^t endeavour to form
 
 il] DIVISION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 19 
 
 them again into an ideal unit which shall conform as 
 nearly as possible to the real unit. Rossi has re- 
 marked that production implies productive consumption 
 and even exchange, since most exchanges are effected 
 for the purpose of production. This is a most true 
 observation and one which might with accuracy be 
 extended to other cases. 
 
 The value of the various divisions and sub-divisions 
 mentioned in this chapter is a question rather of good 
 arrangement than of intrinsic merit, while the diver- 
 gences between these various writers are really much 
 smaller than they appear at first sight. Those eco- 
 nomists who do not admit the titles of consumption 
 and circulation into their principal division of subjects 
 treat it separately in appendices to other divisions of 
 the science. See for example Mill, Courcelle-Seneuil, 
 Cherbuliez, Rau and many others. 
 
 For the rest, we do not wish to deny the importance 
 of such controversies, which, in so far as they result in 
 the better arrangement and classification of the subjects 
 of research and instruction, certainly help to make 
 these subjects more readily apprehended. 
 
 C 2
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE RELATION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY TO 
 OTHER SCIENCES. 
 
 In speaking of the limits of political economy we 
 have already shown how it differs from other sciences 
 which are yet akin to it in that they treat either 
 wholly or in part of the same subject-matter. Those 
 differences cannot do away with the analogies — nor 
 hence with more or less close relations — between these 
 sciences and political economy, relations and analogies 
 which we propose in the present chapter briefly to 
 discuss. At the same time we shall indicate the more 
 recent and important works which deal, either with 
 these relations at large, or with one or other of the said 
 sciences in special connection with political economy. 
 
 Having first premised that these relations may be 
 called either 2 )ass ^ ve or active according as political 
 economy receives or gives information, we will speak 
 more particularly of the relations between political 
 economy and : — 
 
 1. Private Economy. 4. Statistics. 
 
 2. Morals. 5. Law. 
 
 3. History, 6. Politics.
 
 CH. in.] RELATION TO OTHER SCIENCES. 21 
 
 § 1. Private Economy, 
 
 While political economy considers both wealth and 
 the industries from which it arises in their relations to 
 society and not in connection either with the conditions 
 of the family or with technical pi'ocesses, it yet not 
 seldom receives valuable assistance from technology, 
 and from private — more especially from industrial— eco- 
 nomy. It is not able either to recognise the natural 
 laws of social wealth nor to deduce from them wise 
 administrative rules without first paying attention 
 to the technical and economic conditions of separate 
 industries, 
 
 This assistance is indispensable to political economy 
 when it treats of the division and combination of labour, 
 of machines, of money, of the means of transport and 
 communication, of the formation, the scale, and the 
 organisation of industrial enterprises, &c. 
 
 On the other hand political economy, explaining in 
 the mass the general laws of the economic world which 
 cannot with impunity be defied by individuals, throws 
 the most useful light on private economy. The latter, 
 thus finding its complement, corrects by enlarging the 
 purely individual point of view which it per se naturally 
 takes, especially in the department of industrial 
 economy. For this reason some recent writers treat 
 diffusely of such economic doctrines as are more closely 
 ■connected with the principles of industrial economy 
 and in particular with the doctrine of manufacture. 
 The following works deserve special mention : 
 
 C. G. Courcelle-Seneuil, Manuel des Affaires, third 
 edition, Paris, 1872.
 
 22 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 A. Emniinghaus, Allgemeine Geicerkslehre. Berlin, 
 1868. 
 
 M. Haushofer, Der Industriebetrieb, Stuttgart, 1874 
 (a more copious and complete work than the preceding). 
 
 P. Coq, Cours d'economie industrielle. Paris, 1876. 
 
 Ch. Laboulaye, Economie des machines et des manufac- 
 tures. Paris, 1880. (Reproduction of the well-known 
 work of Babbage.) 
 
 § 2. Morals. 
 
 Although political economy is a science altogether 
 distinct from morals, yet, especially in its applications, 
 it is closely related to it. 
 
 In its applied part political economy is inferior in 
 rank to morals, the supreme precepts of which ought 
 never to be disregarded in the pursuit of mere economic 
 advantage. In the progress of civilisation, wealth is 
 simply a means to the attainment of the higher aim 
 of moral improvement. Therefore in the event of 
 partial conflicts between ethical and economic interests, 
 the latter ought always to give way to the demands of 
 the former. In dealing for example with the employ- 
 ment of women and children in factories, important 
 considerations of a moral kind would justify the ener- 
 getic action of social powers when economic reasons 
 either do not demand or even distinctly discourage such 
 interference. 
 
 We have used the expression partial to qualify these 
 conflicts, knowing well that general or permanent conflicts 
 between morals and economy cannot be imagined. They 
 are rendered impossible by that consoling fact known 
 to philosophers, the ultimate harmony of utility with 
 justice and right. On these points we must beware of
 
 in.] RELATION TO OTHER SCIENCES. 23 
 
 two opposite errors, that of necessary and fatal contra- 
 diction or antinomy (Proudhon), and the other error of 
 expecting necessary harmony in the minute particulars 
 of economic life (Carey, Bastiat, Ferrara). 
 
 But this inferiority of political economy relates only 
 to its applied part, because with respect to the pure 
 science, which seeks for the primary causes of economic 
 and moral phenomena alike, there can be no question of 
 preeminence. Political economy may even give the 
 most useful support to morals, and one who is a 
 Christian moralist and at the same time an orthodox 
 economist has said with good reason that political 
 economy is the most 'powerful ally of morality (Droz). 
 
 It does in fact provide a. powerful practical argument 
 to influence minds which are not open to conviction 
 from philosophic principles and which have no strong 
 inclination to obey the sentiment of duty. It points 
 out the material advantages to be derived from the 
 exercise of certain virtues, such as industry, foresight, 
 thrift. Further, it makes clear the economic disadvan- 
 tages of certain vices, such as idleness, improvidence, 
 dissipation, and those still greater ones arising from 
 social institutions repugnant to moral laws (slavery, 
 serfdom, war, &c). 
 
 Political economy rightly studied may thus help to 
 correct the erroneous assertions of some moralists 
 who, judging certain actions morally blamable, bring in 
 false economic considerations to determine the degree 
 of their culpability. One often reads or hears for ex- 
 ample that avarice is a worse vice than prodigality, 
 which may, it is said, be at least partly excused by its 
 beneficial economic effects. As a matter of fact, from 
 the purely economic aspect of the two vices, it is more
 
 i 
 
 / 
 
 24 /STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 correct f jo say that the lying idle of a certain portion of 
 wealth is a less evil than its absolute destruction. (On 
 this point see Clement, Dictionnaire de l' Economie 
 Politique — Introduction, pp. xxiii., xxiv. Paris, 1853.) 
 
 In the last twenty years this very delicate question 
 of the relations between morals and political economy 
 has been much discussed, especially in elaborate mono- 
 graphs called forth in the competition for a prize 
 ' offered by the French Academy of Moral and Political 
 Sciences (1857). 
 
 We will enumerate the chief of these, with the warn- 
 ing that in some of them the just balance is not held, 
 while they recommend as a step in scientific progress 
 the absorption into political economy of a great part of 
 ethics, which would in reality be a most undesirable 
 retrogression. 
 
 These are the titles of some of them : — 
 
 H. Baudrillart, Des Rapports de la Morale et de 
 l'Economie Politique. Paris, 1860. 
 
 A. Rondelet, Du Spiritualisme en Economie Politique. 
 Paris, 1859. 
 
 H. Dameth, Le Juste et l'Utile. Paris, 1859. 
 
 M. Minghetti, Dell'economia pubblica e delle sue attin- 
 enze colla morale e col diritto. Florence, 1859, 2nd ed., 
 1868. This is a thoughtful work, which adds to its 
 many intrinsic merits that— too rare in Italy — of an 
 elegant and correct style. 
 
 § 3. History. 
 
 Political economy studies the general laws by which 
 economic facts are governed, while history chronologi- 
 cally traces the successive development of these facts.
 
 in.] RELATION TO OTHER SCIENCES. 25 
 
 The one is concerned with necessary, the other with 
 contingent matter. And yet it is undeniable that the 
 former science obtains the most important informa- 
 tion from the latter, which, as already remarked, is one 
 of its main sources, making clear the laws of economic- 
 phenomena in many difficult cases. Even when history 
 does not fulfil this function of completing theory, it yet 
 supplies most useful illustrations of principles otherwise 
 discovered. 
 
 On the other hand, political economy gives the history 
 of economic institutions the most powerful support by 
 guiding the choice, co-ordination, and appreciation of 
 facts which would otherwise be entirely inexplicable, 
 or at least could not be comprehended in their full 
 importance. 
 
 Contemporary historians appear to be now more fully 
 aware of this, as they give greater attention to economic 
 facts, and strive to qualify themselves for a more suffi- 
 cient explanation of them by studying the principles of 
 political economy. The works of Grote, Mommsen, 
 Macaulay, and Thiers, are a convincing proof that this 
 is the case. 
 
 See Baudrillart's Prolusion to the course of lectures 
 given by him in 1864-5 at the Collège de France. 
 (Journal des Economistes.) 
 
 § 4. Statistics. 
 
 The connection of statistics with political economy 
 is analogous to, though closer than, that of history. 
 Statistics are an orderly exposition of social and hence 
 also of economic facts, summing up their total result 
 when possible in the exact language of figures.
 
 26 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [CHAP. 
 
 Though not the only means, as some pretend, yet 
 statistics are of the utmost importance in the discovery 
 of economic truths, and in all cases they provide very 
 useful materials for illustrating the theories and apply- 
 ing the doctrines of political economy. 
 
 For this reason political economy has profited much 
 by the new direction given lately to statistical 
 science by Quetelet, Guerry, Dufau, Engel, Wagner, 
 Oettingen, Knapp, Lexis, and many others, to whom we 
 Italians may add the illustrious names of Messedaglia, 
 Lampertico, Morpui'go, Bodio, and others who follow in 
 their steps, holding the high place in fame which in 
 another period of the science has been duly awarded 
 to the writings of Gioja and Romagnosi. But at the 
 same time it must not be forgotten that conversely 
 statistics cannot dispense with the support of political 
 economy, which gives the necessary light for the choice, 
 the comparison and the criticism of its data. 
 
 And this close bond between the sister sciences is in 
 no way loosened by those imperfections of statistics 
 about which we hear so much on all sides just 
 now, and which are very often exaggerated by the 
 epigrams of the half informed and the prejudices of 
 the vulgar. Such people forget the really eminent 
 services already rendered by statistical investigations 
 and the still greater ones which may be expected from 
 them. 
 
 Among the compendiums of theoretical statistics which 
 come up to the present state of the science, we may 
 note : 
 
 M. Haushofer, Lehr und Handbuch der Statist Ik. 
 Vienna, 1872. (A diligent compilation.) 
 
 M. Block, Tratte théoriqué et pratique de Statistique.
 
 IH.'] RELATION TO OTHER SCIENCES. 27 
 
 Paris, 1878, 8vo. (German translation by H. v. Scheel. 
 Leipzig, 1879.) 
 
 A. Gabaglio, Storia e teoria generale della statistica. 
 Milan, 1880. (Undoubtedly the best work on statistical 
 method.) 
 
 Among the many treatises of applied statistics, it 
 will be enough to name the best known : 
 
 G. F. Kolb, Handbnch der vergleichenden Statisti k, 
 8th ed. Leipzig, 1879. 
 
 And another, more exact, sober and really com- 
 parative : 
 
 H. F. Brachelli, Die Staaten Europei 's. Briinn, 1876. 
 3rd ed. 
 
 § 5. Law. 
 
 Notwithstanding the differences already mentioned 
 between the legal and economic points of view, con- 
 sisting in the fact that the science of law confines itself 
 to tracing the sphere of competence which justly belongs 
 to different individuals, yet none the less strong is the 
 link which binds political economy to the different 
 branches of public and private, rational and positive 
 law. 
 
 It being impossible in an elementary book to go 
 deeply into such a delicate subject, we will content 
 ourselves with some passing remarks by way of 
 illustration. 
 
 I. International public law. Political economy points 
 out in a positive manner the material advantages to be 
 derived from an equal adjustment of international re- 
 lations. It also shows the bad effects of wars and of 
 the old systems of isolation founded on political and 
 commercial hostility, as for instance the mercantile, the
 
 28 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 prohibitive, the 2 yr otective, and the colonial systems. 
 Thus where wars are inevitable it tends to moderate 
 their fierceness, proclaiming the principle of respect in 
 war for private property. This principle is admitted 
 more in the theory, yet to a certain extent also in the 
 practice, of modern international law. 
 
 And here we may observe that the utilitarian nature 
 of the arguments put forward by political economy gives 
 them a peculiar efficacy, so that we may be permitted 
 to hope with Scialoja that international justice may 
 be one day established as the outcome of economic 
 calculation. 
 
 II. Constitutional law. The connection existing be- 
 tween the wise political ordering of States and the 
 economic prosperity of citizens sufficiently explains 
 the kind of assistance mutually rendered to one another 
 by political economy and constitutional law. The first 
 demonstrates how the best economic consequences result 
 from a set of truly liberal institutions ensuring the 
 pacific and orderly development of all the elements of 
 social progress. The second proves the no less important 
 influence which the wise direction of public economy 
 exercises over the right adjustment of constitutional 
 laws. As a proof of these truths it may be seen how 
 often subversive ideas with regard to economics and 
 politics are joined in a pernicious alliance which can 
 only be broken by the rapid diffusion of sound principles 
 in both the sciences. 
 
 III. Administrative law. Political economy gives a 
 sufficient number of principles for the formation of a 
 good administrative system, without which any consti- 
 tutional law whatever, however wisely framed, would 
 be but a dead letter. On the other hand, a well-directed
 
 in.] RELATION TO OTHER. SCIENCES. 29 
 
 administration sometimes succeeds in curing the many- 
 evils of a corrupt political constitution. 
 
 Indeed it must be noticed that political economy pro- 
 vides secure rules either for the establishment of an 
 administration or for wisely carrying on one already 
 existing. This sufficiently proves the necessity for a 
 study of economics as the basis of a study of adminis- 
 tration, though it does not justify the practice of those 
 writers on administrative law who fill their books with 
 economic digressions, with the hope of hiding their 
 want of that positive knowledge which ought to be the 
 primary qualification of such treatises. 
 
 IV. Civil law. The connection which binds civil law 
 to political economy is soon perceived, if we reflect that 
 the greater part of the doctrines constituting the first 
 have an essentially economic object, as is the case 
 with theories which concern property and other 1 real 
 rights, such as hereditary successions, pecuniary engage- 
 ments and contracts, &c. 
 
 Civil law is of use to political economy in making 
 known the legal relations originating in various eco- 
 nomic transactions, while political economy helps to 
 give a true and complete notion of many institutions 
 of which civil law only analyses the external form. 
 
 Thus, for example, it is easier to understand fully the 
 legal distinction between barter and buying and selling, 
 when it is perceived that these contracts are economi- 
 cally identical, differing merely in form. And it must 
 also be observed that economic progress has contributed 
 to the reform of many clauses in modern civil codes. 
 
 1 This term, restricted in English law, has in Continental law 
 its literal meaning— all rights over things, as distinguished from 
 personal rights.
 
 30 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap 
 
 It is enough to mention the now almost general abolition 
 of restrictive laws on the rate of interest, the many 
 innovations in the system of hypothecation, the radical 
 changes in lease-contracts, &:c. 
 
 Therefore the question of the relations between the 
 two sciences has been in our time the subject of more 
 or less subtle and accurate researches. In these many 
 illustrious Italian writers have taken part, among others 
 Valeriani and Romagnosi, and somewhat later Rossi, 
 who in 1S38 made a critique of the French civil code. 
 Still later Mingbetti, in the book cited above, treated 
 ex-professo of the relations between economics and 
 jurisprudence. 
 
 Among foreign writers Rivet deserves praise as the 
 author of a work entitled : 
 
 Des Rapports du droit et de la legislation avec 
 l'economie politique, Paris, 1864. 
 
 And Dankwardt, who illustrates with much ingenuity 
 though with obvious exaggeration the influence of eco- 
 nomic ideas on certain institutions of Roman law. 
 
 H. Dankwardt, Nationalokonomie tend Jurisprudenz. 
 Rostock, 1857 et seq. 
 
 V. Commercial law. In commercial as in civil law, 
 the jurist studies the legal relations arising from par- 
 ticular institutions (partnerships and companies, instru- 
 ments of credit, banks, insurances, &c), while the eco- 
 nomist determines their functions and their social effects. 
 Thus the progress of political economy has no little in- 
 fluence, especially in our own times, on the development 
 of jurisprudence and commercial legislation. For ex- 
 ample, Einert's book, propounding a legal theory of 
 the bill of exchange founded on its modern economic 
 functions, contributed largely to prepare the way for the
 
 in.] RELATION TO OTHER SCIENCES. 31 
 
 German law of 1848 which marked a new epoch in the 
 history of the legislation of bills of exchange. 
 
 And for this reason some contemporary jurists make 
 frequent use of economic theories to explain the true 
 nature of the institutions of commercial law. 
 
 In Germany, for instance, Prof. W. Endemann has 
 done so in his book : Das deutsche Handelsrecht. Heidel- 
 berg, 1865 (3rd ed. 1876). 
 
 With wider and more profound research, Prof. L. 
 Goldschmidt gives us a fine illustration of the advantages 
 to be gained from political economy in his classical work 
 entitled Handbuch des II andelsr edits. Erlangen, 1864, 
 et seq. (2nd ed. 1874). 
 
 In Italy, Vidari is following in the same line in his 
 Corso dì Diritto Commerciale, which he has already begun 
 to publish. (Milan, U. Hoepli, Vols. I.-IIL, 1877-79.) 
 
 § 6. Politics. 
 
 With politics, the science of good government based 
 upon the principles of social utility, political economy 
 has both passive and active relations. On the one hand 
 it receives from politics more general notions about 
 the rules of government and the nature of civil in- 
 stitutions. On the other it provides indispensable 
 maxims to economic politics, a most important branch 
 of the science of public administration. For the general 
 principles of politics we may consult among more recent 
 works : 
 
 Waitz, Grimdziige der Politile. Gottingen, 1862. (Very 
 brief but good.) 
 
 Esquirou de Parieu, Principes de la Science politique. 
 Paris, 1870. 1 vol. 8vo. (2nd ed. 1875).
 
 32 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. hi. 
 
 J. C. v. Bluntschli, Politik als Wissenschaft. Stuttgart, 
 1876. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 For administrative science in particular : 
 
 Theod. D. Woolsey, Political Science ; or, The State 
 Theoretically and Practically Considered. London, 1878 5 
 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 L. v. Stein, Die Verwaltungslehre, 1865 et seq., 7 
 vols. 8vo. This is a very important work of colossal 
 size, but incomplete and not free from errors. The 
 author most usefully completed and abridged his work 
 in his JIandbuch der Verwaltungslehre. Stuttgart, 
 1876. 1 vol. 8vo. (2nd ed). 
 • Among Italian writers we must not forget : 
 
 G. Manna, Partizioni teoretiche del diritto amministra- 
 tivo. 2nd ed. Naples, 1860. 
 
 C. F. Ferraris, Saggi d'economia, di statistica e di 
 scienza dell' amministrazione. Turin, 1880. (Very 
 learned and remarkable essays).
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 § I- 
 
 By method we mean the logical process by which truth 
 is discovered (i.e. the inventive method) and by which 
 it is communicated to others (i.e. the demonstrative or 
 didactic method). 
 
 The study of the inventive method (method in its 
 strict sense) is of the first importance, not only in phi- 
 losophy but also in the special sciences, where it is often 
 neglected. The didactic method has a purely educational 
 value. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the general doctrine of method 
 belongs to the sphere of logic we will touch on it briefly 
 here, in order to render intelligible the many lively 
 controversies which are constantly going on about the 
 method best suited to political economy. And first to 
 explain the distinction between the deductive and 
 inductive methods, which constitute two poles logically 
 opposed. 
 
 In the deductive method (synthetic, rational, à 
 priori), certain general principles being given which 
 are self-evident or known by immediate intuition, the 
 
 D
 
 34 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 consequences comprehended in them are deduced by a 
 connected chain of reasonings. It thus proceeds from 
 the general to the particular by the help of pure reason, 
 and with no external aid. It is an exact method, 
 leading to certain results, provided that the premisses 
 are true and sufficient, and the deductions correct. 
 
 The inductive method (analytical, empirical, à pos- 
 teriori) is founded on the observation of certain 
 phenomena ; and by means of abstractions stating their 
 analogies and differences, it seeks to discover the 
 laws by which they are governed. It proceeds there- 
 fore from the particular to the general with the 
 help of what is called inductive reasoning — reason- 
 ing, that is, which is based on experience. It is a 
 less rigorous method than the deductive, and leads to 
 results which in relation to truth are merely more or 
 less probable, it not being possible to arrive by it at 
 absolute certainty. 
 
 According to the different uses of these methods we 
 have deductive sciences, inductive sciences, and sciences 
 which are partly deductive, and partly inductive. 
 
 The purely deductive or exact sciences in the strict 
 sense are specially the mathematical sciences, and in 
 part only the philosophical sciences. Thus they in- 
 clude arithmetic, algebraic analysis, geometry, and in fact 
 evei'y branch of abstract mathematics. 
 
 The exactness of mathematics is owing firstly to the 
 use of deductive reasoning ; and secondarily to the use 
 of a symbolic language (cipriiers, letters, geometrical figures). 
 This is superior to common language, both from its 
 brevity and elegance and because it indicates all the 
 logical operations which have been performed in the 
 reasoning, thus facilitating the discovery and the
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 35 
 
 correction of such errors as may have marred it. And 
 here we must beware of confounding the accessory (the 
 symbols) with the principal, since it is quite possible to 
 apply ordinary language to mathematics, though we thus 
 lose in brevity and elegance. 
 
 Purely inductive sciences are to be found among the 
 physical sciences, which, having until now remained 
 in a purely descriptive stage, are consequently little 
 more than mere generalisations of phenomena. Such, 
 for example, are geology and meteorology, notwithstanding 
 their recent notable advances. Among social sciences, we 
 have statistics, which, although it makes use of what is 
 now sometimes called mathematical induction, has not 
 yet passed beyond this first stage. 
 
 Sciences partly inductive and partly deductive are those 
 which, having found their general principles by means 
 of induction, proceed deductively to discover the con- 
 sequences of these principles, with the frequent use of 
 calculation. The more advanced physical and natural 
 sciences belong to this group, as for example chemistry, 
 physics, mechanics and astronomy. Such sciences, induc- 
 tive in their beginnings but subsequently reaching the 
 deductive stage, may in a wide sense be called exact 
 sciences, in addition to abstract mathematics, which is, as 
 has been seen, purely deductive. 
 
 But here we ought to make another distinction, 
 important in itself, and also because it helps people to 
 avoid errors into which they may fall if they follow 
 literally certain nomenclatures, frequent enough in 
 common usage, but somewhat incorrect. 
 
 Those sciences which are founded on observation and 
 induction, and which some authors loosely and vaguely 
 call experimental sciences, are really divided into two 
 
 D 2
 
 36 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 classes according to then* very different modes of 
 observation. 
 These are : 
 
 1. Sciences of observation (in the strict sense), which 
 study certain phenomena as they naturally present 
 themselves, without subjecting them to any modifica- 
 tion. And among these again those sciences in which 
 observations are only made by means of the unaided 
 senses are to be distinguished from those in which it 
 is possible to make use of instruments of precision, as 
 astronomy, meteorology, etc. 
 
 2. Experimental sciences, which unite with simple 
 observation the use of experiments properly so called^ 
 consisting in the artificial pi'oduction of phenomena 
 with a constant varying of conditions. So, for example, 
 physics and chemistry owe the greater part of their 
 progress to the possibility of experiments, in other 
 words observation carried to a greater degree of 
 perfection. 
 
 The method proper to the social sciences, these being 
 as a whole younger and less advanced than the physical 
 or mathematical sciences, is still a much controverted 
 point, and more or less profound disputes still take place, 
 on their logical character, on their nature as deductive 
 or inductive sciences, and on the possibility of apply- 
 ing experimental investigation to them. These disputes 
 rarely lead to any results, being often raised without 
 sufficient philosophic preparation, and especially by 
 dilettanti, who at the least excuse digress from the 
 field of letters into that of the social sciences which 
 they lightly consider as belonging to them.
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 37 
 
 As we cannot here enter into a discussion of the 
 method to be applied to the social sciences in general, 
 we will name some works which, together with Mill's 
 System of Logic and Whewell's Philosophy of the 
 Inductive Sciences, treat at large of this subject. 
 
 Sir George Come wall Lewis, A Treatise on the Methods 
 of Observation and Reasoning in Politics. London, 1852, 
 2 vols. 
 
 P. A. Dufau, De la MWiode d' Observation dans son 
 Application aux Sciences morales et politiques. Paris, 
 1866. 
 
 § 3. 
 
 The controversy on method also rages continually in 
 the special field of political economy. While some hold 
 it to be wholly or in great part a deductive science, 
 others, mostly more recent, call it an inductive science 
 and a science of observation ; they consider that until 
 now it has advanced by experiment. Finally others 
 think that it is both deductive and inductive. The 
 difficulty of the question obviously exists only with 
 regard to rational political economy, since no one can 
 reasonably doubt the capital importance of observation 
 and induction to the applied science, and still more 
 to practice, or to effective application in concrete 
 cases. 
 
 It appears to us that in the inquiry as to the method 
 best adapted to political economy we must take into 
 account the nature of the science itself, to which the 
 method must necessarily be accommodated, as well as 
 the method successfully followed by the great masters 
 who have helped to construct the science ; and finally 
 the analogies, existing up to a certain point, between
 
 33 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 political economy and some other sciences, mostly 
 physical, the methods of which have now reached a 
 certain point of perfection. 
 
 This view is expounded by Cairnes in a profound and 
 too little known monograph, from which we have drawn 
 largely in the present chapter. 
 
 J. E. Cairnes, The Character and Logical Method of 
 Political Economy. London, 1857. (2nd. ed. 1875.) 
 
 Let us turn our attention to the method that has 
 been effectually followed in the discovery of the greater 
 number of those truths, which, even in treatises profess- 
 ing to hold different views as to method, are expounded 
 in nearly the same way. We shall arrive at the in- 
 evitable conclusion that the most firmly established 
 theories, and especially those relating to circulation 
 and distribution, the most important and difficult 
 points of the science, are without doubt discovered 
 by the deductive method, starting from a few pre- 
 misses, sometimes explicitly declared but more often 
 tacitly understood, which may be reduced to the follow- 
 ing statements : 
 
 1. In the economic order of things the principal 
 motive of human actions is individual self-interest. This 
 induces man (a) to avoid pain (fatigue, work) ; (b) to 
 desire pleasure (wealth) ; (c) hence, to aim at obtaining 
 the greatest amount of wealth with the least amount 
 of labour, or in more general terms, the greatest result 
 with the least effort, which is, as it is now expressed, 
 the law of least resistance. 
 
 2. The earth, indispensable to man as a place in 
 which to live and work, and as the source whence he 
 may extract food and raw materials, is naturally 
 limited, (a) in the products which it contains ; (b) in
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 39 
 
 its actual extent ; (c) in its relative fertility (different 
 qualities of soils) ; (d) in its successive fertility (de- 
 creasing productiveness at a certain point with every 
 new application of capital and labour). 
 
 3. The physical and psychological tendencies of man 
 lead him to multiply his own species with a rapidity 
 which, if it met with no obstacles, would bring about 
 an unlimited increase of population. 
 
 From these three premisses, bearing respectively a 
 physical, physiological, and psychological character, the 
 three important theories of value, rent, and population 
 are derived. Of these, the two first are specially deduced 
 from the first and second premisses, while the last is 
 founded on the second and third. It is therefore 
 impossible to appreciate the scientific consistency of 
 that portion of political economy which rests on 
 deductions from those premisses, without a previous 
 examination of their logical value. 
 
 Such an examination convinces us that these pro- 
 positions result from facts, either of themselves positive 
 and certain, or at least suscej)tible of strict proof. 
 Indeed it is almost needless to state that the first 
 and third propositions are known by intuition, since 
 they affirm tendencies which we find in ourselves and 
 which are inseparable from our nature, while the second 
 premise may be verified by experience. The fact that 
 instead of an unceasing application of fresh capital 
 and labour to soil of the best quality, cultivation 
 extends to lands of inferior quality, at once proves 
 that there is a natural limitation to the fertility of 
 cultivated land, which is just what is affirmed by the 
 second proposition. 
 
 If we then take into consideration only the premisses
 
 40 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 from which political economy starts, we shall find that 
 these premisses are certain, either because they are 
 immediately intuitive or because they may be directly 
 and strictly proved. We must conclude that in this 
 sense political economy is more a positive science than 
 even mathematics, of which the definitions and axioms 
 are often of a hypothetical character, and still more so 
 than the most advanced physical sciences, which are 
 obliged to find their premisses by means of the most 
 laborious inductions, with no possibility of subjecting 
 them to direct proof. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to add that the said pre- 
 misses, however true, are incomplete and insufficient 
 when compared with actual phenomena. For example, 
 individual self-interest is not the only motive of human 
 action, even in circumstances of an economic character. 
 Sympathy, charity, custom, patriotism, more or less 
 modify or sometimes even paralyse the action of indi- 
 vidual interest. The laws of value, of wages, of 
 emigration, are often affected by the action of these 
 causes, and of others not taken into account in the 
 ordinary economic assumptions. In the same way 
 the progress of agriculture and of those sciences on 
 which it is founded, tend up to a certain point 
 to counterbalance' or at least to delay the results of 
 the limitation of land. Sometimes egotism and some- 
 times foresight co-operate with other circumstances to 
 temper the force of the principle of population. To 
 recapitulate : — Economic deductions, starting from just 
 premisses and proceeding by correct reasoning, lead us 
 to conclusions which are scientifically true, and which 
 assume the character of laws. These laws however 
 have a hypothetical character, because they express
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 41 
 
 the tendency of certain causes to produce given effects 
 on condition of the absence of certain other causes, 
 which cannot like the former be discovered by à 
 priori calculation, and which the science considers as 
 disturbing elements. 
 
 But the hypothetical nature of its conclusions does 
 not place economic science in an inferior position to 
 the physical sciences. These are also for the most 
 part obliged to limit themselves to stating laws 
 which are merely hypothetical, and inconsistent with 
 actual phenomena ; though this inconsistency is no proof 
 of the inaccuracy of scientific investigations. For to 
 illustrate, the actual motion of a projectile presents 
 neither uniform and perpetual motion nor perpendi- 
 cular accelerated motion nor the perfect parabola, 
 and yet it cannot be cited as a proof of the falsity of 
 the respective laws of motion, gravity, and resistance. 
 
 But what does without any doubt demonstrate the 
 inferiority alike of political economy and the other 
 social sciences, compared with the physical sciences, 
 is the fact that in the latter disturbing causes can be 
 eliminated, while in the former this process is not 
 possible. The economist, if he wishes to proceed in- 
 ductively, is almost always reduced to the simple obser- 
 vation of extremely complicated facts, which are very 
 often the result of agents either hidden or incom- 
 mensurable. In the sphere of political economy, the 
 practical experiment of the legislator and administrator 
 is the only experiment possible, and that, from the 
 nature of its subjects, must necessarily be restricted 
 within extremely narrow limits and conducted with 
 great caution. 
 
 And this inferiority of political economy, in com-
 
 42 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 parison with the more advanced physical sciences 
 greatly exceeds the advantage it possesses in being able 
 to avoid for the most part the lengthiness of the in- 
 ductive method in the establishment of its fundamental 
 principles. Sir G. C. Lewis has shown this very well 
 in the excellent work cited above. And yet there are 
 many in our days who affirm decidedly that political 
 economy should be reckoned among the experimental 
 sciences. 
 
 The hypothetical nature of economic deductions, — 
 founded on premisses which, although true, do not take 
 into account those exceptional causes which modify 
 phenomena in various ways, — necessitates, so to speak, 
 a supplementary use of the inductive method. While 
 observing actual facts, this method tries to discover the 
 disturbing causes, themselves capable of classification 
 and, though variable, obeying laws which up to a certain 
 point are constant. 
 
 In other words, the inductive and deductive methods 
 — observation and reasoning — must be combined, with 
 the twofold aim of obtaining a concrete proof of laws 
 found by deduction and of finding some explanation of 
 the probable causes of the variation of phenomena. Such 
 observations, whether for the purpose of proof or of 
 discovery, are either made directly by the economist, or 
 are found collected and more or less elaborated and 
 arranged in historical and statistical works. Statistics, 
 as some have truly said, has by its recent advances, 
 become a new instrument of political economy. 
 
 It must be remarked that these results of the in- 
 ductive process, if they are well ascertained and refer 
 to a sufficient number of phenomena, serve to modify 
 the original premisses of political economy and hence
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 43 
 
 also its further deductions, thus following in the path 
 constructed by the physical sciences. For the rest, 
 although we thus find our conclusions in stricter ac- 
 cordance with facts, we run the danger of diminishing 
 the scientiBc exactness of our arguments and the logical 
 value of their results. 
 
 To sum up in a few words the conclusion of this 
 investigation which, from its nature, has been some- 
 what dry and abstruse. Political economy, although a 
 science in great part deductive from its mode of dis- 
 covering its more general principles, is yet also an 
 inductive science. This is the case not only when it 
 seeks for rules to be practically applied, but also when 
 it undertakes the practical proof of principles de- 
 ductively found. Induction is also essential to the dis- 
 covery of new principles, especially of those relating 
 to production, for which, as Mangoldt truly observes, 
 the deductive method is absolutely useless. 
 
 So that, as Messedaglia remarks, the question of 
 method in political economy resolves itself into a 
 question of limits. But we will permit ourselves to 
 add that it is none the less complicated and delicate 
 on this account, as is proved by the errors of those 
 who, with little knowledge of the proper use either of 
 deduction or induction, allow themselves to be led away 
 by false and superficial analogies to place political 
 economy among the experimental sciences. Carey, a 
 meritorious economic writer, gives abundant examples 
 of the strange confusions into which those may fall 
 whose ideas as to the method of a science are 
 ambiguous.
 
 44 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 § 4. 
 
 Connected with our present subject is the question 
 of the application of the calculus and of mathematical 
 language to economic doctrines. This is not a question 
 of method, as some have erroneously supposed, but 
 simply of the convenience of applying to our science 
 the figures and symbolic forms which are frequently 
 found useful in purely deductive sciences, and in those 
 mixed sciences which have reached the decTuctive stage. 
 We must limit ourselves to a few observations, such as 
 our absolute incompetence in this branch of knowledge 
 will allow of. 
 
 In the first place political economy is not, nor 
 can it ever become, an exact science in the sense of 
 being able to present in all its departments subjects 
 fitted for mathematical calculation. For it is not, as 
 we have already remarked, a purely deductive science, 
 and its premisses are not capable of exact quantitative 
 determination (weight, number, measure). They often 
 relate to incommensurable quantities, so that their 
 conclusions cannot always be marked by mathematical 
 exactness. The use of the most delicately adjusted 
 scales has brought quantitative chemical analysis to 
 the highest degree of perfection ; the crystallographer 
 can determine the geometrical forms of bodies left to 
 their own intrinsic power of aggregation ; but it is 
 certain that political economy can rarely produce such 
 exact results. We know indeed that a diminution in 
 the supply of grain as a rule increases its value in a 
 proportion more rapid than that which would corre- 
 spond to the actual deficiency of produce ; we know,
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 45 
 
 that is, that if the harvest of this year is half that of 
 last year, it is probable that its price will be more than 
 double. But we cannot à priori determine the amount 
 of this increase, because it is influenced by other causes 
 than the amount of harvest, and these defy all attempt 
 at measurement. Among such causes are the intensity 
 of the need for food, the vaiiety of products that may 
 serve for the satisfaction of that need, the greater or 
 less disposition to abstain from other expenses and to 
 make use of other foods ; and more than all, perhaps, 
 the greater or less fear of starvation, which depends not 
 so much on the actual supply as on the opinion as to 
 that supply held by the mass of consumers, and the 
 effect of this opinion cannot in any way be precisely 
 determined. 
 
 Hence those economists err who believe, or affect to 
 believe, that political economy is nothing else than an 
 application of mathematics, and that in time it will be 
 reduced to this. 
 
 Notwithstanding, within certain limits and in treating 
 of exactly appreciable quantities, we may apply mathe- 
 matics to the economic science. At least its symbolic 
 language may be found most useful for the abbreviation 
 and development of certain complicated theories, and for 
 the illustration of certain doctrines by hypothetical cases. 
 For such purposes algebraical symbols are superior to 
 numerical figures, so lengthily and tediously made use 
 of by Ricardo, Ferrara and other able economists. This 
 method has been followed with more or less success 
 by Cournot, Thlinen and his critics (Knapp, Brentano, 
 Schuhmacher), and by Whewell, Mangoldt, and Fauvean, 
 not to mention older and in general less correct writers. 
 
 We will leave others to judge whether or no this
 
 46 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 method has led to the discovery of any important theory 
 by which the scientific inheritance of political economy 
 has been increased. For ourselves we do not think so. 
 
 Among more recent writers who are inclined to give a 
 mathematical direction to political economy, may be cited : 
 W. Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy, 
 London, 1871 (2nd edition, revised and enlarged, with 
 a bibliography of mathematico-economic writers, 1879) : 
 L. Walras, Elements d' Economie politique pure, Lausanne, 
 1874. Independently of one another, these writers 
 arrived at almost identical results in the theory of 
 exchange. 
 
 The following writers do credit to this new branch 
 of mathematics : J. D'Aulnis de Bourouill, Het inkomen 
 der Maatschappij , Leiden, 1874 ; G. Boccardo, Dell' Appli- 
 cazione dei Metodi quantitativi alle Scienze economiche, 
 &c. (Preface to vol. 2 of 3rd series of the Biblioteca 
 dell' Economista, 1875.) 
 
 § 5- 
 
 About thirty years ago, a controversy which had 
 already grown old in the science of law began among 
 the German economists and spread to those of other 
 nations. It arose between the historic and philosophic 
 schools, relating not to method but to another and 
 no less important question, namely, whether there are 
 in political economy absolute and general truths, or 
 whether there are only partial and relative principles 
 capable of application only under certain conditions of 
 time, place, and civilisation. 
 
 Hil debrand (in 1848), Knies more explicitly (in 1853), 
 and at the head of all, Roscher (in 1854) propounded
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 47 
 
 and largely developed the principles of the historical 
 school. In France Wolowski, Roscher's translator, 
 and in Italy Cognetti de Martiis {Delle Attinenze tra 
 V Economia sociale e la Storia, Firenze, 18G5), and 
 Schiattatila {Del Metodo in Economia sociale, Naples, 
 1873), declared themselves followers of it. 
 
 A few remarks will here suffice as to the tendencies, 
 merits and defects of the so-called historic school, for 
 which we have made much use of Messedaglia's brief 
 but for the most part excellent criticism on the same 
 subject. 
 
 In law the historic school recognises no rational prin- 
 ciples of absolute and universal validity (a philosophy 
 of law), but only admits the existence of law as the 
 organic product of the national conscience, that is, a 
 positive law. So in political economy the new school 
 denies the existence of absolute principles and of ideal 
 types to which the economic government of states may 
 be conformed. It recognises only a national economy 
 peculiar to each nation and period, and thus confined to 
 the particular physical, ethnical and historical condi- 
 tions of a nation and its stage of civilisation. The 
 supposed general principles are merely erroneous and 
 incomplete abstractions of the conditions and circum- 
 stances prevailing in the country to which their author 
 happens to belong. And so the genuine historical 
 economist ought to content himself with describing 
 the various stages of economic civilisation and finding 
 the principles and applications proper to different 
 periods. 
 
 But we may observe on the other hand : 
 
 1. That we must not confuse the truths of pure 
 science with the principles of ajiplied science or of art.
 
 48 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 The former are for the most part absolute and universal. 
 The latter are always contingent and particular, since 
 in order to apply them to concrete cases we are obliged 
 to take into our calculation those varying conditions 
 of time and place the consideration of which is not 
 peculiar to the historic school. For instance, to 
 propound the theory of free exchange is not to deny 
 that there are temporary means which must be made 
 use of in order to apply that system wisely to countries 
 which have long been subject to protective duties. 
 
 2. That though the circumstances of time, place, 
 and civilisation are of their nature changeable, we 
 ought not to forget that certain natural tendencies of 
 man and of society were, are, and always will be the 
 same. The constant changes taking place in the instru- 
 ments of war, and in military constructions generally, 
 cannot be cited as a proof of the impossibility of military 
 tactics and strategy. In the same way the varying 
 economic conditions already mentioned do not by any 
 means prove that there are no natural laws of value, 
 wages, profits, &c. 
 
 3. That to reduce political economy to a mere 
 narrative of facts is to destroy its most practical 
 functions, and erroneously to declare it unfitted to 
 provide general rules for the appreciation and guidance 
 of economic progress in its various phases. Nor will 
 the analogy of the natural sciences, often quoted in 
 support of the new doctrines, really serve this pur- 
 pose, since organic no less than inorganic nature has 
 its general laws. And to Floscher's remark that the 
 food of the infant will not serve the full-grown man, 
 Messedaglia answers conclusively that the nutritive 
 functions are the same in both, and that the object of
 
 iv.] ON THE METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 49 
 
 the physiological science is to determine the laws by 
 which these are governed. 
 
 Nevertheless the historic school has rendered itself 
 in many respects most useful to the progress of politi- 
 cal economy. Indeed it has given the signal for a 
 salutary although somewhat excessive reaction against 
 the exaggerations of the pure idealists, or, as they are 
 generally called, the doctrinarians, who, even when 
 they were dealing with the applications of the science, 
 were too regardless of actual circumstances. The 
 historic school, and especially Roscher, its distinguished 
 head, has enriched the science with most useful historical, 
 geographical and statistical illustrations, and with a very 
 ingenious analysis of the known characteristics of the 
 various periods of economic civilisation. Finally it has 
 provided excellent materials and a strong impulse for 
 the construction of a history of economic institutions 
 and theories, which had been much neglected before, and 
 which would not only enlighten us concerning the past, 
 but give us a better knowledge and understanding 
 of the present, and even guide us in our building up 
 of the future. 
 
 Just as Hugo, Savigny, Niebuhr, Mommsen, and 
 their followers have given us valuable works on the 
 history of Roman law, so Roscher and some of his pupils 
 have published accurate works on the history of political 
 economy. It will be enough to mention the historical 
 works of ftoscker, which we shall have occasion to cite 
 further on. 
 
 We may then conclude that political economy ought 
 to keep the mean between excessive idealism on the one 
 hand and a somewhat antiquated positivism on the 
 other. It ought to give the past its due weight and to 
 
 E
 
 50 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, [chap. iv. 
 
 enlighten the future. It ought to recognise the necessity 
 for temporary expedients no less than the universality 
 of certain scientific principles, and hence to perceive 
 that the narrow point of view of the historic school 
 must lead to errors. It will suffice to compare the two 
 first volumes of Roscher's system, — essentially in ac- 
 cordance with the views of more orthodox economists, 
 — with the books of the ablest followers of the so-called 
 philosophic school. "We shall thus be convinced that 
 the many excellent illustrations set before us in his 
 work have not been able to effect any substantial modi- 
 fication of the general principles taught in Germany 
 itself by Hermann and Rau.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 "What has been said in the preceding chapters as to 
 the definition of political economy, its divisions, its 
 proper method and its relation to other sciences, will 
 have already given an idea of its imjiortance. In 
 speaking especially of this subject, let us remark that 
 this importance arises from the nature of the subject- 
 matter of which it treats, from its general point of vieiv, 
 from the function which it exercises, and from the aim 
 of its inquiries. 
 
 Hence it may be inferred that political economy has 
 a twofold importance ; theoretical with regard to the 
 pure science and to the usefulness of the knowledge it 
 gives ; practical with regard to the applied science, and 
 the advantage which may be drawn in public and private 
 life from the guiding principles which it points out. 
 
 The pure science of political economy has a large 
 general utility, because it constitutes an indispensable 
 element of wide and solid culture, which cannot be 
 attained without competent knowledge of the laws 
 governing the social ordering of wealth. That com- 
 plicated and very interesting mass of phenomena, 
 
 E 2
 
 52 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 constituting one of the most important factors in the 
 growth of civilisation and one of the most notable 
 elements in the life of human societies, ought certainly 
 not to be unobserved or imperfectly understood by 
 those who profess to be cultivated and civilized persons. 
 And such knowledge, at all times very useful, has be- 
 come in our days almost a necessity, owing to the pre- 
 sent constitution of political affairs and the great 
 transformation which all social institutions have under- 
 gone. We should remember also the increased import- 
 ance of the economic element, which has now become the 
 principal basis of political power, in place of elements, 
 independent of the possession of wealth, which prevailed 
 in former times. 
 
 Wherefore the study of political economy ought to 
 enter in due proportion into the courses of instruction of 
 every educational institution, and should not be limited 
 merely to those industrial and jn'ofessional establish- 
 ments where it is taught with a view to immediate 
 application. Indeed we cannot understand why those 
 youths who are instructed in the laws of physics, 
 chemistry, natural history and geography, should be 
 allowed to remain ignorant of all that relates to social 
 life, and particularly of economics. 
 
 The special importance of a thorough knowledge of 
 political economy to students of history, law, and politics 
 is self-evident. The information it gives is indis- 
 pensable to the complete understanding of many of 
 the facts belonging to these sciences. This may 
 easily be gathered from what we have said before on 
 the relations between political economy and the sciences 
 in question. 
 
 With regard to its applications the study of political
 
 v.] IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 53 
 
 economy has a great practical importance, both general 
 and particular, and in public as well as in private 
 life. 
 
 And first we will remark that economic laws exercise 
 a general and irresistible influence on all men considered 
 as members of civil societies. It is therefore to their 
 own interest to make at least an elementary study of 
 them, both that they may procure the advantages to be 
 derived from a knowledge of them, and still more that 
 they may avoid the irreparable misfortunes which arise 
 from their transgression. 
 
 Political economy further tends powerfully to en- 
 lighten the people on the true causes of many economic 
 disturbances, which they are apt to consider as arising 
 from the actions of certain individuals or certain classes 
 of society. It thus helps to dissipate popular pre- 
 judices, which, spreading and taking deep root, would 
 become a danger to public tranquillity. As for instance 
 the vulgar opinion concerning the influence of bakers and 
 corn-merchants on famines, or the action of bankers and 
 stockbrokers in monetary crises and times of bad credit. 
 
 In private life a knowledge of political economy is 
 specially needed by employers, capitalists, and labourers. 
 Indeed employers and capitalists should possess not 
 only the technical knowledge necessary for the carrying 
 on of the special industry with which they have to do, 
 but also a large amount of general economic information. 
 This will enable them to follow the right course in the 
 actual conduct of undertakings, as well as in their 
 choice and organisation of them. It may even enable 
 them to avoid failure in the struggle with more ex- 
 perienced and better informed competitors. A thorough 
 knowledge of the state of the market, the wise arrange-
 
 54 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 merit and application of the elements of production, 
 the buying of raw material, the most advantageous sale 
 of the manufactured articles, are all critical points of 
 industrial management, in which the diligent study of 
 economic laws will be found of great use. 
 
 In like manner such a study, though merely element- 
 ary, would be most useful to common laboui'ers. It 
 would help them to understand the true nature of their 
 interests and the just way to obtain them compatibly 
 with due respect to the rights of otbers. From poli- 
 tical economy they may learn the utility of capital, its true 
 economic function, the necessity of labour, of providence, 
 of saving, the laws of wages, the misfortunes that almost 
 always arise from idleness, the usefulness and conditions 
 of success of savings-banks and the like institutions, of 
 co-operation, &c. The competent instruction of labourers 
 in political economy, imparted in a popular form, besides 
 the said advantages would secure to society the incal- 
 culable benefit of freedom from many crises and other 
 dangers. It would form a rampart against those sub- 
 versive doctrines which are too often published, and 
 which find an easy access into the uncultivated minds 
 and excitable fancies of the working classes. 
 
 With regard to this subject it may be remarked that 
 the small diffusion of the fatal errors of socialism in 
 England as compared with France, may be in a great 
 measure traced to the greater propagation of sound 
 economic doctrines in the former country, while in 
 the latter very little has been effected in that useful 
 direction. 
 
 Nor certainly is the study of political economy any 
 less important for those who take an active part in the 
 direction of public affairs, especially under the forms
 
 v.] IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 55 
 
 of government prevalent among civilized nations in the 
 present day. Above all are those persons interested in 
 attaining accurate economic knowledge who have any 
 sort of position in the deliberative assemblies and 
 consultative bodies of the state, the province, or the com- 
 mune; such as the senators, the deputies, the provincial 
 and communal councillors, the councillors of state, and 
 the members of the various councils and permanent or 
 temporary committees and commissions which aid the 
 respective ministers in projecting laws to be discussed 
 by the national representatives. And since the laws 
 and provisions made by these bodies almost always 
 concern, at least indirectly, the economic interests of 
 the state and of individuals, so it is clear that these 
 cannot be good if their originators are altogether 
 ignorant of the leges legumi of public economy. Is it 
 not indeed probable that the wastefulness of certain 
 commercial administrations, which has in our days 
 grown to a point beyond everything blamable, may 
 be at least in part attributed to a false view of the 
 action of economic laws, arising from the want of the 
 necessary scientific preparation % 
 
 The organs of executive power also, or, more explicitly, 
 the officials whose business it is to superintend the 
 application of financial, administrative, and judiciary 
 laws, are more or less interested in the study of 
 political economy. They are called upon to administer 
 or superintend public and private affairs of a more or 
 less complicated kind, or to decide controversies in 
 which there is almost always some economic element. 
 
 We may observe in conclusion that in a free country 
 public opinion, manifesting itself legally by means 
 of the press and by the exercise of the rights of
 
 56 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. v. 
 
 association, combination, and petition, has a strong in- 
 fluence on political and administrative action. It follows 
 that there is no cultured and patriotic person who cannot 
 in some way, however indirectly, have an influence in 
 the government of the commune, the province, and the 
 state. Hence it is most important that such persons 
 should not neglect a study which alone can make that 
 influence conduce to the general welfare,
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN 
 MADE TO THE STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 There are many who, not appreciating rightly the 
 arguments given in the last chapter, do not recognise 
 the importance of political economy and are averse to 
 its being studied. These persons, in different ways and 
 with different objects in view, have waged a somewhat 
 furious war against it. Some declare it to be an 
 impossible science ; others hold it to be at the best 
 useless; others finally condemn it for many reasons 
 as dangerous. A separate examination of the principal 
 objections of this nature will show that they all lead to 
 absurdities : 
 
 "Whately, Introductory Lectures on Political Economy. 
 London, 1831. 
 
 F. Ferrara, Importanza dell' Economia politica. Turin, 
 1849. 
 
 J. Kautz, Die National -Oekonomik als Wissenschaft . 
 Vienna, 18.38, pp. 423 — 442, and the authors referred 
 to there. 
 
 The most radical objection, resolving itself into 
 a denial of the existence of any theory of political 
 economy, is that which asseits that there is no basis
 
 58 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [CHAP. 
 
 for its solid construction as a science. It is attempted 
 to prove this in two ways. Some, reasoning à priori, 
 say that political economy cannot exist ; others, following 
 the à posteriori method, say that it does not exist. 
 
 The first observe that facts of the industrial class are 
 of their nature complicated and changeable, because they 
 depend partly on very different local circumstances (such 
 as country, climate, &c. ), and partly on the free will of 
 man modified by education, habits, opinions and pre- 
 judices. This makes it impossible to study and to 
 estimate them correctly. Phenomena so variable and 
 interests so complicated cannot have constant laws nor 
 be referred to invariable principles. 
 
 It may be answered that the complication and change- 
 fulness of social facts in general, and of economic facts in 
 particular, in no way exclude similarities and analogies 
 between certain effects nor their recurrence on the repeti- 
 tion of certain causes. These prove that economic pheno- 
 mena as a whole form a wise and well-ordered organism. 
 For the same reasons anatomy and physiology are not 
 rendered impossible by the fact of physical dissimilarities 
 between individuals, or of the constantly recurring effects 
 of disease. It ought then to be clear that variations 
 in particular cases do not prevent the existence of 
 general laws of value, price, wages, interest and profits. 
 For the rest, even the variations and pertux-bations of 
 the economic organism succeed one another with a certain 
 regularity and present even in their anomalies some- 
 thing normal which obeys constant laws. Among the 
 medical sciences we have morbid anatomy in addition to 
 normal anatomy, and pathology in addition to physiology, 
 both describing the organs and functions of the human 
 body in a state of disease. So in political economy we
 
 vi.] EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS. 59 
 
 have a theory of perturbations (e.g. famines, monetary 
 and commercial crises, &c.) which is a necessary 
 complement to the theory of the normal development 
 of economic functions. 
 
 Those who are satisfied with a merely empirical 
 demonstration of the non-existence of political economy 
 cite in support of their position : 
 
 1. The hypotheses on which it is founded ; 
 
 2. The abstractions which it uses ; 
 
 3. The problems which it leaves unsolved ; 
 
 4. The disputes which it fails to settle. 
 
 As to the said hypotheses, we can at once reply that 
 this is not the case with the whole science. It results 
 from what has already been stated in discussing its 
 method, that many economic principles are deduced 
 from truths which are either self-evident or susceptible 
 of strict proof by means of observation. We may add 
 that hypotheses, when they are not ai-bitrary, may be 
 the instruments of most valuable scientific discoveries. 
 Those that are wholly gratuitous and irrelevant will 
 always be found to have originated with some in- 
 competent exponent of the science. For the rest the 
 history of the physical and mathematical sciences teaches 
 us that, though they are truly called positive sciences, 
 many of their theorems rest upon purely hypothe- 
 tical bases, and many which were once held to be 
 axioms are now called in question. 
 
 If we have no abstractions, no analyses, no formation 
 of genera and species, but content ourselves with the 
 mere verification of individual cases, we can have no 
 science, but only a barren empiricism. Grammar, logic, 
 algebra, law, also make use of abstractions, which are not 
 only useful but indispensable. And if abstractions, like
 
 60 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [ciiAr. 
 
 everything else, can be abused, both in political economy 
 and the other sciences, that is not a valid reason for 
 repudiating the science. Abrisus non tollit usum. 
 
 Unresolved problems may doubtless be met with in 
 political economy and every other bi'anch of know- 
 ledge. Some of these are insoluble, e.g. the squaring of 
 the circle, the trisection of angles, perpetual motion, 
 &c. Others may possibly be resolved in a more advanced 
 stage of scientific progress. It would be strange to 
 abandon a branch of science because some of its phe- 
 nomena must remain unexplained, and because the 
 explanation of others has not yet been found. 
 
 Further, that reasoning is obviously absurd which 
 would argue the non-existence of political economy from 
 the fact of the interminable controversies of its students. 
 It ought especially to be considered : 
 
 1. That such disputes refer for the most part not 
 to the pure science but to its applications. This we 
 shall see to be a natural and inevitable result of the 
 hostility of those private and collective interests which 
 political economy seeks to conciliate and bring into 
 order ; 
 
 2. That such disputes are more apparent than real, 
 and touch more on form than on substance. Indeed, 
 if the disputants treated each other with more con- 
 sideration and good faith, there would be some chance 
 of their cessation ; 
 
 3. That these disputes are often about points of minor 
 importance ; 
 
 4. That we must not charge political economy with 
 the unreasonableness of some incompetent writers who 
 insist upon calling in question truths which have long 
 since been clearly proved ;
 
 VI.] EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS. 61 
 
 5. That it is scientific disputes and reasonable doubt, 
 very different in their nature from systematic sceptic- 
 ism, which reanimate sciences and lead to the attainment 
 of new and fertile discoveries. And here it may be 
 generally i*emarked that scientific controversies in their 
 various more or less useful forms are not peculiar to the 
 social and economic sciences. They have arisen, and 
 always will arise, in sciences as to the existence of which 
 there can no longer be any doubt, at least among men 
 of moderate culture. For the rest, though it is true 
 that such controversies attest the imperfection of the 
 science, yet they also prove its perfectibility and prepare 
 the way for its future progress. 
 
 There are other classes of enemies to political economy, 
 who do not dispute its existence but its usefulness, and 
 this with great violence and in two different ways. 
 Some say that the truths which it teaches are wholly 
 irrelevant ; others that it is possible to acquire the 
 knowledge it gives, independently of any scientific- 
 study, by the sole aid of common sense and individual 
 experience. 
 
 The former class attempt to prove that it is useless, 
 upon the following grounds : 
 
 1 . The small importance of its subject-matter ; 
 
 2. The simplicity of its premisses ; 
 
 3. The negative character of its conclusions. 
 
 The answer to the first objection is easy. The man of 
 science cannot fail to find a worthy object of investiga- 
 tion in the providential laws which govern the economic 
 world, and which are no less wise and admirable than 
 those which govern the physical world. The importance 
 of such questions becomes more evident when we con- 
 sider the close connection between moral and material
 
 62 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. .[cii,u\ 
 
 welfare, the first of which cannot be considered by- 
 anybody as a subject unworthy of scientific speculation. 
 It will be enough to mention the relation between 
 poverty, ignorance and crime. Of these three social evils 
 the first, which is also an economic evil, is often a 
 cause of the other two, or at least a circumstance which 
 accompanies and aggravates them. 
 
 As to the simplicity of the premisses from which 
 political economy starts, with its definitions of utility, 
 wealth, production, &c, we may observe that it is ne- 
 cessary for every science to be founded on simple and 
 well-known conceptions in order that it may proceed 
 by degrees to the unknown and the complex. It is 
 the legitimate boast of political economy that it is 
 able with such humble principles to arrive at results 
 of vast importance to the general well-being. And 
 who, we ask, would argue against the usefulness of 
 geometry, because it begins by defining a point and 
 a line, and proceeds to deduce all its theories from the 
 so-called axioms? 
 
 For the rest we should not forget that in the social 
 order apparently the most simple conceptions contain 
 elements for the solution of the gravest and most 
 formidable problems. Ferrara has well said that the 
 idea of value differently understood may lead either to 
 the affirmation or the negation of the right of property. 
 Again, in a still higher sphere the abstract ideas of 
 monarchy, liberty, and nationality, differently inter- 
 preted, have been the causes of centuries of war and 
 revolution. In the Dialogo dell' Invenzione, Manzoni 
 has proved in an astounding manner how the apparently 
 simple ideas of Rousseau led by degrees to the terrible 
 actions of Robespierre !
 
 vi.] EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS. 63 
 
 It is equally false to adduce the negative character of 
 economic conclusions as a proof of the uselessness of the 
 science. These conclusions are considered by many, and 
 not only by enemies but also by friends of economic 
 studies, to be summed up in the famous but misunderstood 
 and misapplied formula of laissez /aire et laissez passer. 
 
 We may reply by the following remarks : — 
 
 Political economy does not only establish principles 
 but also seeks for laws. All its principles are not of a 
 negative character. Some which are really negative, 
 as laissez /aire, are not admitted in their whole extent 
 by the actual science, but are circumscribed and re- 
 stricted by considerations which demand careful study. 
 Finally the negative character of a principle or of a 
 precept does not always take away from its importance. 
 On the contrary, to point out the evil effects of certain 
 laws and institutions, the abolition or at least the 
 reform of which is counselled by political economy, is 
 very useful in the abstract and most necessary in the 
 concrete. 
 
 The opposition of economists to restrictions on manu- 
 factures, to monetary alterations, to official tariffs 
 regulating prices, wages, interest, &c., was certainly 
 most useful, although it almost always aimed at limit- 
 ing or entirely abolishing the intervention of public 
 authority in certain departments of economic affairs. 
 The passionate resistance of exclusive interests and 
 inveterate prejudices to the carrying out of such 
 measures proves of itself that these wholly negative 
 reforms were anything but ineffective. 
 
 The latter class of enemies have little ground for 
 their arguments. They contend that common sense and 
 individual experience can take the place of economic
 
 64 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [uhap. 
 
 science, and lead with less trouble to the same or even 
 better results. This sophism, connected with the 
 common assertion of the disagreement of theory and 
 practice, is reproduced at every turn in opposition to 
 the study of all branches of moral science and even 
 of the most unpretending technological sciences. 
 
 When we compare theory with common sense, that 
 is, an ordinary capacity for understanding and doing 
 things, and with individual experience, that is, the 
 experience acquired in repeatedly doing certain things 
 or seeing them done ; when, again, we consider that 
 practice is founded on a certain amount of knowledge 
 empirically acquired by ourselves and by those who 
 help us in our doings, we must conclude that theory 
 resembles practice in being derived from observation 
 and reason. It differs, in that it is the systematic result 
 of the experience of generations, and the fruit, as has 
 been said, of the genius of nations. Practice must of 
 necessity be founded on fewer and less accurate obser- 
 vations and on reasonings less perfect and exact. 
 Therefore to set up practice against theory is as much 
 as to say that the less is equal to the greater, or that 
 the part is larger than the whole. In short, the whole 
 question lies between more or less study, between a 
 mastery of the complete science and that half know- 
 ledge which powerfully affects the intellect of so-called 
 practical men, who profess to be totally emancipated 
 from the dominion of theory. 
 
 But if on the one hand practical experience cannot 
 take the place of science, it is not the less true that 
 science in its turn is insufficient without the aid of 
 practice. It is only a knowledge of the real applica- 
 tions of the principles of the science that can safely
 
 ti.] EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS. 65 
 
 guide the man of practical action. It is therefore need- 
 ful to hold ourselves aloof equally from the so-called 
 doctrinarians, who refuse the assistance of practice, and 
 from the empiricists, who obstinately close their eyes to 
 the light of theory. The pure science explains phenomena 
 and determines laws ; the applied science gives guiding 
 principles which practice brings into conformity with 
 the innumerable varieties of individual cases. More- 
 over practice is indispensable b n its absence the 
 art, in attempting to go beyond its own sphere of general 
 principles, tends to degenerate into a system of casuistry 
 which must be theoretically superfluous and practically 
 incomplete. 
 
 Economic studies meet with still stronger opposition 
 from a numerous class of writers who, giving little or 
 no attention to the question of the soundness of eco- 
 nomic science as it exists or to the best way of acquiring 
 economic knowledge, maintain that the doctrines of poli- 
 tical economy are highly dangerous both to the individual 
 and to society, owing to their effect on religion and 
 morality. This opinion they deduce from : 
 
 1. The nature of its subject-matter, which is wholly 
 material and worldly, i.e. wealth ; 
 
 2. The sordid character of its point of departure, 
 i.e. individual self-interest ; 
 
 3. The irreligious opinions of some cultivators of the 
 science and their merely utilitarian morality ; 
 
 4. The intrinsic immorality of some of its theories, 
 as for example those on the interest of capital, on 
 population, on charity, &c. 
 
 These accusations, we must observe, are often made 
 with the best intentions and in perfect good faith, 
 though they are the result either of false reasonin 
 
 F
 
 66 STUDY OF FOLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 or of an insufficient knowledge of the true nature of 
 the science. But we hope to reassure those who, though 
 desirous of entering upon this study, do not wish to 
 endanger convictions of a deeper and more important 
 nature than economic knowledge. 
 
 To begin with the material nature of the subject- 
 matter, we may remark that political economy regards 
 •social phenomena from a purely economic point of 
 view. Scientific progress cannot be made without the 
 division and separation of the various sciences. Where 
 shall we now find the physicist, the chemist, the 
 naturalist, or the philosopher, who will deny that the 
 physics and the natural history of to-day are sciences, 
 because their subject-matter is inore circumscribed than 
 that of the physics of Aristotle, the natural history of 
 Pliny, and the science of Thales Ì 
 
 We must remember therefore that to limit the field 
 of investigation of any particular science does not imply 
 the depreciation, much less the negation, of others, of 
 which the greater general importance may still be 
 recognised. Hence, though the economist does not 
 occupy himself with the attributes of God or with 
 the supreme principles of morality, his teaching can- 
 not on this account be called irreligious or immoral. 
 Who has ever thought of condemning as atheists the 
 mathematician, the technologist, the anatomist, or the 
 physiologist, because they write volumes in which it 
 wo ild be hard to find the name of God 1 
 
 Certainly that economist would be most blameworthy 
 who should teach that the attainment of wealth is the 
 one or even the principal end towards which the indi- 
 vidual and society ought to direct their activity. And 
 such a proposition would never be laid down by a
 
 vi.] EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS. 67 
 
 competent exponent of the science. If a strategical 
 writer were to declare war to be the ideal of civil life, 
 or if a writer on physiology were to maintain that man 
 is born only to digest, these equally absurd and im- 
 moral statements could not affect the two sciences 
 respectively professed by them. 
 
 Again, for many reasons the objection to individual 
 self-interest as a material point of departure is no less 
 invalid. 
 
 In the first place pure political economy does not invent 
 but merely describos the action of economic laws and 
 their causes. It cannot be denied that the human will 
 is powerfully influenced by self interest, i.e., the desire 
 for pleasure, the dislike to pain, the tendency to do the 
 least amount of work that will satisfy wants. But it 
 is not the less certain that political economy did not 
 create self-interest nor the abuses to which it may lead. 
 It must not be forgotten that the pursuit of utility, 
 though it may lead to immorality and disorder when 
 it is the supreme motive of human activity, has its 
 proper and legitimate sphere in such economic questions 
 as involve a choice between different modes of action, 
 all morally right. To study the consequences of self- 
 interest, to determine the effect of those actions, moral 
 or otherwise, which in the economic sphere result from 
 that most powerful impulse, does not in the least imply 
 the proclamation of the principle of utility as the only 
 foundation of morality. The economist is no more 
 responsible for the abuses of selfishness because he 
 studies the action of self-interest, than the physiologist 
 is for those of intemperance because he studies the law? 
 of nutrition. 
 
 Further, it is altogether false to accuse political 
 
 F 2
 
 6S STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 economy of encouraging selfishness and an inordinate 
 desire for riches by promoting a bad use of them. 
 Without entering upon the domain of morals, it shows 
 by its arguments that economic evils arise from self- 
 intei'est when, degenerating into selfishness, it creates 
 monopolies, or in other words when the wealth of some 
 producers is gained to the injury of the majority of 
 consumers, i.e.. society at large. 
 
 It is well to re, I at political economy, as it has, 
 like other sciences, its special subject-matter and its 
 special aim, has also its special point of departure, which 
 does not conduce either to the negation or depreciation 
 of those premisses upon which other social sciences are 
 founded. It studies certain human actions arising from 
 a principle which is confined within certain limits, and 
 tending also to an object of a limited character* — i.e., the 
 attainment of wealth. At the same time it fully 
 recognises the fact that there are other and 
 nobler motives of human action, and more im- 
 portant ends for which man ought to strive in order 
 to attain to the greatest possible perfection of his 
 faculties. 
 
 Neither can a valid argument against the science be 
 found in the irreligious opinions of some economists, and 
 their wholly utilitarian morality. It is true that several 
 economists, and some of these among the most illustrious, 
 enunciate here and there in their writings propositions 
 which from the moral and religious point of view are 
 blameworthy. But it is also true that such opinions 
 have a purely subjective character and are not bound 
 up with the essential nature of the science. In this re- 
 spect, the cases of Say, an avowed unbeliever, and Droz, 
 a sincere Catholic, are noteworthy ; their economic
 
 VI.] EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS. 69 
 
 views a^nd teaching being in accordance. If then we 
 take away the unorthodox passages and those that 
 savour of Benthamite morality from the works of Say. 
 they might gain in moi'ality, but their economic teach 
 ing would remain unaltered. 
 
 As to the pretended intrinsic immorality of some eco- 
 nomic theories, and specially those relating to interest, 
 popidation, and charity, it will suffice to remark that 
 political economy : 
 
 1. Without encouraging usury, which is justly con- 
 demned by ethics, shows the absurdity and futility of 
 laws forbidding and restricting the receipt of interest 
 on capital ; 
 
 2. Points out the dangers that may arise from a 
 partial excess of population, and hence counsels provi- 
 dence, subject to the supreme dictates of morality ; 
 
 3. Points out the inconsistencies and abuses of cer- 
 tain forms of charity, which give help haphazard, with- 
 out recognising on the one hand the religious and moral 
 obligations of true charity, nor on the other the advan- 
 tages, some of them of an economic kind, attending a 
 system of relief wisely directed to counteract the causes, 
 and not merely to mitigate the effects, of want. 
 
 It is then a false idea that political economy while 
 searching for truths in its own sphere of investigation 
 may find itself opposed to truths of a more elevated 
 kind, which have been arrived at by a different method 
 and with a different purpose. But it is true that it has 
 its own independent sphere, and that it does not propose 
 to itself the direct function of laying down the prin- 
 ciples of morality and religion. Therefore it cannot be 
 really affected by such accusations, especially as it has 
 never occurred to anybody to make them with regard
 
 70 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 to mathematics and other sciences which do not enter 
 upon the ground of theology or ethics. 
 
 There is a final group of enemies to political economy 
 who condemn it as 'politically dangerous. This accusa- 
 tion is formulated in two different and contradictory 
 propositions ; political economy is declared : 
 
 1. By the one group to be an enemy of the principle of 
 authority, favouring the absolute non-intervention of the 
 state in economic matters ; 
 
 "1. By the other to be an enemy of social progress 
 and a supporter of the existing inequalities in the 
 economic organism. 
 
 To the accusation of the first we reply, to begin with, 
 that truth as such is never dangerous, and that 
 it is necessary to distinguish the conclusions cf the 
 science from those hastily put forth in worthless and 
 superficial doctrines. And further the limitation of the 
 economic functions of the State, when affecting matters 
 altogether outside its natural and legitimate sphere 
 of competence, does not in the least weaken, but rather 
 strengthens, the principle of authority, by giving it a 
 true position and assigning to it reasonable limits. And 
 it should be observed that economists, and especially 
 those of to-day, do not propound it absolutely, but with 
 the necessary modifications, and with due regard to 
 conditions of time, place, and civilisation, and to 
 precedents of all kinds. 
 
 It is strange indeed that political economy should be 
 considered hostile to authority and at the same time 
 favourable to socialism, as if the very essence of social- 
 ism were not the desire to substitute authority for 
 liberty, and as if socialists had not declared themselves 
 the fiercest enemies of modern economic science.
 
 vi.] EXAMINATION OF SOME OBJECTIONS. 71 
 
 Finally, in replying to those who contend that 
 political economy is opposed to beneficial reforms, and 
 is the primary cause of social inequalities, we remark : 
 
 1. That, in its rational part, as we have already 
 several times asserted, it does not invent nor create, 
 but observes the natural laws of certain phenomena ; 
 it does not occupy itself with that which is nor with 
 that which ought to be, but rather with that which is 
 constant and necessary, thus bearing an unchangeable 
 relation alike to the present and the future ; 
 
 2. That, in its applied part, the principles that it 
 propounds are decidedly favourable to wise reforms, and 
 only opposed to certain thoughtless and ill-timed 
 changes, which would cause the ruin of civil institu- 
 tions ; 
 
 3. That, political economy cannot be the cause of 
 social inequalities, which have existed apart from its 
 influence. Indeed this influence has never hitherto been 
 so powerful nor so universal as some seem to think ; 
 
 I. That with regard to natural inequalities, these are 
 the inevitable result of differences in the habits and 
 customs of men ; hence they are a useful factor in true 
 social progress. In any case, to condemn political 
 economy because there are the poor, the idle, the avari- 
 cious, and the dissipated, is like accusiDg anatomy of 
 creating blindness, lameness, and deformity ; 
 
 5. That if we turn to artificial inequalities, the off- 
 spring of privilege and corrupt political institutions, we 
 shall find that political economy has never ceased to 
 attack them, and that to it may in part be ascribed 
 those reforms through which such institutions are 
 gradually losing ground where they have not altogether 
 disappeared.
 
 72 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, [chap. vi. 
 
 In short, it seems to us that the strong aversion to 
 the theories of political economy shown both by the 
 laudatores temporis acti, and by those who with little 
 modesty call themselves the men of the future, may be 
 considered as an indirect proof, if others were wanting, 
 of the great usefulness of political economy. 1 
 
 1 On the subjects treated in this first part, besides the already 
 mentioned works of Whately, Cairnes, Kautz, &c, the following 
 may be consulted : — 
 
 N. W. Senior, Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, 
 London, 1852. 
 
 E. Pickford, Einlcitung in die Wisscnscliaft der Politischen 
 Oekonomie, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1360. 
 
 v. Mangoldt, article " Volkswirthschaft," in vol. xi. of the 
 Dcutsehes Staatswórterbuch. Stuttgart, 1869, p. 97 — 126. 
 
 v. Hermann, Staatswirthscfuiftliche Vntersuchungen, 2nd ed. 
 Munich, 1870, p. 1-77 of the reprint of 1874. 
 
 F. Lampertico, Economia dei Popoli e degli Stati. Introduzione. 
 Milan, 1874. 
 
 John K. Ingram, The Present Position and Prospects of Political 
 Economy. London, 1878. 
 
 Th. Ed. Cliffe Leslie, Essays in Political and Moral Philosophy. 
 Dublin, 1879. 
 
 E. Nazzani, La Scuola Classica d'Economia Politica. Milan, 
 1879.
 
 HISTORICAL PART. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONCEPTION, DIVISION, METHOD, AND SOURCES OF 
 THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 P. Rossi, Introduction à VHistoire des Doctrines éco- 
 nomiques. In the Journal des Economistes, Vol. II. 
 (1842), p. 201 — 223. (Preface to a historical course given 
 by Rossi during the last years of his teaching at the 
 Collège de France.) 
 
 Giovanni Bruno, SidV Origine dell' Economia sociale, 
 o Teoria della Storia di questa Scienza. Palermo, 1854, 
 8vo. (The object of the work is to prove that political 
 economy, as a science, did not exist until after the rise of 
 Christianity.) 
 
 H. Baudrillart, De V Uistoire de V Econ. polit. — In the 
 Journal des Econ. , Vol. V. (3rd. series), 1867, p. 57 — 75. 
 (Treating of the method, the characteristics, and the 
 usefulness of a history of political economy.) 
 
 The History of Political Economy is an explanatory 
 nariative of the origin and development of economic
 
 7 J STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 theories considered in connection with social institu- 
 tions. 
 
 It follows from this definition that such a history 
 should not be confined to a mere chronological exposition 
 of the various doctrines held by successive generations. 
 It should also take upon itself the higher task of deter- 
 mining their absolute and relative worth. Taking these 
 different theories singly, it should investigate their 
 origin and growth and observe them as they manifest 
 themselves in disconnected and isolated forms, so that 
 it may be able to build them up into a distinct and 
 consistent system of science. 
 
 Further, as to the relations between economic theories 
 and social institutions, we must draw attention to the 
 fact that these are of two kinds. 
 
 In the first place writers are almost always influenced, 
 though in different degrees, by the circumstances, ideas, 
 and peculiar institutions, either of the country and 
 period to which they belong, or of some other to which 
 they have specially given their attention. The power 
 of such influences is often not suspected, or even flatly 
 denied, by those who are subject to them. They make un- 
 founded pretensions to philosophic impartiality, which 
 is, in the nature of things, impossible. In fact, if we 
 turn to the essential points of the different theories, 
 and if we eliminate peculiarities of an incidental kind 
 in order to compare these theories with the external cir- 
 cumstances preceding or accompanying their growth, 
 it will be easy to discover in them an underlying aim. 
 Either they apologise for certain economic institutions 
 of which the author approves and, so to speak, ideal- 
 ises, or they attack certain other institutions of which 
 he does not approve, laying down principles opposed to
 
 I.] CONCEPTION, DIVISION, METHOD, ETC. 75 
 
 them. Bacon's saying with regard to certain philo- 
 sophers may truly be applied to most economists, that 
 they tamquam e vinculis ratiocinantur . 
 
 In the second place it cannot be denied that these 
 writers in their turn exercise remarkable influence on 
 the opinions of their age and of posterity ; influence 
 which leads the way to, and sometimes directly in- 
 spires, legislative and administrative reforms of great 
 moment. Among examples of such influential writings, 
 the most memorable is the system of Adam Smith, a 
 powerful factor in the almost complete renovation of 
 economic institutions which began at the end of the 
 last and the beginning of the present century. 
 
 In spite of these mutual influences, the history of 
 economic theories ought not to be confounded with the 
 history of economic institutions. They comprise two 
 distinct orders of research, which, though they are both 
 integral parts of the history of political economy in 
 its wider seme, yet have each their proper sphere of 
 competence. Hence the arguments of Blanqui and his 
 followers are incorrect. They deduce the antiquity of 
 political economy from that of economic institutions, 
 thus obviously confounding the science with the objects 
 of its investigations. To assert that where exchanges, 
 money, and taxes exist, economic science must exist 
 also, is equivalent to asserting that astronomy and 
 physiology must have begun with the motions of 
 the stars and the phenomena of breathing and 
 eating. 
 
 The history of political economy, considered as a 
 scientific whole, comprehends : 
 
 1. The external history, which narrates the origin 
 and development of economic theories and of the
 
 76 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 various economic systems considered as a whole ; touch- 
 ing also on their more salient points, without descending 
 to particulars. It is either : 
 
 (a) General, when it takes in all periods and na- 
 tions ; or 
 
 (b) Special, when it is limited, in time and space, as 
 for example to one epoch, or nation, or system, or to 
 one or two writers ; 
 
 2. The internal or, as some say, the dogmatic history, 
 which studies the formation of particular theories [e.g. 
 value, money, rent), and which is often treated as an 
 introduction or complement, in connection with their 
 scientific exposition. The materials of such a history 
 are scattered abroad in a multitude of monographs. 
 Among authors of general systematic works who have 
 gathered together, within certain self-imposed limits, 
 much interesting information of this nature, Wilhelm 
 Roscher undoubtedly holds the tirst place. 
 
 W. Roscher, System der Folks wirthschaft. Vol. I. 
 Stuttgart, 1854 (14th ed., 1879). Vol. IL, I860 (8th. 
 ed. 1875). 
 
 The purpose and the dimensions of this Guide will 
 only allow us to give a summary of the external history, 
 accompanied by the indications necessary to lead to a 
 wider and more profound study. 
 
 For the convenience of exposition we will divide the 
 external history into three periods : 
 
 1. The period embracing antiquity and the middle 
 ages, which merely presents & fragmentary treatment of 
 certain doctrines, almost always regarded from points 
 of view proper to other sciences then existing ; 
 
 2. The period which, beginning with the modern era, 
 ends about the middle of the 18th century, and which
 
 i.] CONCEPTION", DIVISION, METHOD. ETC. 77 
 
 might be called the period of empirical theories and of 
 the separate treatment of different doctrines ; 
 
 3. The contemporary period, reaching from the middle 
 of last century to the present day. It is distinguished 
 by the building up of political economy into an inde- 
 pendent body of systematically connected doctrines, 
 which from the nature of their stibject-matter, their 
 /unctions, and their method, hold a distinct position in 
 the group of economic and social sciences. 
 
 As to the method to be followed alike in the ex- 
 ternal and internal history of political economy we have 
 to remark : 
 
 1. That the choice of facts must be made judi- 
 ciously, so that the history should not deal with all 
 economic authors and theories, but only with those, 
 whether correct or not, which are remarkable, either 
 from their intrinsic value, their originality, or their 
 influence ; 
 
 2. That the exposition of facts of an internal nature, 
 as books, theories, teaching, and of external circumstances, 
 as individual and social conditions, ought to be clear, 
 sober, and faithful ; 
 
 3. That the criticism, of the theories ought to be 
 wide and impartial. It ought to take into account their 
 originality, the respective influences to which they are 
 subject and which they exercise ; also their intrinsic 
 merit, whether in relation to the times in which they 
 were developed, or to the ultimate results of the science 
 in its present stage. 
 
 The history of economic theories, though only useful 
 when accompanied by the study of the science as it 
 now exists, is yet a valuable complement of that study. 
 If it be illumined by criticism, it cannot generate
 
 78 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 systematic scepticism, irrational eclecticism, nor a 
 posthumous apology for antiquated doctrines and in- 
 stitutions. It serves to illustrate the general history 
 of civilisation and to point out the influence that the 
 theories of economists have exercised on social reforms. 
 It also promotes a more thorough examination of sepa- 
 rate theories, which cannot be fully appreciated uni ss 
 they are traced to their sources. Finally, it prepares 
 the way for future legislative reforms founded on past 
 experiences recorded by history. 
 
 Those who are desirous of pursuing the historical 
 study of economic doctrines will find it best to begin 
 with those books which treat specially of that subject, 
 and which sum up, at least in part, much that is con- 
 tained in a large number of works less accessible to 
 the majority of students. 
 
 It will be opportune to introduce here a critical notice 
 of th9 subsidiary sources for the external history of 
 political economy, as a preparation for a more thorough 
 examination of those primary sources which we shall 
 indicate in the following chapters. 
 
 See R. v. Mohl, Die Schriften iiber die Geschichte der 
 politischen Oekonomie. In the work Geschichte und 
 Literatur der Staatswissenschaften, Yol. III., Erlangen, 
 1858, 4to, p. 291, et seq. 
 
 The historical dissertations, necessarily brief and 
 often exclusively bibliographical, which are attached 
 to many scientific treatises either as introductions or 
 appendices, are not sufficient for those who wish to 
 have a thorough knowledge, however concise, of the 
 historical development of political economy. Among 
 works of this sort we may indicate, by way of example, 
 those which form part of the compendiums published
 
 i.] CONCEPTION, DIVISION, METHOD, ETC. 79 
 
 in England by MacCulloch ; in France by Say, Gamier, 
 and Courcelle-Seneuil ; in Germany by Lotz, Rau,Wirtb, 
 and the socialist Mario (Winkelblech) ; in Italy by 
 Bianchini, and after him by Trincherà ; in Spain by 
 Florez Estrada and Carballo y Vanguemert ; in America 
 by Perry, etc. 
 
 Passing to works exclusively occupied with the general 
 external history of political economy, the following merit 
 special notice : 
 
 Ad. Blanqui, Ilistoire de V Economie politique en Europe, 
 depuis les Anciens jusqu' à nos Jours, suivie a" une Biblio- 
 graphie raisonnée des principaux Ouvrages d'Economie 
 politique. Paris, 1837-38. Two vols., 8vo. 4th ed. 
 (edited by A. Ott), Paris, 1860. 
 
 Alb. de Villeneuve-Bargemont, Ilistoire de V Economie 
 politique; ou, Etudes historiques,p/tilosophiques et religieuses 
 sur V Economie politique des Peuples anciens et modernes. 
 Paris, 1841. 2 vols., 8vo. 
 
 Travers Twiss, Vieio of the Progress of Political Economy 
 in Europe since the Sixteenth Century, etc. London, 1847, 
 Svo. 
 
 Julius Kautz, Die geschichtlic/ie Entwichelung der 
 National -Oekonomih und ihrer Literatur. Vienna, 1860, 
 8vo. 
 
 E. Duhring, Kritische Geschichte der Nationcilohmo- 
 mie und des Socialismus. Berlin, 1871, 8vo. 3rd ed., 1879. 
 
 In the histories of Blanqui and Villeneuve we have 
 many faults to find. There is a want of any clear 
 conception as to their general aim, and a confusion 
 between the history of theories and that of facts. 
 They make frequent digressions into general history, 
 and their information, especially with regard to econo- 
 mists earlier than the Physiocrats, is scanty. Their
 
 80 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 investigations are superficial, their criticisms uncertain, 
 and their materials wanting in order. The history of 
 Villeneuve was never very popular, and is now wholly 
 forgotten, whether from the infelicity of its style or 
 because the author's main object is too evidently to 
 oppose to what he calls the English political economy, 
 a Christian political economy, by the introduction of 
 inappropriate religious discussions. 
 
 Blanqui's history, on the other hand, enjoyed no small 
 fame, whether from the excellence of its style or be- 
 cause there had not been for a long time before any 
 better works treating the subject with the same fulness. 
 Or it may have been because later works, being written 
 in tongues unintelligible to a good many economists, 
 did not succeed in displacing it. 
 
 The work of Twiss is more a historical prospectus 
 than a history. It is too concise, and deals only with the 
 last four centuries, while Blanqui and Villeneuve turned 
 their attention in a measure to antiquity and the middle 
 ages ; neither does it show a competent study of the 
 original works. But it is worthy of praise, if for no 
 other reason, for its clearer perception of the difference 
 between the history of theories and that of institutions. 
 
 Immeasurably superior to all those preceding is the 
 work of Professor Kautz. Making diligent use of 
 special histories of political economy already existing, 
 and having frequent recourse to the original sources, he 
 has presented us with a learned and ample narrative of 
 the historical vicissitudes of the principal scientific 
 systems of political economy, both ancient and modern. 
 The success of the book is marred, however, by a want 
 of temperance in the notices of secondary works, and of 
 acuteness, in its judgments and criticism; also by the-
 
 i.] CONCEPTION", DIVISION, METHOD, ETC. 81 
 
 arbitrariness of its classifications, by the want of scientific 
 precision, and by the fact that the author, struggling 
 with the serious difficulties of a foreign language, falls 
 into empty declamatory periphrases. Besides, by no 
 fault of the author, the many special works published in 
 the last twenty years cause the greater part of the 
 book to be out of date. 
 
 The more recent history of Diihring is distinguished 
 by merits and defects of a very different kind. Its ex- 
 cellences consist in its philosophic acumen, the clearness, 
 precision, and elegance of its language, and the fulness 
 of its information with regard to certain economists, 
 especially Carey, and the socialists of the present day. 
 Unfortunately, these qualities are obscured by faults of 
 a very serious nature. In the first place the author has 
 an exaggerated admiration for the specious doctrines of 
 List and Carey. Then he is so ignorant of the principal 
 materials for his subject as to neglect, almost entirely, 
 not only the works written towards the end of last 
 century, but also the monographs published by contem- 
 porary economists. Finally he judges the more illustrious 
 modern writers, and especially his own countrymen, with 
 a tone of presumptuous depreciation, turning, to speak 
 plainly, a great part of his history into a vulgar libel. 
 
 Still less importance must be attributed to three com- 
 pendiums of the history of political economy, of which 
 one was published in 1851 by Molster, in Dutch; a 
 second, rather better, by De Rooy, also in Dutch and in 
 the same year ; and a third in Swedish by Balchen, in 
 1869. They all follow more or less in the steps of 
 Blanqui, with the addition of some meagre biblio- 
 graphical notices of Dutch and Scandinavian books. 
 
 A source of fuller and more exact information on the
 
 82 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 progressive development of economic theories is to be 
 found in the numerous monographs which, more particu- 
 larly in the last thirty years, have been published, on the 
 special history of political economy at various times and 
 in various countries. From these we may construct 
 a general history more in accordance with the latest 
 results of investigation. 
 
 As we cannot name all of these, some of which will 
 be mentioned in the following chapters, we will content 
 ourselves with references to the principal works concern- 
 ing the history of political economy among the more 
 civilized nations. 
 
 Giuseppe Pecchio, Storia dell' Economia pubblica in 
 Italia, or Epilogo critico degli Economisti italiani, pre- 
 ceduto danna Introduzione. Lugano, 1829. (Reprinted 
 several times.) 
 
 This work, the earliest of the special economic his- 
 tories, has become, with the help of a French translation, 
 the only source from which foreigners get their informa- 
 tion about Italian economists. It is really little more 
 than a brief summary of the works and biographical 
 notices contained in the collection of Italian economists 
 of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and more particularly of 
 the eighteenth century, made by Baron P. Custodi, under 
 the patronage of the Italian Government. [Scrittori 
 classici italiani, d' 'Economia politica. Milan, 1802-1816, 
 50 vols. 8vo.) To this Pecchio has added a general in- 
 troduction, many political and literary digressions, and 
 some comparisons with English and French economists 
 of the 19th century. 
 
 There is a still briefer work on the economists col- 
 lected by Custodi, containing no biographical informa- 
 tion, but written with greater critical acumen, and with
 
 i.] CONCEPTION, DIVISION, METHOD, ETC. 83 
 
 a knowledge of our own writers quite surprising in a 
 foreigner. Notwithstanding some defects and errors of 
 judgment, this book would certainly cause the somewhat 
 tiinisy work of Pecchio to be forgotten, if it were not 
 written in Dutch. The title is : 
 
 N. G. Pierson, Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis der econo- 
 mische Studien in Italie, gedurende de 17 e en 18 e eeuw. 
 Amsterdam, 1866. 
 
 A German translation or rather plagiarism has ren- 
 dered the work more widely accessible. This is : 
 
 Schwarzkopf, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der national- okon. 
 Studien in Italien, etc. Strassburg, 1872. 
 
 W. Roscher, Zur Geschichte der englischen Volkswirth' 
 schaftslehre. Leipzig, 1851 52. (A learned and ele- 
 gant exposition of the changes undergone by political 
 economy in England during the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries.) 
 
 M. Colmeiro, Historia de la Economia politica en 
 Espana. Madrid, 1863. 2 vols, royal 8vo. (Little 
 known, but very rich in information on the history of 
 economic theories and institutions in Spain up to the 
 end of last century.) 
 
 Et. Laspeyres, Geschichte der volksivirthschaftlichen 
 Anschauungen der Niederldnder,etc. Leipzig, 1S63, 4to. 
 A most learned work on the Dutch economists of the 
 17th and 18th centuries, which inspired another work, 
 superior in point of critical acumen, and on a largi- 
 scale, but left unfinished by the death of its author. It 
 is called : 
 
 0. van Pees, Geschiedenis der Staathuishoudkunde in 
 Nederland, etc. Utrecht, 1865-68. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 But the most remarkable work which we possess on 
 the history of political economy in one of the most 
 
 g 2
 
 84 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. i. 
 
 cultivated nations of Europe, is without doubt Roscher's : 
 Geschichte der National -Oekonomik in Deutschland. 
 Munich, 1874. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 On the other hand we have to deplore the want of a 
 good history of political economy in France, a subject 
 which, in its earlier part, presents much greater interest 
 than the history of German economists, to which Roscher 
 dedicated fifteen years of laborious research. 
 
 Some inquiries have been made into the development 
 of economic theories among certain nations of a later 
 civilisation. It will be enough to mention two mono- 
 graphs on Hungarian economists : 
 
 J. Biedermann, Das Studium der politischen Oelconomie 
 in Ungarn, etc. Kaschau, 1859. (Briefly written, but 
 clear and well arranged.) 
 
 Jul. Kautz, Entivickelungs-Geschichte der volhswirth — 
 schqftlichen Ideen in Ungarn, etc. Buda-Pesth, 1876. 
 8vo. (A German translation, abbreviated from the 
 original Hungarian, was published in 1868.)
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 political economy in ancient times and in the 
 middle ages. 
 
 Sources : — 
 
 J. Kautz, Die geschichtliche Entwickelung etc. Vienna, 
 1860, p. 51-222. 
 
 Political economy, considered as an independent 
 science, with well-marked boundaries to its field of 
 research, and with its proper method of investigation, 
 is an entirely modern science ; it is indeed little more 
 than a hundred years old. But it must not be thought 
 that the various theories which have gradually enriched 
 this science were wholly unknown to those eminent 
 thinkers of the ancient world and the middle ages, 
 to whom we owe so much. Besides their works on 
 philosophy, history, politics, and jurisprudence, we have 
 their codes of laws as an undying witness to their 
 wisdom in civil matters. Even now these codes form 
 a very important part of the written law of the most 
 advanced nations of Europe and America. 
 
 Hence, we are well repaid in turning our attention to 
 the early manifestations of scientific thought in the 
 direction of economics. We must never forget, however,
 
 86 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 that these are merely fragments, treating of isolated 
 theories. And even within these narrow limits, social 
 wealth is not studied by itself, but from the point of view 
 of those other philosophies, social and religious, which 
 mainly constituted the intellectual culture of the period. 
 
 § 1. Political economy in antiquity. 
 
 Sources : — 
 
 Du Mesnil-Marigny, Histoire de V Economie politique 
 des anciens Peuples de l'Inde, de l'Egypte, de la Judée et de 
 la Grece. Paris, 1872. 2 vols. 8vo. 3rd ed. 1877. 
 
 (To be consulted with great caution, because it starts 
 with the pre-conceived idea of a retrospective apology 
 for the protective system.) 
 
 Francesco Trincherà, Storia critica dell' Economia 
 pubblica, etc. Vol. I. (all published). Epoca antica. 
 Naples, 1873. 8vo. (Very poor, compiled with no 
 reference to modern philology.) 
 
 We cannot conceive of an economic science, which 
 shall be systematic, independent, complete and practical, 
 without the idea of the existence of natural laws govern- 
 ing the phenomena of social wealth. But the ancients 
 were prevented by various circumstances from attaining 
 to this idea. Such were their social conditions, their 
 philosophic and religious opinions, their conviction that 
 all the actions, economic and otherwise, of citizens, 
 should be looked at in reference to the state. For 
 the state, notwithstanding the various forms that its 
 constitution assumed among them, was always con- 
 sidered omnipotent. 
 
 Furthermore, the social organism was corrupted by the 
 custom of slavery, perverting and debasing wealth at its
 
 ir.] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 87 
 
 very source. Then there was the predominant spirit of 
 war and conquest, robbing the most civilised and power- 
 ful people of the fruits of peaceful industry. There was 
 also the political constitution itself. In Greece and 
 Rome all the thoughts of the citizens were turned to 
 politics, and even their ideas of the liberty which they 
 desired were false. They conceived of it merely as 
 a larger participation in the functions of the state. 
 Their ideal of the state was that it should be omni- 
 potent. Hence they considered that its duty was to 
 suppress every form of individual independence, and 
 all minor social combinations. Again, the philosophic 
 and religious theories of paganism held the arts of pro- 
 duction in the greatest depreciation. They considered all 
 kinds of industry, with the sole exception of agriculture, 
 perilous to the health of the body, the culture of the 
 intellect, and the exercise of domestic and social 
 virtues. 
 
 A.— The East. 
 
 E. Eb. Kiibel, Die soziale und volkswirthschaftliclie 
 Gesetzgebung des Alten Testamentes, etc. Wiesbaden, 
 1870, royal 8vo. 
 
 Giacomo Lumbroso. JRecherches sur T Economie politique 
 de V Egypte sous les Lagides. Turin, 1870, royal Svo. 
 
 "We gain some idea of the economic theories of the 
 early nations of the East from their sacred books. 
 From the point of view of modern science, these books 
 present very little that is remarkable. Their economic 
 teachings may generally be reduced to certain moral 
 precepts on the virtues of industry, temperance and 
 thrift, on the worthlessness of riches, which ought
 
 88 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 only to be desired that they may be employed in 
 sacred uses, or to help the poor and suffering. Manu- 
 factures and commerce were almost always despised and 
 neglected ; agriculture, on the other hand, was held in 
 much esteem and, as in Egypt and India, it made con- 
 siderable progress. The division of labour was not 
 carried out with the elasticity that comes from liberty. 
 It was, so to speak, crystallised in the system of caste, 
 which hardened the national fibres, and prevented any 
 progress in social institutions ; these institutions con- 
 sequently preserved the character of uniformity and 
 immobility. The statesmen and learned men of China 
 appreciated more correctly the function of commerce, 
 and had a sufficiently exact idea of the nature of money. 
 They understood it to be the representative of fixed 
 and generally recognised value, and the instrument of 
 circulation. But their ideas on the laws of production 
 were not equally clear. Although they appreciated 
 the importance of labour, they did not recognise the 
 economic functions of capital. And they not un- 
 commonly fostered idleness and improvidence, in the 
 confidence that the gods provided believers with the 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 B. — Greece. 
 
 K. H. Bau, Ansichten der Volkswirthschctft. Leipzig, 
 1821, Svo. p. 3-21. 
 
 W. Roscher, Ueber das Verhdltniss der National- 
 dkonomie zum klassischen AltertJmme. In the work : 
 Ansichten der Volhswirthschaft. Leipzig, 1861, p. 3-46. 
 
 J. C. Glaser, Die Entivickelung der Wirthschafts- 
 verhdltnisse bei den Griechen. Berlin, 1865, 8vo.
 
 ti.] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 89 
 
 L Cossa, Di alcuni Studj Storici Sulle Teorie econo- 
 miche dei Greci. Milan, 1876. In the Rendiconti del 
 E. Istituto Lombardo di Scienze. Voi. IX, No. VII. 
 (Critical notice of the monographs on the said subject.) 
 
 Many states in ancient Greece, being endowed with 
 various natural advantages, among others a good 
 maritime position, attained to a high degree of mercan- 
 tile and political power. Up to a certain point this 
 necessarily drew the attention of several of their emi- 
 nent thinkers to the causes of this prosperity. Never- 
 theless, for the reasons above indicated, and because 
 politics stood before everything else both in theory and 
 practice, the researches of the Greeks on economic 
 phenomena were always subordinate and accessory either 
 to the theory of the state (iroXiTiKrj), or to that of house- 
 hold government (oIkovo/xlk^). In both these branches 
 they were more occupied with men than with things, 
 and more with freemen than with slaves, to which 
 latter class almost all actual industrial operations were 
 abandoned. 
 
 Nevertheless, certain Greek writers, and notably 
 Aristotle, were not without a clear conception of a special 
 doctrine of wealth and its acquisition, (xp?///,aT<.crTiKr/) sub- 
 ordinated to the two sciences above-mentioned. Of this 
 theory as they conceived it, we have only a few scattered 
 fragments. And these are almost lost in works of 
 history, and more frequently in those of practical 
 philosophy, of which, in the Greek idea, Ethics, 
 Economics and Politics formed the principal elements. 
 
 Among historians, Herodotus is not without some 
 interest for us. But Thucydides stands first, from the 
 greater subtlety with which he estimates the economic 
 element and its great influence on political and social
 
 90 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 facts. Roscher was the first to point out his economic 
 merits, perhaps with an excessive enthusiasm, both in 
 the above-named work, and in a later academic discourse, 
 entitled : Disputatio I de Doctrinae oeconomico politicete 
 apud Graecos primordiis. Lipsiae, 18G6, 4to. 
 
 There must also have existed before Aristotle and 
 Plato numerous works treating of the problems of 
 domestic economy in general, and also of certain pro- 
 ductive arts, especially hunting, mining and agriculture. 
 And there may have been controversies on certain special 
 points of chrematistics, particularly on the differences 
 between the idea of wealth and that of money. The 
 economic and political question of slavery provoked 
 disputes which are vividly depicted in the writings 
 of Aristotle. Among works belonging to these categories 
 which are now lost we may mention that of Apollodoros 
 of Lenmos, on Mining ; of Chares of Paros, on Agri- 
 culture; of Plieron and Callicratidas, on Domestic 
 Economy. 
 
 In particular see : — 
 
 L. Stein, Die staatswissenschqftliche Theorie der 
 Griechen vor Aristoteles und Platon. — In the Zeitschr. f. 
 d. ges. Staatstoissenschaft. 9. Jahrg. (1853). Tubingen, 
 p. 115—182. 
 
 A comparatively larger mass of information on the 
 scientific views of the Greeks with regard to the theory 
 of social wealth, may be gathered from their philo- 
 sophical works. Many of these have come down to us 
 entire, or at least in their essential parts. This cannot 
 be said of the works of the most ancient philosophers, 
 nor of those of the school of Pythagoras, to which not 
 only statesmen and legislators, like Philolaos of Thebes, 
 but also theoretical -politicians, belonged. As far as we
 
 il] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 91 
 
 can learn, however, none of these philosophers occupied 
 themselves with investigating the nature of wealth and 
 the causes of its development. The sophists, who arose 
 out of the Ionic school, had a more practical influence. 
 Many public men became imbued with their teaching, 
 among whom Hippodamos of Miletus and Phaleas of 
 Chalcedon are worthy of mention, whose theories, at. 
 least in part, are examined in the second book of 
 Aristotle's Politics. 
 
 In his speculations on the constitution of the state, 
 Hippodamos, who was also an architect of merit, 
 proposed that the state should be composed of ten 
 thousand citizens, to be occupied partly in agriculture, 
 partly in manufactures, and partly in the arts of war. 
 Its territory was to be divided into three portions, 
 devoted respectively to the service of the gods, the 
 maintenance of warriors, and the exercise of agriculture. 
 
 Phaleas on the other hand propounded a community 
 of goods, as the best means of obtaining peace and 
 public tranquillity. He thought that as such a system 
 could easily be introduced into an entirely new state, it 
 could likewise be applied to one already constituted, by 
 a law ordaining that the rich should give dowries to their 
 daughters, but should not receive them with their wives, 
 while the poor, being of course unable to give dowries, 
 would gain by this arrangement. Socrates proposed as 
 the scope of philosophy practical life as it is with its 
 various relations. Hence the merit doubtless belongs 
 to him of having given a more useful direction to the 
 investigations of philosophy in general, and therefore to 
 those also which related to the phenomena of wealth. 
 But the learned men of his school occupied themselves 
 with economic products in their connection with ethics
 
 02 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 and politics. They did not consider them in themselves 
 but merely as an instrument for gaining the higher ends 
 of human life, so that most of their reflections belong 
 rather to economic ethics than to political economy. 
 
 Among those writings preserved to us, which throw 
 light on the opinions of Socrates as to economic products, 
 we may first give our attention to a dialogue entitled 
 Eryxias. It is found among those of Plato, but it is 
 easy to see that it is not really written by him. Some 
 philologists ascribe it to Eschines, and others, apparently 
 with more reason, to a later Socratic writer of minor 
 importance. The author argues that men ought not to 
 look on wealth as the object by which they may attain 
 happiness. Its possession does not necessarily bring 
 happiness, since a rich man more than any other needs 
 wisdom to make a good use of what he has. 
 
 C. H. Hagen, Observationum oeconomico^oliticarum in 
 JEschinis Dialogum, qui Eryxias inscribitur. Pars prima. 
 Regiomonti, 1822, 8vo. 
 
 Far more useful, as giving a complete and exact idea 
 of the economic opinions of the Greek philosophers and 
 learned men generally, are the writings of Plato, of 
 Xenophon and still more of Aristotle. 
 
 Rob. v. Mohl, Eie Staatsromane. In his Geschichte und 
 Literatur der Staatswissenschaften, etc. Vol. I. Erlangen, 
 1855, 4to. p. 171—76. 
 
 Ad. Frout de Fontpertuis, Filiation des Idées éco- 
 nomiques et sociales de V Antiquité, etc. In the Journal 
 des Economistes, 30th year, 3rd series (September 1871), 
 p. 356 — 382. (Both explaining the economic doctrines 
 of Plato ; the second that of Xenophon also.) 
 
 Bruno Hildebrand, Xenophontis et Aristotelis de Oe- 
 conomia publica Doctrinae illustrantur. Part 1 . Marburg,
 
 n.] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 93 
 
 1845, 8vo. (The second part concerning Aristotle has 
 not been published.) 
 
 J. C Glaser, De Aristotelis Doctrina de Divitiis. 
 Regiomonti. 1856, 4to (Insufficient). 
 
 W. Onken, Die Staatslehre des Aristoteles. Leipzig, 
 1870 — 75, 2 vols. 8vo. (Wide critical exposition of the 
 political doctrine of Aristotle.) 
 
 Plato (429 — 348 b.c.) in his Republic depicts an ideal 
 state, based on the system of community of goods and of 
 wives, and governed by wise men and philosophers. He 
 divides the population into three principal classes, 
 rulers, warriors, and labourers, while the produce of the 
 soil is distributed between citizens, slaves and strangers. 
 In the Laws he sets forth his economic views, conform- 
 ing them rather more to the actual conditions of the time. 
 He gives proofs of great profundity in dealing with 
 certain points of theory, and especially in his political 
 exposition of the ancient state in all its greatness. 
 He defines wealth as the possession of more than other 
 people. He distinguishes good gifts which are human 
 (as health, beauty, strength, wealth) from those which 
 are divine (wisdom, virtue, temperance), and those which 
 serve for pleasure and luxury from those which are 
 profitable. He appreciates the importance of labour 
 and of the division of labour, without foreseeing its more 
 remote consequences. He understands the functions of 
 money as the instrument and token of exchange, and 
 the consequent advantage of it to commerce. He is 
 further of opinion tliat to preserve good order in the 
 state it is advisable to exercise a prudent guardianship 
 over commerce, manufactures, and agriculture. The last 
 he values more especially, giving many precepts with 
 regard to the profitable pursuit of it. He recognises the
 
 94 STUDY OF TOLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 tendency of men to acquire private property, and there- 
 fore inclines to a system of the greatest possible 
 equality. To this end he proposes that the extension of 
 territory as well as the increase of population should be 
 restrained within very narrow limits ; also that external 
 commerce should be regulated in such a way as not to 
 prejudice the purity of customs and the integrity of the 
 national character. 
 
 Rather less profound, but certainly more positive 
 than Plato, was Xenophon (446 — 356 b.c.), the author of 
 many historical writings and of some small works on 
 Domestic Economy, such as the Chase, the Revenues of 
 Attica, etc., in which he enters into some particulars of 
 the economic life of nations and states. Wealth, according 
 to his definition, consists in the excess of goods over 
 •wants. By goods he means all useful things. He 
 recognises as the elements of production nature, which 
 provides materials, and labour, which modifies them, 
 and is approved by him so long as it is skilfully directed 
 to legitimate purposes. Like Plato, he perceives the 
 advantage to be gained from the division of employ- 
 ments, and his ideas about the manufacturing arts and 
 commerce are more correct. He cannot get rid, how- 
 ever, of the notion of the superiority of agriculture, which 
 he considers the healthiest occupation both for the body 
 and the mind, and the most useful in increasing wealth. 
 He describes the conditions of soil and climate, the 
 methods of cultivation and organisation of labour, which 
 seem to him best adapted for its success. Up to a certain 
 point, he anticipates the modern theory of the limits of 
 agricultural production, seeing that the successive appli- 
 cation of labour to land gives progressively decreasing 
 results. He does not rise above the common prejudice
 
 II.] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY 95 
 
 in favour of slavery, but he recommends that slaves 
 should be well treated. Finally, he has some com- 
 paratively advanced ideas on money and prices ; but in 
 treating of the relative values of the precious metals, he 
 falls into an error with regard to silver, attributing to it 
 a constant value, independent of increased production. 
 
 As has already been said, Aristotle holds the first place 
 in economic knowledge among the Greek thinkers. A 
 patient, acute, and experienced observer, he not only 
 greatly advanced speculative inquiries concerning wealth, 
 but summed up in himself all the economic knowledge 
 of antiquity. He laid down boundaries which limited 
 the researches of the most illustrious mediaeval thinkers. 
 His economic theories are set forth in the Ethics and 
 Politics, the Economics having been compiled in the 
 succeeding centuries. He divides the patrimony into 
 wealth destined for consumption and wealth destined for 
 profit. Again, he distinguishes wealth consumed by the 
 proprietor from that devoted to exchange. This leads 
 him to the important distinction between value in use 
 and value in exchange, — between primitive economy 
 and the economy of a money-using people, observing 
 that the latter is proper to a more advanced civilisation, 
 in which there exists a more minute division of labour. 
 He appreciates correctly the functions of money, as a 
 measure of value and an instrument of exchange, 
 adopted by universal consent as a means of effecting 
 the needful exchanges at any given time. He does not 
 fall into the error of confounding money with wealth, re- 
 marking that it is possible to die of hunger, as Midas did, 
 while owning vast quantities of the precious metals. On 
 the other hand, he has a false conception of capital and 
 of interest, which he condemns as an unjust usurpation,
 
 96 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 holding it impossible that money can produce money. 
 He divides the population into farmers, artisans, 
 traders, and those who perform personal services, such 
 as warriors, priests, judges and magistrates ; but he ex- 
 cludes from a share in the government of the State those 
 who, being solely engaged in the arts directed to increase 
 wealth, are doing base work, unworthy of the truly free 
 man. He defends slavery by affirming that the position 
 of slaves is naturally servile, though he admits that if 
 the harp could play, and the shuttle could weave, of 
 itself, there would be no need for servile aid. He 
 thinks that population ought to be exactly propor- 
 tioned to territory, since a thinly scattered population 
 would endanger the independence of the State, while one 
 too abundant would endanger internal tranquillity, order, 
 and safety. 
 
 C. — Rome. 
 
 F. B. G. Hermann, Dissertatio exhibens Sententias 
 Bomanorum ad oeconomiam universam sive nationalem 
 pertinentes. Erlangen, 1823, 8vo. 
 
 The classical writers of Rome, particularly the philo- 
 sophers, did not devote themselves to economic 
 questions with the same diligence and acuteness as those 
 of Greece, whose opinions on this subject the Latins 
 reproduced with little variation. Hence there is not 
 much of interest to be found in a collection of economic 
 passages from the Latin authors. Such a collection, 
 incomplete, by the way, is given by Hermann in a brief 
 and juvenile work of his, very unworthy of the fame 
 which he afterwards gained by arduous investigation 
 into the more profound conceptions of the science.
 
 il.] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 97 
 
 Among Roman writers whose importance in economic 
 matters is relatively great, we may cite Cicero, Seneca, 
 and Pliny the elder. The first, when young, translated 
 the Economics of Xenophon, and repeatedly expressed 
 his well-known opinions in favour of agriculture and in 
 opposition to manufactures and trade. Further, in his 
 philosophical, political, and rhetorical works there are 
 some wise observations on economic questions, which 
 have been collected by a learned Dutchman, Calkoen. 
 
 Calkoen, Over eenige staathuishoudlmndige Gevoelens en 
 Stellingen in de Geschriften van Cicero, etc. In the 
 Bijdragen tot Regtsgel. en Wetgeving of van Hall, 
 1831-32, Vol. VI., p. 413, et seq. 
 
 Seneca's ideas on the use of wealth are inspired by 
 the stoic philosophy of which he was an expositor. He 
 is the enemy of avarice no less than of dissipation and 
 luxury ; he is averse to conquest, slavery, and war, and 
 favourable to frugality, temperance, and work. 
 
 In his Natural History, Pliny recognises the greater 
 productiveness of cultivation on the large scale, but 
 deplores the evils arising in districts cultivated by 
 servile labour. He condemns luxury, and opposes the 
 exportation of money in exchange for foreign goods. 
 Specially noteworthy is his exposition of value, its causes 
 and movements. 
 
 Somewhat more important, with regard to certain 
 points of theory, if on no other account, are the Roman 
 o.gricidturists (scriptores rei rusticaì), especially Cato, 
 Varrò, and Columella. Living in a time of economic 
 and moral decay, incipient or advanced, they strove to 
 bring back their countrymen to happier and healthier 
 agrarian conditions. Their technical precepts are 
 chiefly inspired by the desire of making agriculture 
 
 ii
 
 93 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 more rational, of spreading a knowledge of the agrarian 
 customs of other peoples, and especially of the Cartha- 
 ginians, of reviving the love for country life, of stirring 
 up pi'oprietors to undertake personally the cultivation 
 of their farms, and discouraging the system of leaving 
 vast estates to servile cultivation. 
 
 We get an impression of more clearness and origi- 
 nality from the economic theories of the Roman 
 Jurists, chiefly preserved in the Corpus Juris. It is 
 true that we cannot properly form from these, by the 
 arbitrary welding together of fragments, a compendium 
 of economy on the modern pattern. Tydemann, a Dutch 
 writer, attempted to do this with great weight of learning, 
 but with little judgment, making no distinction between 
 theories and opinions often removed from one another by 
 centuries. Nevertheless, we do find in the writings of 
 the Jurists most interesting passages, which deserve 
 special elucidation. This was happily attempted by 
 Scheel in a brief essay which makes us wish for a lai-ger 
 work. And it should be mentioned that some of the 
 more important passages long since attracted the at- 
 tention of many learned men. As, for instance, the 
 well-known fragment of Paul on the origin of money, 
 which exercised the analytical talent of our Pompeo 
 Neri. {Leg. 1 Dig. de contr. empt. XVIII., 1.) 
 
 J. G. Tydemann, Disquisitio de (Economice politicce 
 notionibus in Corpore Juris Civilis Justinianeo. Lug- 
 duni Batavorum, 1838. 
 
 H. v. Scheel, Die wirthschaftlichen Grundbegriffe im 
 Corpore Juris Civilis Justinianeo. In the Jahrbilcher 
 fur Nat.-Oehon. und Statistik of B. Hildebrand, Jena, 
 1866, Vol. I. 
 
 Pompeo Neri, Osservazioni sul Prezzo legale delle Monete
 
 ii.] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 99 
 
 (1751). In the Economisti classici italiani. Ancient 
 part, Vol. VI. p. 324, et seq. 
 
 § 2. The Middle Ages. 
 
 L. Cibrario, Bella Economia politica del Medio-evo, 
 libri tre, 5th ed. Turin, 1861. Two vols. 8vo. (This 
 work does not deal with theories.) 
 
 H. Contzen, Geschichte der volkswirthschaftlichen 
 Literatur im Mittelalter. 2nd enlarged edition. Berlin, 
 1872, 8vo. (A compilation somewhat superficially and 
 hastily written.) 
 
 L. Cossa, Di alcuni Studj recenti sulle Teorie econo- 
 miche nel Medio-evo. In the Rendiconti del IL Istituto 
 Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. 2nd series. Vol. IX. 
 (1876), art. 4 and 5. (Criticai account of modem works 
 on the subject.) 
 
 The middle ages was a period of fierce struggle be- 
 tween the old pagan ideas and the modern world, which 
 had been radically transformed by the influence of 
 Christianity. By proclaiming the unity of the human 
 race and the equality of men, Christianity condemned 
 slavery and serfdom, and led the way to their abolition. 
 By moderating the harshness of paternal rule, raising 
 the moral and social position of women, and reforming 
 the system of successions, it reconstituted the family. 
 By creating and diffusing charitable institutions, by 
 preaching to the rich the duty of charity, and to the 
 poor that of gratitude and resignation, it improved the 
 condition of the less prosperous classes. Thus it laid 
 the foundation for a more satisfactory organisation of 
 the production and distribution of wealth. 
 
 But this fruitful and renovating process met in 
 existing ideas, prejudices, customs, and laws, with 
 
 H 2
 
 TOO STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 hindrances which delayed the full effect of the incipient 
 reforms. In the period before the Crusades, dis- 
 turbed as it was by constant struggles between Pope 
 and Emperor for political supremacy in Christian 
 Europe, and by wars, more restricted but none the less 
 fierce and unceasing, between the feudal lords, the 
 development of manufacturing and commercial industry 
 was impeded. There could be no guarantee for order 
 and liberty in the midst of continual war, robbery, and 
 violence. Industry suffered not a little from the de- 
 ficiency and insecurity of the means of exchange, trans- 
 port, and communication. Even agriculture languished 
 under the weight of intolerable burdens and the miserable 
 condition of the cultivators, who were bound to the soil 
 and oppressed by the exactions of the feudal system. 
 
 It was only in the latter half of the middle ages that 
 the emancipation of the towns and the growth of the 
 burgher class, together with the fresh sphere for trade 
 opened by the Crusades, gave new life to manufactures. 
 Organised under a system of strong self-governing cor- 
 porations, which alone could resist the oppressions of 
 feudal lords, manufacturing industry soon became — 
 firstly, in the Italian republics, and latterly, in Flanders 
 and the German Hanse towns — a powerful element in 
 economic prosperity and civil progress. 
 
 It was about the beginning of the eleventh century 
 that there arose in Italy those economic institutions, 
 which, even at this distance of time, rouse our admira- 
 tion. These institutions were upheld by those statutes 
 and customs of commercial, banking, and maritime law, 
 which, having been first introduced into the laws and 
 ordinances of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
 are largely embodied in existing commercial codes.
 
 li.] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 101 
 
 But the revival of economic studies in the middle 
 ages only dates from the eighteenth century. It was due 
 in a great measure to the study of the Ethics and Politics 
 of Aristotle, whose theories on wealth were paraphrased 
 by a considerable number of commentators. Before 
 that period we only find moral and religious disserta- 
 tions on the proper use of material goods, the dangers 
 of luxury, the undue desire for wealth, etc. This is 
 easily explained when we take the following circum- 
 stances into consideration, namely : the prevalent in- 
 fluence of religious ideas at that time ; the strong re- 
 action against the materialism of pagan antiquity ; the 
 predominance of "natural economy "; the small impor- 
 tance of international trade ; the decay of the profane 
 sciences, and the metaphysical tendencies of the more 
 solid thinkers of the middle ages. Later on, when in- 
 dustrial conditions had grown better, when public safety 
 was increased, when the love of knowledge had been 
 developed, when jurisprudence had been reformed and 
 its scientific study revived, and when scholasticism had 
 reached its highest point, the wisest students of philo- 
 sophy turned their attention more frequently to the 
 investigation of economic phenomena, discussing their 
 relations to the doctrine of ethics and the management 
 of public affairs. 
 
 It is not surprising that among the economists of the 
 middle ages the highest place is held by the theologians. 
 In sermons, dogmatic and moral compendiums and 
 summaries, and sometimes in special works on the 
 sacrament of penitence, they were led, while treating of 
 the payment of debts, to examine the nature of com- 
 merce and the known characteristics of certain contracts 
 and mercantile operations, in order to distinguish acts
 
 102 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 that were lawful from those that were unlawful and 
 sinful. 
 
 The philosophers and jurists, most of them being 
 also ecclesiastics, are especially noteworthy. Follow- 
 ing in the line of the two works of Aristotle, above 
 mentioned, they discussed the nature and functions of 
 money. They asserted the unlawfulness of interest on 
 money-loans, arguing from its so-called barrenness, from 
 the prescriptions of the Corpus Juris Canonici, and 
 from the interpretation of certain passages of Scripture. 
 Later also a subtle distinction was formed in support of 
 the same doctrine between in fungible ana fungible things. 1 
 It was said that as the use of the former cannot be 
 transferred without the ownership being changed at the 
 same time, it is not lawful for the lender to demand in- 
 terest in addition to the restitution of the principal, such 
 a demand being a claim for double compensation. 
 
 W. Endemann, Die national- okonomischen Grundsdtze 
 der canonistischen Lehre. Jena, 18G3, 8vo. 
 
 Ch. Jourdain, Mhnoire sur les Commencements de 
 V Economie politique dans les Ecoles du moyen-àge (18G9). 
 In the Mémoires de VAcad, des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, 
 Vol. XXVIII. Paris, 1874, p. 1-51. 
 
 W. Endemann, Studien in der romaniscit-canonistisclien 
 Wirthschafts-und Rechtslehre, 1st vol. Berlin, 1874, 8vo. 
 
 1 A res iììfiingibilis is the subject of a contract or "obligation," 
 which can only be discharged by the return of the thing itself. A 
 res fwngibilis is the subject of a contract or " obligation " which 
 can be discharged by the delivery of a similar thing, and must in 
 consequence be always ascertainable by measurement, etc. The 
 commonest instances of res ftingibilcs were things which perished 
 in use, and indeed res fungibiles are generally confounded with 
 things quce ttsu consumuntur. Austin, Jurisprudence, p. 807, ed. iv. 
 Mackeldy, § 369-374. Digest. XII. i. 6.
 
 il] ancient POLITICAL ECONOMY. 103 
 
 The political writers of the thirteenth and fourteenth, 
 and more particularly of the fifteenth centuries, are not 
 without interest. Their numerous writings, all very 
 similar in substance, treat of the government of princes 
 and of republics. They do not enter much in detail 
 into the application of legislation to industries. Here 
 and there, however, they give precepts for good economic 
 and financial government. 
 
 V. Cusumano, DelV Economia Politica nel Medio-evo. 
 Studi Storici. Bologna, 187G. 
 
 Many men of letters, too, of this period pay some 
 attention to the economic element, and observe its in- 
 fluence on the right adjustment both of the house and 
 the State. Some of these were authors either of En- 
 cyclopedias, like Brunetto Latini, or of works on domestic 
 economy, like Leone Battista Alberti. Some were 
 historians, as, for example, Giovanni and Matteo 
 Villani. 
 
 E. Gebhart, Les Historiens florentins de la Renaissance 
 et les Commencements de V Economie politique et sociale, 
 1875. In the Séances et Travaux de l'Académie des 
 Sciences morales et politiques, 34th year, p. 552-590. 
 
 It being impossible to give an accurate account of 
 the economic literature of the middle ages, we must 
 content ourselves with simply enumerating the more 
 noted writers. 
 
 A. Tldrteentli Century. 
 
 Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), and Duns Scotus 
 (1245-1308), two eminent schoolmen, must be men- 
 tioned. The first was the master, the second the subtle 
 antagonist of St. Thomas Aquinas (122G-1274), the 
 greatest philosopher and theologian of his time, and
 
 104 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 also the most remarkable economic writer of the thir- 
 teenth century. The Summa, the pamphlet De Usuris, 
 and the Commentaries on Aristotle, deserve special 
 consideration, and to a certain point also, the book 
 De Regimine Principum. The authencitity of this 
 last work, however, is very doubtful, it being probably 
 in great part written by his pupil, the Friar Tolomeo da 
 Lucca (1236-1317). St. Thomas may be considered as 
 the link between the economic doctrines of ancient 
 Greece and the Christian-Guelf political theories set 
 forth in a good many works in the thirteenth and 
 following centuries. In the writings of St. Thomas 
 we find indeed paraphrases of the Aristotelian doctrines 
 on money and interest. On these doctrines he and his 
 imitators founded their condemnation of the deprecia- 
 tion of the standard and of the usury which was con- 
 cealed in many mercantile contracts to evade the severe 
 rules of canon and civil law. 
 
 Among the minor schoolmen, Henry of Ghent was 
 the author of a work, since lost, De Mercimoniis et Nego- 
 tiationibus, in which he showed a somewhat juster un- 
 derstanding of commerce, its lawfulness and utility, than 
 most of his contemporaries. 
 
 B. Fourteenth Century. 
 
 The 'political writers of this time followed in the 
 steps of St. Thomas, as for example, Egidio Colonna 
 in his book De Regimine Principum. Certain writers 
 on Roman law, among them Bartolo di Sassoferrato 
 (1313-1350), propounded comparatively correct ideas on 
 money and some other subjects. At the same time the 
 canonical writers and theologians somewhat modified their 
 views on the theory of interest. Other learned men
 
 il] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 105 
 
 examined with much subtlety and surprising exactness 
 the economic functions of money, courageously and with 
 sound judgment condemning its depreciation. To this 
 class belong : — - 
 
 1. Jean Buri clan, who was governor of the Univer- 
 sity of Paris in 1327. In his questions on the Ethics of 
 Aristotle, he gave, as Jourdain observes, a short treatise 
 on the economic functions of money. 
 
 2. Nicolas Orosme, Bishop of Lisieux (died 1382), 
 who, before 1373, wrote a fuller and more remarkable 
 discourse on the same subject than any which had pre- 
 ceded it, De Origine, Natura, Jure et Mutationibus 
 Monetarum. It was reprinted in 1864 by "Wolowski, 
 and commented on by Boscher, who speaks of Oresme 
 as " a great French economist " of the 14th century. 
 
 We will pass over other schoolmen of less importance, 
 only mentioning the two professors of the theological 
 faculty of Vienna, Henry of Bangenstein (Henricus de 
 Assia, died 1397), and Henry of Hoyta (died 1392). The 
 first was the author of a treatise, De Contractions et de 
 Origine Censurivi, and the second of a book De Contracti- 
 ons, scilicet redditibus. More worthy of notice are : — 
 
 1. The famous chancellor Jean de Gerson, who, like 
 Buridan, turned his attention to the theory of value. 
 He argued, in accordance with the opinions of his time, 
 in favour of an official valuation of the price of all goods. 
 
 2. Giovanni Sercambi, the historian and political 
 writer of Bucca (1347-1424). In his Avvertimento politici, 
 published before 1400, he figures as one of the earliest 
 upholders of the so-called protective system.
 
 106 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 C. Fifteenth Century. 
 
 The spread of literary culture, the progress of industry, 
 the new credit-institutions, and the legislative reforms, 
 necessarily had a great influence on economic literature. 
 Though still controlled by theologians, it grew wider in 
 its scope, and in its technical and political applications. 
 Among the writers, more numerous than before, who 
 were remarkable for their diligence in the study of 
 economic phenomena, we will only mention three theo- 
 logians and two political writers. They are commented 
 on by Roscher, Funk, Contzen, and Cusumano, in certain 
 monographs already described by us (See note already 
 given respecting Alcuni Studj recenti sulle Teorie econo- 
 miche del Medio-evo, p. 99). 
 
 St. Bernardin of Siena, (1380-1444), and St. Antonino, 
 Archbishop of Florence (1389-1455), were both theolo- 
 gians of great fame, belonging to the first half of the 
 15th century. Their theories on economic subjects were 
 rather more correct than those of preceding writers. St. 
 Antonine in his Stimma Theologica, and St. Bernardin 
 in his sermons, De Rerum Translatione ; De Mercatura 
 in genera ; De Temporis Venditions; De Examine (Pretii) 
 Rerum Venalium ; De Voragine Usurarum, explain certain 
 points of the doctrines of production, circulation, and 
 distribution. Their observations on the nature of 
 capital, the causes of value, and the nature of interest, 
 deserve special attention. 
 
 Another theologian, who was also a philosopher, 
 Gabriel Biel (died 1495), a professor at Tubingen towards 
 the end of the 15th century, wrote a Collectarium Senten- 
 tiarum in four books (Tubingen, 1501, i. vol. folio). 
 He was chiefly remarkable for his theory of money,
 
 il] ANCIENT POLITICAL ECONOMY. 107 
 
 which was afterwards reprinted separately under the 
 title, De Monetarum Potestate simul et Utilitate Libellus 
 (Magonza, 1501). It was quoted by several writers of 
 the following century. 
 
 Of the many political writers who now and then 
 turned their attention to the economic management of 
 the state, we must notice Filippo Beroaldo (1453-1505), 
 Bartolomeo Platina (1421-1481), Giovanni Gioviano 
 Pontano (1426-1503), and more especially : — - 
 
 1. Francesco Patrizzii of Siena, bishop of Gaeta (died 
 1494), the author of two works, De Regno et Regis Insti- 
 tutione (Paris, 1567), and De Institutione Reipublicce 
 (Paris, 1565). 
 
 2. Diomede Caraffa (died 1487), a Neapolitan writer, 
 published at the request of Eleanor of Aragon, Duchess 
 of Ferrara, a treatise : De Regentis et boni Principia Offi- 
 ciis. It contains some important remarks on agriculture 
 and corn, money and commerce, and more especially on 
 financial arrangements. With regard to the last he 
 advises, under certain conditions, the farming of taxes, 
 an idea which was singular enough at that time.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 
 
 In the second period of the history of political economy, 
 which includes the lGth and 17th and the first half of 
 the 18th centuries, economic questions were discussed 
 with greater breadth. The point of view proper to the 
 science became more and more separated from that of 
 other sciences, to which it had been subordinated in the 
 previous period. But there is not as yet any complete or 
 really systematic treatment of the science as a whole. 
 The various theories are not yet brought into connection 
 with their fundamental principles. They only form, as 
 it were, a conglomerate of disconnected monographs, 
 superficially conformed to those rules of economic 
 government which make up the so-called mercantile 
 system. In the legislation and commercial customs of 
 the 16th century and the last half of the 17th, the 
 influence of this system was very great. 
 
 § 1. Political Economy in the Y§th Century. 
 
 A complete revolution took place during this period, 
 in circumstances and institutions, opinions and theories 
 alike. It may be mostly explained by those great
 
 ch. in.] POLITICAL. ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 109 
 
 events which divide the middle ages from modern times. 
 These were : The fall of the Roman Empire in the 
 East ; the great geographical discoveries ; the invention 
 of powder and of printing ; the revival of classical 
 studies ; the so-called religious reformation, etc. Be- 
 sides these facts of political and social importance, there 
 were others of a purely economic character. There 
 was the abundant supply of the precious metals flowing 
 from the newly discovered mines of America, and the 
 increasing prevalence of monetary over " natural " 
 economy, a special characteristic of the middle ages. 
 There was the rise and spread of institutions founded 
 on credit. There was the confiscation of the wealth of 
 religious bodies in Protestant states, causing an increase 
 of misery which called for a reform of beneficent insti- 
 tutions. Again there was the introduction of standing 
 armies, and the growing needs of public finance in the 
 absolute monarchies which formed themselves on the 
 ruins of the old feudal systems, and which steadily 
 grew in unity and strength. And there were the new 
 trade connections between the Old and the New Worlds, 
 demanding new institutions to maintain them. 
 
 This revolution of changing circumstances and opinions 
 had a strong influence upon scientific speculation. In 
 the century of which we are speaking it burst the bonds 
 of metaphysics, and took a more practical and positive 
 direction. Thus it was led to investigate the phenomena 
 of wealth, especially those belonging to circulation. A 
 glance at the many works by writers on general politics, 
 belonging to the 15th century, and more particularly to 
 the last thirty years of it, clearly shows the greater 
 attention given at that time to economic problems. 
 
 This remark does not apply indeed to the greatest
 
 110 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 politician of the period, Niccolò Macchiavelli (1469- 
 1527). But in him it certainly was not the aptitude but 
 the inclination to consider the economic side of political 
 facts and problems that was wanting. We have his own 
 declaration of his inexperience in the treatment of 
 questions relating to ivool and silk. We have further 
 proof in the careful and diligent investigations of Knies, 
 a modern economist of considerable merit. He searched 
 the works of the Florentine secretary for observations 
 on economic matters, with little or no result. 
 
 In the historical, and more especially in the political, 
 works of Francesco Guicciardini (1480 — 1540), which 
 have been discovered recently, we find a greater number 
 of economic passages. In these works he describes the 
 vicissitudes of Italy, and of Florence in particular, and 
 gives political advice to statesmen. At the same time 
 he appreciates with much penetration the political im- 
 portance of the fierce financial struggles in which the 
 rival parties of Florence strove to damage one another. 
 
 But it was the French politician, Jean Bodin 
 (1530- 1596), who in the fifteenth century held the first 
 place with regard to political economy, administration, 
 and finance. In his work, De la République (1576), 
 and most fully in the last of its six books, he discourses 
 at large of the economic organisation of the state. 
 This, he thinks, should be suited to the natural con- 
 ditions of soil and climate. It should be regulated by 
 a moderately restrictive legislation with regard to the 
 customs duties, and by a financial system based on the 
 taxation of products. These theories must of course be 
 judged in relation to the time to which they belong. 
 They have been learnedly explained by : — ■ 
 
 H. Baudrillard J. Bodin et son Temps. Tableau des
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. Ill 
 
 Tlièories politiques et des Idées économiques au seizihne 
 Siede. Paris, 1853, 1 vol. 8vo. The remarks in this 
 work on the economic theories of the fifteenth century 
 are somewhat insufficient. But it contains much infor- 
 mation on the life and general writings of Bodin, and 
 a minute analysis of the treatise De la République. 
 
 In the last years of the 15th century an Italian politi- 
 cian devoted himself to the problems of economic govern- 
 ment. This was the Piedmontese Giovanni Boterò, 
 abbot of San Michele alla Chiusa, and secretary of St. 
 Carlo Borromeo. Among his writings we may name the 
 Ragione di Stato (1592) and a small work on the Cause 
 della Grandezza delle Città (1598), in which he expounded 
 theories on wealth, the relative importance of indus- 
 tries, commercial politics, population, colonies and 
 taxation. These are all worth the attention of the 
 economic historian, though they do not justify the 
 exaggerated praise given to them by Botero's biographer, 
 Galeani Napione. 
 
 Finally, we must mention two other political writers 
 of this period. In his work, De Monetae Mutatione 
 (1609) Mariana, a Jesuit, dealt with the questions of 
 money and prices, showing himself to be in favour of the 
 restriction of international commerce. And Gregory of 
 Toulouse in his book De Republica (1597) siimmed up 
 the economic notions of his time. He was however 
 wanting in originality, and a critic of the following 
 century said of him, "multa ingerii, pauca digerii." 
 
 With this group of political writers who expounded 
 theories relating to the government of states as they 
 actually existed in their times, we must contrast another 
 class of writers. These were partly men of letters, 
 partly philosophers, partly popular agitators in times of
 
 112 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 war and other political disturbances. Their object 
 was to describe an ideal state, organised on a system 
 of community of goods, after the model of Plato's 
 Republic. 
 
 First in order of time, and celebrated also for having 
 given the name of Utopia to the political scheme and 
 economic organisation described by him, is the famous 
 chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More. (De novo 
 Reipublicae statu deque nova insula Utojria, &c. 1516.) 
 Then there was the strange Florentine writer Antonio 
 Francesco Doni (1513 — -1574) with his Mondi celesti, 
 terrestri ed infernali (1552 — 1553), 2 vols. 4to, and the 
 philosophers Telesio {De Rerum, Natura) and Giordano 
 Bruno (Spaccio della Bestia trionfante). In Germany 
 Sebastian Frank, the communist of the reformation, 
 wished to extend this movement to a thorough trans- 
 formation of social order. 
 
 Rather more interesting are the theological and 
 economic controversies relating to usury, instruments of 
 credit, and the monti-di-pietà, or pawnbrokers' shops. 
 Such controversies followed and partly arose out of 
 the discussions and commentaries occasioned in the 
 middle ages by the canonical and civil prohibition of 
 interest on money-loans. The strictness of this pro- 
 hibition became modified by the necessities of trade, the 
 growth of commercial enterprise, the constantly increas- 
 ing importance cf productive in comparison with merely 
 consumptive credit. Thus loans, companies, and institu- 
 tions of credit arose under various forms, and gradually 
 succeeded in emancipating themselves from the old pro- 
 hibitive laws. Among these institutions we may mention 
 bills of exchange, insurances, the so called montes sacri 
 and profani, and mortgages.
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 113 
 
 The canonical theory with regard to such economic 
 matters was based on the conception of a loan as an 
 essentially gratuitous contract. An examination of the 
 new institutions led the upholders of this theory to the 
 admission that the creditor may demand a compensation 
 for his service under certain conditions. As when for 
 instance he can plead an ensuing loss, a, cessation of gain, 
 the risk of partnerships, the cost of transport of money 
 from one place to another. But these compensations 
 must not, they said, be confounded with interest, which 
 is unlawful. 
 
 Among Protestant theologians Luther was as strongly 
 opposed to usury as the Catholic writers, while Mel- 
 anchthon, Zwingli, and especially Calvin were more 
 indulgent. 
 
 We next have a numerous group of writers treating 
 especially of bills of exchange and monti di pietà. On 
 the first subject the Dominican Tommaso da Vio, called 
 also Cardinal Gaetano, opens the series with his Latin 
 dissertation De Carnbiis (1499). In this work he take 
 great pains to distinguish true and lawful exchange from 
 the Cambio secco, 1 or dry exchange, which is unlawful 
 because it disguises a loan at interest. Later on the 
 subject attracted the notice of legal writers. The many 
 works which deal with it, notwithstanding differences in 
 
 1 " Dry exchange was an evasion of the Usury Laws, by means of 
 Bill of Exchange, which the borrower drew on a fictitious person 
 at Amsterdam, or any foreign town, at the then current rate of 
 exchange, which he delivered to the lender. At maturity, the Bill 
 was returned protested from Amsterdam, and the borrower charged 
 with re-exchange and incidental expenses ; and in this way twenty 
 or thirty per cent, was made, the bill never having been out of the 
 country." — Kelly, Summary of the History and Law of Usury, 
 p. 18. London: 183,5. 
 
 I
 
 114 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [CHAP. 
 
 detail, are all inspired by the same ideas. We may- 
 special ly mention that of the Siennese Tommaso Buonin- 
 segni (died 1G10), a merchant at first and then a monk 
 (Dei Cambii. Florence, 1573), and another by the 
 Padre Fabiano Clavario of Genoa. The Breve notizia dei 
 Cambii (1581) by Bernardo Davanzati (1529-1606), gives 
 a simple description of the mechanism of exchange. 
 This work is better known to economists, because it is 
 included in Custodi's collection, and to men of letters 
 because of the elegance of its style. 
 
 A far more lively controversy was excited by the monti 
 di pi tà, which had spread in Italy during the second 
 half of the fifteenth century. In the following cen- 
 tury a demand arose for their introduction into the Low 
 Countries. These institutions lent money on security, 
 at first gratuitously, and afterwards for interest. They 
 were fiercely opposed by the Dominicans, on the ground 
 of the unlawfulness of interest. On the other hand, 
 they were defended by the Franciscans from a charitable 
 point of view, as being a refuge for the poor from the 
 heavy usuries of private money-lenders, chiefly Jews. 
 Among theologians, the already-mentioned Cardinal 
 Gaetano and Barianno, an Augustinian monk ( Tractatus 
 de Monte Irwpietatis, Cremona, 1496), were enemies of the 
 Monti. De Rosellis and Padre Bernardino da Busto 
 (Defensorium Montis Pietatis, 1497), defended them. 
 
 But the favourite subject of the economists of the 
 1 6th century was that of money. Their attention was 
 called to it by the discovery of. the American mines, and 
 by the still existing abuse of the adidteration of money 
 by sovereigns. Some observations of the economic kind 
 are made by learned men, while discoursing, likeBudaeus, 
 Agricola, and Alciati, on ancient money, or, like Borghini,
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 115 
 
 on modern money. The writers on natural history, too, 
 in dealing with the precious metals come across economic 
 questions. They sometimes even discuss them, as, for 
 example, the German writer Julius Agricola, in his book 
 De Be metallica (1535). The subject is more thoroughly 
 treated by jurists, who discuss with much subtlety the 
 legal consequences of altering the monetary standard. 
 Hence they are led to definitions of the nature and 
 functions of money. These, however, they do not 
 always clearly understand. They confound the essential 
 qualities of money with the stamp of the sovereign, 
 which is merely an attestation of its value. Among 
 these legal writers the following are noteworthy : 
 Alberto Bruno d'Asti, Antonio Sola, and Gaspare Tes- 
 auro, all Piedrnontese ; the Savoyard Favre, and the 
 Germans, Johann Aquila and Eeinero Budelio, whose 
 works have been often reprinted in special collections. 
 
 Without denying the importance of these writings, 
 the economist will doubtless find certain other treatises 
 more interesting, in which the same subject is tieated 
 from a more purely economic point of view. 
 
 The earliest of such writings proceeded from a worthy 
 successor to Buridan and Orésme in the 14th century, 
 the celebrated astronomer Copernicus. About 1526 he 
 wrote, at the command of Sigismund I. of Poland, a 
 treatise with the title De Monetae Cudendae Ratione. It 
 was printed for the first time in 1816, and again in 1864 
 by Wolowski. In it he expounds correctly the con- 
 ception of money. He opposes monetary depreciation, 
 pointing out the economic and legal disturbances which 
 arise from it. And he makes many useful proposals for 
 the reform of the monetary system in the Prussian 
 provinces, at that time subject to Poland. 
 
 i 2 
 
 •
 
 
 116 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 A. Montanari, Nicolò Copernico. Padua, 1873. (2nd 
 ed. 1877). 
 
 Almost contemporary with Copernicus was an anony- 
 mous German writer, author of Geme/ine Stimmen von 
 der Miintze, 1530; Agiologie, etc. 1531. He defended the 
 sound monetary policy of the Albertino line of the princes 
 of Saxony against the accusations made by the parti- 
 sans of the Ernestine line. His ideas on wealth, com- 
 merce, and money, are very correct and have been praised 
 highly by Eoscher. 
 
 "W. Eoscher, Ueber die Bliithe deutscher National- 
 okonomie im Zeitalter der Reformation. In the Berickte 
 der /Sachs. Gesell. der Wiss., Phil. -hist. Classe. 1862, p. 
 145, et seq. 
 
 Half a century later, the already mentioned Davanzati 
 in his Lezione delle Monete (1588), and Gaspare Scaruffi 
 of Eeggio (died 1584) in his Alitinonfo, written in 1579 
 (Eeggio, 1582), deplore the disorders in the currency. 
 Davanzati is superficial, but his style is brief and elegant. 
 The other, though more profound and competent, is 
 tedious and lengthy. They both propose the adoption 
 of a uniform monetary system, with a double standard 
 based on a proportion of value of 12 to 1 between gold 
 and silver, approximately corresponding to the actual 
 proportion at the time. 
 
 The subject of the rise of prices, being related to that 
 of money and even entering in a large measure into 
 monetary questions, was touched upon, though not very 
 successfully, by some of the writers above mentioned. 
 The disturbing effects of such a variation of prices on 
 economic relations made themselves especially felt in 
 the second half of the 16th century. This gave rise to 
 some interesting special tx-eatises, the object of which
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 117 
 
 was to investigate the causes of the movement, and to 
 suggest opportune remedies. 
 
 The erroneous assertions of a certain Seigneur de Mal- 
 estroit were the occasion of two brief discourses in reply 
 by Jean Bodin, the French politician mentioned above 
 (p. 110). (a). Réponse aux Paradoxes de M. de Malestroit 
 touchant I ' Enchérissement de toutes les Choses et des Mon- 
 naies, 1568. (b). Discours sur le Rehaussement et la Dimi- 
 nution des Monnaies, 1578.) These pamphlets were after- 
 wards incorporated in his République. He points out as 
 the principal causes of the rise of prices : the abundance 
 of money caused by the increased production of silver in 
 America ; the growing importance of external commerce ; 
 the large business done by the bank of Lyons ; monetary 
 alterations, etc. He considers that all these circum- 
 stances would be turned to better advantage by a fiscal 
 system promoting the growth of national manufactures in 
 opposition to the excessive consumption of foreign goods. 
 
 An anonymous English writer W. S. (probably 
 William Stafford), who was evidently acquainted with 
 the writings of Bodin, treated of the same subject in a 
 dialogue. A compendious or brief e examination of certaynz 
 ordinary complaints, etc. London, 1581. His manner of 
 treatment, a more popular one in his own country, 
 differed from that of Bodin. That is, he expounded with 
 greater fullness the effects of the rise of prices, with- 
 out laying much stress on the influence of the increased 
 production of silver. But he also proposed as a remedy 
 a restrictive policy with regard to international com- 
 merce. The pamphlet has been often but inaccurately 
 quoted by historians of political economy. Professor 
 E. Nasse gave an accurate and learned notice of it 
 in his memoir :
 
 IIS STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 Ueber eine volkswirthtìchaftliche Schrift aus der Zeit der 
 Preisr evolution, etc. In the Zeitschr.f. die ges. Staats- 
 wiss. 19th year (1863), p. 309-391. 
 
 Another groxip of English writers is worthy of par- 
 ticular consideration. Writing towards the end of the 
 sixteenth century they dwelt on the subject of the 
 colonies and their relations with England. They thought 
 that these relations should be so adjusted as to pro- 
 mote national industry as much as possible. They left 
 unnoticed the subject of the importation of the precious 
 metals, which was the ruling principle of the colonial 
 system of Spain and Portugal. Among these writers 
 Sir Walter Raleigh stands the first (Essay on Trade, 
 1595). We may mention besides, Gilbert, Hakluyt. 
 Peckham and Carlisle. Like the economists of the 
 following century, they demanded restrictive measures 
 with regard to foreign trade, and in favour of English 
 manufactures. But they show themselves comparatively 
 superior to the later writers whose restrictive proposals 
 are based upon a false conception of the nature of 
 money. 
 
 We find at this time some economic writers in Spain, 
 a country which is generally looked upon as incapable of 
 producing any original scientific speculation. Towards 
 the middle of the sixteenth century the theologico- 
 ecmomic question of the right of the civil power to 
 forbid begging gave rise to many polemical writings. 
 To this question were allied the delicate economic and 
 administrative problems relating to the organisation of 
 public beneficence. Among the many writings mentioned 
 by Colmeiro in his Storia della Economia ])olitica in 
 [spagna (p. 83), it will be enough to mention the follow- 
 ing : Deliberacioii en la Causa de los Pobres (Salamanca,
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 119 
 
 1545), by the famous theologian, Domenico Soto, 
 containing a fierce denunciation of every restriction on 
 mendicity and vagabondage : De lo Orden que en algunos 
 Pueblos de E spana se ha puesto en la Limosina, etc., 
 (Salamanca, 15-15) by Padre Giovanni di Medina, who 
 advocates the prohibition of begging, and the erection 
 of workhouses : finally, the works of Michele de 
 Giginta (Tratada de Remedio de Pobres, Coimbra, 1575) 
 who timidly proposes as a compromise, the non- 
 compulsory erection of workhouses. 
 
 § 2. The Mercantile System. 
 
 Ad. Held, Carey's Social wissenschaft und das Mer- 
 kantilsystem. Wiirzburg, 1866, 8vo. 
 
 J. C. Glaser, Die soziale und politische Bedeutung des 
 sogen. Merkantil- Systems. In the Jahrb. fiir Gesell- 
 schafts- und Staatswissenschaften, Vol. XI. (1869), 
 pp. 300, et seq. 
 
 H. J. Bidermann, Ueber den Merhantilismus, Inns- 
 bruck, 1870. (This work corrects many prevailing 
 errors about the mercantile system, but goes too far in 
 defending it.) 
 
 Certain general theories relating to the economic ad- 
 ministration of states, and particularly to the organisa 
 tion of a commercial policy, formed that body of doctrine 
 to which the economists succeeding Adam Smith gave 
 the name of the mercantile system or the balance of trade. 
 These theories were gradually set forth by writers of 
 the sixteenth century, more especially of the last ten 
 years of it (e.g., Bodin and Stafford), and more com- 
 petently by others belonging to the first ten years of 
 the next century. In the various expositions of them 
 there were many, discrepancies in the details, and many
 
 120 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 incoherences and contradictions. In part they reflected 
 popular opinion ; in part they generalised the ruling 
 ideas of most of the positive legislation of the time ; in 
 part they sought to influence legislation in the direction 
 of a more complete application of their theories. The 
 mercantile system was also called the restrictive system, 
 and by some writers Colbertism, after the statesman 
 who, though not its author, made the largest, ablest, 
 and most important experiment in the application of 
 its principles to the government of a great nation. 
 
 The conclusion at which the supporters of this system 
 arrived, and which they stated more or less explicitly, 
 was that the economic well-being of a State is in propor- 
 tion to the quantity of money which circulates in it. They 
 started from the idea, obviously true both in domestio 
 and industrial economy, that whoever has at his dis- 
 posal a large quantity of money possesses the means of 
 procuring every other kind of wealth. Further, their 
 attention was turned to the growing importance of the 
 mechanism of circulation. This growing importance 
 was the result of various circumstances. There was 
 an increase in the production of the precious metals, 
 especially of silver. Trade was increasing more 
 and more. Rich and powerful colonies were arising 
 beyond the sea. There was an almost complete 
 transformation of the old " natural " economy. Again, 
 they observed that commercial and political power 
 was concentrated in the hands of those nations which, 
 standing first in the manufacturing and commercial 
 arts, set in motion a comparatively large quantity 
 of money, either drawn from their own mines, as in the 
 case of Spain and Portugal, or attracted by their trade, 
 as in Italy, Flanders, Holland, and later in England.
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IX MODEEX TIMES. 121 
 
 From' the principle stated above, it followed as a 
 logical consequence, that the fundamental canon of poli 
 tical economy should be to preserve and to increase 
 as far as possible the quantity of money actually in 
 circulation. 
 
 The historical investigations of certain writers of 
 merit have shown that these were the ideas in which 
 the mercantilists agreed. With some rare exceptions 
 they did not profess the strange error attributed to 
 them, that wealth consists of money and of money alone. 
 Many centuries before, this absurdity had received an 
 allegoric confutation in the fable of King Midas and a 
 scientific confutation in Aristotle's Politics. There is 
 another incorrect statement which has been made by 
 later critics. They say that these writers are dis- 
 tinguished from the theorists of antiquity and from the 
 physiocrats of the eighteenth century, by the small 
 esteem they entertained for agricultural industry, which 
 they thought should be neglected in comparison with 
 manufactures and commerce. On the contrary, we find 
 in the writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies many passages showing the opposite opinion. 
 Thus Bodin deplores the injuries which agriculturists 
 sustained from usury, and advocated for their benefit 
 the reform of the system of mortgage. And Boterò 
 constantly insists that a sovereign should encourage 
 and promote agriculture. Obrecht again, a writer of 
 the seventeenth century, calls agriculture aliarum 
 rerum parentem et nutricem, while his contemporary 
 Klock affirms that suo labore omnes alit vir rusticus. 
 And, what is more important, we find that authors 
 writing in the interests of eminently agrarian States 
 do not confine themselves to proposing measures for the
 
 122 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [CHAP. 
 
 restriction of foreign manufacturing competition. They 
 propose also that the exportation of agricultural pro- 
 duce should be encouraged, and its importation for- 
 bidden, for the benefit of land-owners and cultivators 
 of the soil. 
 
 These writers then agreed in maintaining that where 
 silver and gold abound there can be no lack of any of 
 the necessaries of life. They were also agreed in de- 
 lii mding that governments should do all in their power 
 to procure an abundance of money. But they did not 
 all agree as to the measures best suited for the attain- 
 ment of this end. There was no doubt among them 
 that those countries which could help themselves to gold 
 and silver from their own mines, were economically 
 better situated than other countries, provided that they 
 knew how to keep the money so easily acquired. But 
 the greater number of them did not approve of those 
 foolish and violent measures against the exportation of 
 money resorted to by certain States. Such measures 
 were indeed absurd and impracticable, as it was im- 
 possible to convict offenders. And many mercantilists 
 of the highest authority in England, Italy, France, and 
 elsewhere, began by reprobating these unwise laws. 
 They wished to substitute for penal laws a system of 
 economic provisions better calculated to obtain an abund- 
 ance of money, and to promote the welfare of industry. 
 
 This combination was to be based on an exact 
 relation between imports and exports, so regulated 
 that the latter should exceed the former in value. The 
 enee, they thought, would be balanced by an excess 
 of imported over exported money. To this end they 
 proposed two kinds of provisions, the one tending to 
 increase exports, the other to diminish imports.
 
 ni.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 123 
 
 They wished to have prohibited, or at least discouraged 
 by high duties, the importation of products manufactured 
 in countries which were adapted to the development of 
 manufacturing industry. The.-e products, being of more 
 value than others, would procure a greater quantity of 
 money. On the other hand, the more subtle mercan- 
 tilists wished that the introduction of foreign raw 
 materials which could be manufactured in the country 
 should be permitted and even encouraged. They hoped 
 that the subsequent exportation of the manufactured 
 articles would more than compensate for this outflow 
 of money. In the same way they advocated the free 
 importation of necessaries, so as to get cheaper labour 
 and consequently smaller expenses of production in 
 comparison with foreign competition. 
 
 In order further to encourage the exportation of 
 manufactured products, the mercantilists made the 
 following proposals. They demanded for such products 
 exemption from duties, and sometimes even the grant 
 of bounties from the state treasury. They proposed the 
 arrangement of commercial treaties, in which the 
 country should obtain favourable conditions without 
 undertaking excessive responsibilities. Again, they 
 proposed the establishment of a colonial system. The 
 manufacturers of the mother country were to have a 
 monopoly of the colonial market. The colonial pro- 
 ducers of raw materials were to have either the absolute 
 monopoly of the mother country's market, or at least a 
 favourable arrangement with it. 
 
 Experience has shown the sad effects of a commercial 
 policy based on the supposition of a necessary hostility 
 between nations. Modern science too has proved the erro- 
 neonsness of the mercantile system, whether considered
 
 124 HDT OF POLITICA: MY. [ceap. 
 
 as the ideal of economic government, or as applied 
 to a nation advanced in industry and civilisation, 
 Nevertheless at certain times and under certain con- 
 ditions this system has given notable advantages to 
 industrial organisation and progress, playing the 
 part as absolute monarchy has done in the sphere of 
 politics. B system (1661 — 1683) and Crom- 
 
 well's . contributed not a little to the 
 
 economic greatne-s of France and England. 
 
 The mercantile system then certainly exaggerated the 
 importance of money, and in our days it cannot be 
 brought to life again oy apologies which must necessarily 
 be out of date. But neither can it be confuted merely 
 by the vulgar adage that money is not wealth, although it 
 asserted, as some economic compendiums do, that money 
 is just as much wealth as any other commodity. It 
 
 light in considering money as wealth sui gei 
 But it did not recognise its < ttal character, 
 
 overlooking the following facts among others ; that 
 its value is not in proportion only to its quantity, 
 but also to its rapidity of circulation : that its 
 function in exchanges may be deputed in part to other 
 
 ss e :>stly and more conver. 
 that it may sometimes be scarce and sometimes exces- 
 sive ; that liberty is the best means of bringing it in 
 where it is wanted, and letting it flow out where it is in 
 excess ; that for a country to have a perpetually 
 favourable balance, that is, always to sell more goods 
 than it buys, is a chimera and an impossibility : that 
 it is an unwise thing to found commercial treaties on 
 the principle of .by which we deny our- 
 
 selves benefit because others deny it to themselves : 
 that international debts are settled in money only
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IX MODERN TIMES. 125 
 
 as regards comparatively small and unimportant 
 differences. 
 
 In short, the mercantile system proposed to itself 
 an end which was in part impossible, and attempted 
 to obtain it by means which often led to very different 
 results. For instance, bounties ori exportation occasion 
 loss to the contributors, and duties on importation raise 
 prices for the consumers. Such di-ad vantages, in an 
 advanced condition of economic civilisation, far surpass 
 the benefits which under other circumstances might be 
 obtained from such measures. 
 
 In the history of Colbert's administration we may 
 best study the practical results of this system. 
 See especially : — 
 
 Pierre Clement, Histoirede Colbert et de son Adua lus- 
 tration, 2nd ed. Paris, 1875, 2 vols. 12mo. 
 
 G. Cohn, Colbert vornehmlich in staatswirth. Hinsicht. 
 In the Zeitschr. f. die ges. Staatsw. Vols. 25 and 26 
 (1869-70), p. 360434, 390-454. (A short and accurate 
 monograph, giving later critical accounts of the sources 
 of information.) 
 
 § 3. Political Economy in the Seventeenth. Cent/wry. 
 
 The econumists of the 17th century may be divided 
 into three classes. In the first class are included the 
 more or less unqualified upholders of the mercantile 
 system. The second class, anticipating ideas which were 
 more fully developed in the following century, oppose 
 the balance of trade system, and declare themselves 
 partisans of free trade. The writers of the third class 
 occupy themselves with special questions, or render 
 valuable service by the elucidation of certain theories
 
 126 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 not directly connected with what is called mercan- 
 tilism. 
 
 Among the supporters of the mercantile system the 
 following important writers lived in the first ten years 
 of the 17th century, namely, in Italy, Antonio Serra ; 
 in France, Antoine de Montchrétien ; and in England 
 Thomas Mun. 
 
 Antonio Serra was a Calabrian and a native of Cosenza. 
 He was suspected, on insufficient grounds, of a share in the 
 conspmxcy of Tommaso Campanello against the Spanish 
 government, and found himself in the Papal prison. 
 Here he wrote his Breve Trattato delle Cause che possono 
 fare abbondare II Regni d'Oro e d'Argento dove non sono 
 Miniere. Naples, 1613, 8vo. 
 
 For nearly a hundred and fifty years Serra was un- 
 noticed. Then Galiani, Salfi, and a crowd of Italian and 
 foreign authors, declai'ed him to be the first economist in 
 order of time, while Ferrara denies any economic merit to 
 him. His book certainly deserves a high place among th'3 
 writings belonging to the first half of the 17th century. 
 He was not the first to expound the theory of the mercan- 
 tile system, and certainly not the first to oppose it, as 
 some have strangely asserted. But he gave a sufficiently 
 remarkable exposition of it, and confuted certain 
 errors made by the more extravagant mercantilist^. 
 His belief in it was so strong that he declared that 
 disbelievers should be treated as madmen. His 
 strictures were chiefly directed againsta mercantilist 
 named Marc' Antonio di Santis of Nocera. This 
 writer had maintained the obsolete theories of the 
 alteration of money, the prohibition of 'its exportation, 
 and the artificial regulation of the course of the ex- 
 changes, and had suggested corresponding measures
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 127 
 
 to improve the economic condition of the kingdom 
 of Naples. Serra could not get rid of the ruling 
 idea of the balance of trade system. But with 
 more perception than the ordinary mercantilists he set 
 himself to show that money can only abound in those 
 states where happy external conditions, the industry 
 of the inhabitants, and the stability of government, 
 favour the development of manufactures and commerce. 
 He quoted as examples Venice and Genoa, which in 
 economic conditions were at that time strongly contrasted 
 to the Neapolitan provinces. (See the conscientious and 
 learned monograph by T. Fornari ; Studii sopra Antonio 
 Serra e Marc' Antonio di Santis, Pavia, 1879.) 
 
 A Norman writer, contemporary with Serra, but less 
 well known, professed opinions which were much to the 
 same effect but expounded moie at length. This was 
 Antoine de Montchrétien, Sieur de Vatteville. He 
 dedicated to the young king Louis XIII., and to the 
 Regent Marie de Medicis, a voluminous work entitled 
 Traité de l'Economie politique, Paris, 1615, 4to. The 
 subjects specially discussed in it are the theories 
 relating to commerce, both on land and sea, and to 
 colonies. His treatment of these theories aroused the 
 enthusiasm of Duval, his commentator, who, ignoring or 
 depreciating earlier and contemporary writers, declared 
 Montchrétien to be the most eminent among the fore- 
 runners of political economy. 
 
 Jules Duval, Memoire sxir Antoine de MontcJirétien, 
 Sieur de Vatteville, Auteur du premier Traité d' Economie 
 politique, Paris, 1868, 8vo. 
 
 Thomas Mun, a London merchant, had more fame 
 and influence. England's treasure by foreign trade, pub- 
 lished after his death in 1664, and his Discourse on
 
 128 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 English Commerce, carne to be looked upon as text 
 books in England. They were subsequently translated 
 into Italian by Genovesi. In the Wealth of Nations 
 they received a general confutation. 
 
 In Mun's writings the mercantile system, freed from 
 the gross exaggerations of vulgar opinion, is shown to 
 its greatest advantage. It becomes national, from the 
 special references made to the interests of England and 
 more particularly to those of the East India Company. 
 This has been pointed out by MacCulloch and Roscher, 
 by both of whom its theories have been specially 
 criticised. 
 
 The followers of the mercantile system were very 
 numerous during the second half of the seventeenth 
 century, and mostly so in Spain and Germany. We 
 find in their publications very little originality, and far 
 grosser errors than in the above-mentioned text books. 
 
 Among the Germans Gaspar Klock was a lengthy 
 compiler of undigested information. (De Contributionibus, 
 1634, De yEì'a?-io i 1651). The following deserve special 
 mention: Becher " (Politischer Discurs, 1668); Von 
 Hornigk, who followed in the lines laid down by Becher, 
 applying the mercantilist canons to the conditions of 
 Austria (Oesterreich iiber Alles, 1684) ; and Baron 
 Wilhelm von Schroder (Fiirstliche Schatz-und Rent- 
 hammer, 1686), the most remarkable of them. 
 
 There were certain writers, too, in France, Italy, 
 Spain, Holland, and more especially in England, who 
 opposed the prejudices of the mercantile system, both 
 in its theoretical forms and in its administrative conse- 
 quences. They were at first but few in number, and 
 never had any iniluence. They formed more correct 
 conceptions of the nature of wealth and of the right
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 129 
 
 administration of industry, and they professed, more 
 or less widely, the theories of free, trade. 
 
 L. Cossa, La Teoria del libro Scambio nel secolo XVII. 
 (1873). In the Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo di 
 Scienze e Lettere. Series II., Vol. VI., No. XII. 
 
 In France Emériq.ue de Lacroix (Le nouveau Cynée, 
 1623), and in Spain Alberto Struzzi, a writer of Italian 
 origin, proclaimed in the abstract the necessity of free 
 trade. At the same time certain French authors, who 
 have remained anonymous, showed the injuries which 
 had been done to industry by the too rigid application 
 of the system of Colbert. A reaction against this system 
 set in soon afterwards, which attained larger proportions 
 in the following century. 
 
 But these writers, and several others who came after 
 them, are obscured by an illustrious group of English 
 authors who flourished in the second half of the seven- 
 teenth century. The latter represented more advanced 
 ideas and made more profound analyses of economic 
 phenomena than any writers before their time. Be- 
 sides Hobbes and Locke, there were the three distin- 
 guished writers, Sir Joshua Child, Sir William Petty, 
 arid Sir Dudley North. These men had a strong in- 
 fluence on the physiocrats and on Adam Smith 
 himself, which historians for a long time did not 
 recognise. 
 
 Sir Joshua Child, a merchant, was the author of Obser- 
 vations concerning Trade and Interest of Money (1668), and 
 of A New Discourse of Trade (1690). He was not wholly 
 emancipated from the theory of the balance of trade, 
 and with certain limitations he was favourable to the 
 Navigation Act, the colonial system, and to the creation 
 of privileged trading companies. But his ideas on
 
 130 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [CHAP. 
 
 matters concerning food-commodities are comparatively 
 wide, and he specially insists on the advantage of a low 
 rate of interest to economic prosperity. This had 
 already been pointed out by Culpeper (A Tract against the 
 High Rate of Usury, 1623 ; Useful Remarks on High 
 Interest, 1641). Child supports his argument by the 
 example of Holland, and proposes the false remedy 
 of a legal reduction of interest. 
 
 The economic, financial, and statistical works of Sir 
 William Petty show a still more marked advance. 
 Quantulumcumque, or a Tract concerning Money, 1682 ; A 
 Treatise of Taxes and Contributions, 1 679 ; Essays in 
 Political Arithmetic^, 1682 ; Political Anatomy of Ireland, 
 1691. Especially remarkable in these works is the 
 attempt to fix the value of an ordinary day's labour as 
 an absolute and constant measure of value, and the 
 conception of labour as the only element of production, so 
 that every kind of wealth may be economically resolved 
 into labour. Tbese opinions are obviously erroneous, 
 because capital combines with labour in determining 
 the value of products. Nevertheless they form part of 
 a noteworthy progress in the scientific analysis of pro- 
 duction, and are the key-note of a doctrine that was 
 for a long time characteristic of English economists. 
 
 Though inferior to Petty in economic learning and in 
 width of view generally, his contemporary and political 
 friend Sir Dudley North [Discourses upon Trade, 1691) 
 was far more explicit in his treatment of the freedom of 
 exchange, being its most energetic defender in the seven- 
 teenth century, from a cosmopolitan and not from a 
 merely national point of view. He considers money to 
 be a commodity of the same nature as other commodi- 
 ties, its quantity varying with commercial conditions.
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IX MODERN TIMES. 131 
 
 When money is abundant the prices of commodities 
 rise, and more money is exported. When it is scarce, 
 prices fall, and more money is imported. Thus with 
 nations as with individuals, money is only important 
 as a means for obtaining things which are wanted for 
 direct consumption. The important matter is to in- 
 crease the amount of raw produce and manufactured 
 articles. Hence the mistake of imposing duties on the 
 exportation of money, and the evil of any kind of 
 measure tending to favour particular branches of in- 
 dustry, the individual gain being counterbalanced by 
 a loss to the nation at large. 
 
 The anonymous author of Britannia Languens vigo- 
 rously opposed the Navigation Act. He was not in favour 
 of free trade, but was perhaps superior to North in pro- 
 fundity of learning. 
 
 These writers then combated the ideas more generally 
 received, without finding any favour from their con- 
 temporaries. But the principles which they laid down 
 were more fully discussed and illustrated in the follow- 
 ing century. In the meantime certain other authors 
 examined, with a good deal of success, some special 
 economic theories. 
 
 Turning to political treatises we find them more 
 numerous and longer, but inferior to the writings of 
 the sixteenth century both in general merit and in 
 economic value. They discuss at greater length ad- 
 ministrative matters relating to the social ordering 
 of wealth, taking sometimes a practical point of view, 
 sometimes the ideal one of Platonic communism. There 
 were two representatives of the latter view in the seven- 
 teenth century. One was the English republican, 
 Harrington, author of Oceana (1640), dealing chiefly 
 
 k 2
 
 132 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 with the excessive concentration of land in the hands 
 of a few people. The other was the celebrated Domini- 
 can of Calabria, Tommaso Campanella, who gave out his 
 famous work, Civitas Solis, in 1643. 
 
 A more fruitful line of thought, with regard both to 
 theories and their applications, was followed by certain 
 Dutch jurists and publicists. The following are spec ; ally 
 noteworthy : — TJgo de Groot (Hugo Grotius), the eminent 
 originator of theories bearing on the law of nature and 
 the law of nations ; Graswinkel, who in a political 
 work published in 1651, propounded the theory of 
 the free exportation of corn, opposing the system of 
 the State purchase of corn and defending agricultural 
 interests ; the two brothers, Jean and Pierre de la 
 Court, and more especially the latter, who was the 
 author of writings which were for a long time thought 
 to be De Witt's. His ideas on commercial policy given 
 in these works are very broad, and he opposes with 
 much weight of learning the abuses of corporations in 
 arts and trades. 
 
 In Holland also many writers, following the French 
 author Claude Saumaise, maintained the lawfulness of 
 interest, meeting with a good deal of opposition. An 
 interesting controversy about monti di pietà (public 
 pawnbroking institutions), arose out of this, and occa- 
 sioned several writings of some theoretical interest. 
 An account of them is given by Laspeyres (mentioned 
 above), and a fuller one by Yeegens. 
 
 I. D. Yeegens, De Banken van Leening in Nord- 
 Nederland. Rotterdam, 1869, 8vo. p. 124—266. 
 
 Finally there was in the Netherlands a small number 
 of publicists of considerable merit. They group them- 
 selves round the illustrious name of Wilhelm Usselinx,
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 133 
 
 and they deal with the colonial question under its 
 various aspects. 
 
 There were also special economic suhjects which were 
 discussed in other countries. Passing over points of 
 minor importance, we must note the many works on the 
 subject of money published in France, England, and 
 Germany. Among these ; the first place doubtless 
 belongs to the works of the eminent philosopher, John 
 Locke. Although to a considerable extent a believer in 
 the theory of the balance of trade, he expounded with 
 much acuteness in two of his works the theory of money 
 and financial administration. These works were care- 
 fully studied, and formed the point of departure of 
 writings which came out in the following century in 
 Italy and elsewhere. There were however in Italy, 
 in the seventeenth century, writers of some merit on 
 monetary questions, independent of Locke. Of these, 
 Geminiano Montanari, professor in the University of 
 Padua (1633 — 1687), is superior to Turbolo, an obscure 
 mint- director. Montanari wrote two works about 1680, 
 which were only printed seventy years later in the 
 Raccolta of Argelati. Their merits are numerous, 
 notwithstanding their obvious leaning to Bodin's 
 opinions. 
 
 An earlier work by Romeo Bocchi of Bologna is not 
 mentioned by any historian of the science. Its title is 
 as follows : — 
 
 Borneo Bocchi, Della giusta universale Misura e suo 
 Tipo. Voi. I. Anima della Moneta. Venice (Pinelli), 
 1621, 4to. — Voi. IL Corpo della Moneta. Venice 
 (Giotti), 1621, 4to.
 
 134 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap 
 
 § 4. Political Economy in the First Half of the Eighteenth 
 Century. 
 
 In the first half of the eighteenth century the most 
 diligent historian cannot trace any marked progress in 
 economic science taken as a whole. The crude ideas 
 and exaggerated applications of the restrictive system 
 gained in importance. To the blind faith in the in- 
 fluence of money on national wealth there was added, 
 during a certain period, an equally exaggerated confi- 
 dence in the miracles to be worked by its substitutes, 
 and especially the bank-note. Hence the ruin and dis- 
 appointment caused by the so-called system of the famous 
 Scotch adventurer, John Law, and the excessive reaction 
 which followed it. During the regency of Philip of 
 Orleans he controlled the French finances for nearly 
 four years, making extreme abuses of credit. 
 
 Besides monographs by Thiers, Dai-re, Cochut, and 
 Horn, the following works may specially be consulted : 
 
 J. Heymann, Law und sein System. Munich, 1853. 
 8vo. (This work specially examines Law's theories.) 
 
 A. Lavasseur, Recherches historiques sur le Système de 
 Law. Paris, 1854, 8vo. 
 
 J. J. Clamageran, Histoire de VLmpòt en France. 
 Vol. IIL Paris, 1876, 8vo. p. 157—204. 
 
 As the progress of a science is often, though not 
 always, nor everywhere, nor to the same extent, attended 
 by progress in its public teaching, we may notice that 
 during the first ten years of the eighteenth century 
 economic theories began to be a subject of academic 
 lectures. This took place almost at the same time in 
 England and Germany. But the origin and tendencies 

 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 135 
 
 of the new teaching were very different in the two 
 countries. 
 
 In England, or rather in Scotland, from 1729 to 
 1747, Francis Hutcheson was giving lectures on moral 
 philosophy from the Glasgow chair. Dealing also with 
 philosophical and political law he was led to illustrate 
 certain points of economic doctrine, and especialty the 
 theories of value and price. There are traces of these 
 theories in his Latin Compendium entitled : Philosophic 
 Moralis Institutio Compendiaria, etc. (Rotterdam, 1745, 
 8vo.) A certain historical importance attaches to them. 
 Adam Smith, the pupil, and subsequently the successor, 
 of Hutcheson, must have heard these lectures, and it 
 may be, as some have observed, that they awoke in him 
 the love of this branch of learning. It has been pro- 
 nounced a memorable fact that political economy first 
 made its appearance at the Scotch universities in the 
 guise of an appendix to a course of moral philosophy. 
 But it must be added that the intrinsic merit of Hutche- 
 son's economic lectures is very small. The book above- 
 mentioned is nothing but an extract from the work of 
 the German, Samuel Puffendorf : De Jure Naturae et 
 Gentium (1672), in which the theory of price is developed 
 with much acuteness. 
 
 In Germany, the origin of economic teaching was 
 what would now be termed bureaucratic. For the in- 
 struction of officials in the political, the administrative, 
 and especially in the financial department of the State, 
 there gradually arose a complex group of studies, to 
 which w T as given the special name of Chamber-Sciences, 
 because the upper administrative departments were called 
 chambers. These so-called Chamber-sciences included (a) 
 private economy in its various branches, agricultural
 
 136 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 economy, the economy of forestry, the economy of mining, 
 technology, etc. ; (b) the elements of administrative 
 science, or, as it was then called, of police ; and (c) those 
 few theories of general economics and finance out of which 
 the economic science afterwards arose. King Frederick 
 William I. of Prussia founded two chairs of Chamber- 
 Sciences about 1727, one at Halle, the other at 
 Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and appointed two famous jurists 
 to them, Gasser (died 1745) and Dithmar (died 1737), 
 who treated specially of the subjects belonging to finance. 
 But the best writers during this period are to be found, 
 not in Germany, but in England, France, and up to a 
 certain point in Italy. 
 
 In England the idealist philosopher, Berkeley, in his 
 periodical publication The Querist (1735) marked the 
 point of departure for a fresh awakening of economic 
 studies which had been neglected during the first few 
 years of the century. But the theory of free trade 
 had been propounded, more competently than by 
 Dudley North, by an anonymous writer in Considera- 
 tions on the East India Trade (1702). A little later 
 Joseph Harris, an official in the London mint, published 
 anonymously An Essay on Money and Coins (London 
 1757 — 58, 8vo.). This celebrated work, one of the best 
 writings on the subject of money in point of learning, 
 clearness, and precision, was reprinted a few years ago, 
 and was recently commended by Professor Jevons. 
 The foundation of the Bank of England by a Scotch- 
 man, William Patterson, gave rise to numerous instruc- 
 tive writings, of a controversial cha meter, at the end of 
 the seventeenth century and the beginning of the 
 eighteenth. In these works we can trace the germs of 
 many modern theories and controversies on the operations
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 137 
 
 of credit. Notices of these books, accompanied by 
 criticisms, some of which are partial and inaccurate, 
 may be found in The Literaticre of Political Economy 
 (London, 1845, 8vo.), by J. E. MacCulloch, partly re- 
 produced under the article Banque in Coquelin et 
 Guillaumin's Dictionnaire de V Economie politiqiie. 
 Paris, 1852—53, Vol. I., p. 140. 
 
 The French economists living at the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century deserve to be placed before those 
 of other nations, if we judge them from their width 
 of view rather than from their exposition of parti- 
 cular theories. Special eminence belongs to the great 
 Marshal de Vauban and to his friend Pierre le Pesant, 
 Seigneur de Boisguillebert. In his Dixmeroyale (1707j, 
 "Vauban painted in bold and vivid colours the misery 
 into which France had fallen during the last years of 
 the reign of Louis XIV., and proposed as a remedy a 
 thorough reform of the system of revenue. Boisguillebert 
 was the author of various writings — Detail de la France, 
 1697; Factum de la France, 1707; Traile des Grains, 
 etc. He understood better than Vauban how to. com- 
 bine his financial projects, and he gives an analysis, 
 which is good in many respects, of the nature and 
 characteristics of wealth. Though by no means free 
 from errors, — one of which is the small importance attri- 
 buted to money, the effect of a reaction against the 
 mercantile system, — this analysis may be considered as 
 preparing the way for a larger method of economic in- 
 vestigation. In the sphere of applications, Boisguillebert 
 is perhaps the most eminent of the direct opponents 
 of Colberlism. His recent biographers are mistaken in 
 saying that his position in this respect was that of free 
 trade. It was really that of agrarian protection. He
 
 138 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 did not ask for absolute freedom of exportation and 
 importation, in order that consumers might benefit by- 
 low prices and the abundance of all kinds of commo- 
 dities. He merely demanded free exportation for coin 
 in the interests of the agricultural classes, hoping that 
 the price of food would rise, and with it the value of 
 land. At the same time he wished its importation to 
 be forbidden, or at least that high duties should be laid 
 on imports from abroad, 
 
 J. C. Horn, L' Economie politique avant les Pliysiocrales. 
 Paris, 18G7. One vol. 8vo. 
 
 F. Cadet, Pierre ale Boisguillebert, Précurseur des 
 Économistes. Paris, 1870. One vol. 8vo. 
 
 G. Cohn, Boisguillebert. In the Zeitschrift fur die 
 ges. Staatswiss. Vol. XXV. (1869), p. 360, et seq. 
 (This work contains less detail, but gives on some points 
 more accurate expositions and more impartial judgments 
 than the preceding.) 
 
 The works of the noted publicists, Melon [Essai 
 politique sur le Commerce, 1734), and Dutot (Reflexions 
 politiques sur les Finances et le Commerce, 1735, 1738), 
 show many signs of the influence of the mercantile 
 system. Their general views are less elevated than 
 those of the above-mentioned writers, and mostly 
 limited to the subjects of money and credit, their ideas 
 on these matters being to a certain extent favourable to 
 Law's system. Melon defended monetary alterations 
 within certain limits, while Dutot opposed them. This 
 controversy was echoed in Italy, where their works 
 found translators, commentators, apologists, and 
 adversaries. 
 
 Économistes financiers du xviu e Siede. (In the 
 Collection des principaux Économistes, of Guillaumin.)
 
 ITI.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IX -MODERN TIMES. 139 
 
 Montesquieu's greatest political woi'k (De l'Esprit des 
 Lois. Geneva, 1748, 2 vols. 4to.), is rich in concise 
 and ingenious remarks on the connection between the 
 system of government and economic conditions, more 
 especially that of finance. But he does not rise much 
 above the ideas and prejudices of his time. 
 
 During the first ten years of the eighteenth century 
 the condition of Italy was far from flourishing, and 
 social matters were little studied. Towards the middle 
 of the century, however, certain reforms set on foot by 
 the Italian princes seem to point to a remarkable progress 
 of ideas. 
 
 Among those politicians who deal, at least incidentally, 
 with economic questions, Paolo Mattia Doria, a Genoese 
 writer, is noteworthy. He lived at Naples, and was the 
 friend of Yico. His book, Leila Vita civile, was written 
 in 1710. 
 
 Of greater importance, at least comparatively, is the 
 Perugian Abbot, Leone Pascoli, who in 1733 published 
 anonymously his Testamento politico di tin Academico 
 fiorentino, which he had written in 1728. In this book 
 he suggests many plans for the revival of trade in the 
 Papal provinces, all based on the ideas of the mercantile 
 system. 
 
 A greater and well-deserved fame belongs to the 
 Discorso svila Ma/rem/ma sienese, written in 1737, but 
 not published till 1775, by Archdeacon Salustio Antonio 
 Bandini di Siena. He describes in dark colours the 
 miserable condition into which the Maremma had fallen, 
 partly through its unfavourable climate, and partly 
 through the decay of agriculture there. This latter 
 circumstance was in great measure owing to the bad 
 government of the Medici, and particularly to the
 
 140 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 wretched economic and fiscal system in force. He 
 proposes a complete reform of commercial and financial 
 legislation, based on the free exportation of agricultural 
 produce and the simplification of taxes. For the latter 
 purpose the taxes are to be levied from the landowners 
 and paid in kind. They are to be farmed by the 
 Communes, who are to levy them among themselves 
 according to their capabilities. Corani, Custodi, and 
 Pecchio try to prove that he was a forerunner of the 
 physiocrats. But, as Ferrara has shown, this merit 
 cannot be claimed for him. He certainly holds, how- 
 ever, a very honourable position among contemporary 
 economists, and he well deserves the feeling akin to 
 worship with which he is regarded in Tuscany, where 
 his book led the way to the reforms of the Grand Duke 
 Leopold. 
 
 The Saggio sul Commercio (1750) of the Roman banker 
 Gerolamo Belloni, was a good deal read in its time, but 
 it is inspired by crude mercantilist ideas. The noted 
 and versatile writer, Scipione Maffei, of Verona, pub- 
 lished in 1744 a book, SulV Impiego del Denaro, which 
 made some stir. It is not very original, its materials 
 being to a great extent drawn from a work by a Dutch 
 writer, Broedersen. Later, Concina, Ballerini, and 
 other theologians, attacked Maffei, bringing up the 
 old theories against interest. The controversy went 
 on until Pope Benedict XIV. interposed with the Bull, 
 Vix pervenit. 
 
 Carlo Antonio Broggia was a Neapolitan merchant ; 
 or rather, if Sattembrini is to be trusted, a Venetian, 
 who had settled at Naples. He published at Naples, in 
 1743, a treatise on money, taxes, and political action in 
 sanitary matters. It is badly written and not free from
 
 in.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN MODERN TIMES. 141 
 
 errors, and in its treatment of the money question con- 
 tains nothing remarkable. But it may be considered 
 as the first methodical work on taxation published in 
 Italy, a fact which, to our mind, has not been sufficiently 
 taken into account by the historians of Economics. He. 
 was opposed to fiscal exclusiveness, to loans, to free ports, 
 and to the direct taxation of industry. His financial 
 system is based on two sources of income. First, the 
 taxation of the returns to capital, both fixed and cir- 
 culating (upon fixed incomes at the rate of a tenth part). 
 Secondly, duties on internal (excise) and external 
 consumption. Only in cases of extraordinary need 
 would he allow voluntary contributions, and only 
 within strict limits a capitation tax.
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE PHYSIOCKATIC SCHOOL. 
 
 Towakds the middle of the last century the really 
 modern era of economic science began, brought in 
 largely by the progress of philosophy and of the social 
 sciences. The favour with which the various sovereigns 
 of Europe began to look upon it, contributed also to its 
 advance. They started administrative reforms, and 
 granted facilities for wider instruction in the civil 
 sciences. Those who were learned in these matters 
 became their advisers and fellow- workers in plans of 
 reform. Most of the countries of Europe felt the 
 inlluence of this growth of economic knowledge. 
 
 The chairs of Chamber Sciences were multiplied in 
 Germany and Austria, where two men summed vip the 
 economic learning of the time. One was Justi, who, 
 in 1752, taught at the Theresianum of Vienna and 
 shortly afterwards passed on to Leipzig. The other 
 was Sonnenfels, who ; in 17G3, occupied a chair at the 
 University of Vienna. They both published economic 
 treatises, in which the theories of a modified mercan- 
 tilism are expounded with much learning, and which — 
 especially that of Sonnenfels — contain schemes of reform 
 greatly in advance of the times.
 
 CHAP, iv.] THE PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL. 143 
 
 A little later, chairs of political economy were founded 
 in Italy. Genovesi taught at Naples with great suc- 
 cess, 1754-1769; the celebrated Beccaria at Milan, 
 1768-1770; Paradisi, better known in literature, at 
 Modena, 1772-1780; and Sergio at Palermo, 1779-. 
 1806. 
 
 L. Cossa, Sidle prime Cattedre di Economia politica in 
 Italia. In the Rendiconti del R. Istituto Lombardo di 
 Scienze e Lettere. Series IL, Voi. VI. (1873), No. 
 Vili. 
 
 But the stronger and more direct movement towards 
 progress of which the physiocratic political economy 
 was the sign, did not originate in these chairs, from 
 which the lecturers gave forth the doctrines of the 
 balance of trade. This may be seen from the works of 
 Justi (1755), and from Genovesi's Lezioni d 1 Economia 
 civile (1765). We may add to these, since they are 
 written in the same spirit, though not by professors, 
 the Elements de Commerce (1754), and other works 
 by Forbonnais, the conscientious historian of French 
 finance, with Sir James Stewart's long treatise, Inquiry 
 into the Principles of Political Economy. London, 1767, 
 2 vols. 4to. In all these books the remarkable progress 
 of certain special doctrines is noteworthy. But the 
 special doctrines are not brought into connection with 
 any cleai'ly determined general principles, so that we 
 merely have a collection of monographs, and not really 
 systematic works. 
 
 The foundations of a genuine system of political 
 economy, or rather of social science considered more 
 especially from the economic side, were laid by an illus- 
 trious school of French writers living in the reigns of 
 Louis XV. and Louis XVI. Quesnay, a physician
 
 144 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 (1694-1774), was the founder of the school. Turgot, 
 the philosopher, the publicist, the economist, the states- 
 man (died 1781), was its greatest representative. A 
 complete and impartial history of the physiocrats has 
 been given by a French writer. 
 
 Notice abrègee des différents Ecrits rnodernes qui out 
 concourru en France à former la Science de V Economic 
 politique. In the EpMmerides du Citoyen, etc. Paris, 
 1769. (A rich collection of materials.) 
 
 A selection of the best works of the physiocrats was 
 made by Eug. Daire for the Collection des principaux 
 Economises (Paris, 1846, royal 8vo.), and by Francesco 
 Ferrara for the Biblioteca dell' Economista (1st series, 
 Yol. I. Turin, 18^0, royal 8vo). Daire's criticisms, 
 though good in other respects, are exaggerated in their 
 praise. Ferrara errs on the other side, but his observa- 
 tions have many merits notwithstanding. 
 
 G. Kellner, Zur Geschichte des Physiocratismtis. Quei' 
 nay, Gournay, Turgot. Gottingen, 1847, 8vo. (The 
 extracts given in this book are good, but the conclusions 
 are thoughtless and superficial.) 
 
 Jos. Gamier, art. Physiocrates, in Vol. II. of the 
 Lictionnaire de V Economie politique, by Coquelin and 
 Guillaumin. Paris, 1852-53. Two vols, royal Svo. 
 (This article contains much valuable information on 
 various writers and their works.) 
 
 Et. Laspeyres, Quesnay, Turgot und die Physiocratev. 
 In the Deutsches Staatsworterbuch by Bluntschli and 
 Brater, Vol. VIII. (1864), p. 445-455. (Giving a brief, 
 clear, and accurate exposition of the physiocratic doc- 
 trines.) 
 
 L. de Lavergne, L,es Economistes francais du 18 c 
 Siede. Paris-, 1870. One vol. Svo. (This work
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL. 145 
 
 contains careful biogi'aphies of certain physiocratic 
 authors.) 
 
 The following are the best of the works illustrating 
 the doctrines of Turgot : — 
 
 A. Batbie, Turgot Philosophe, Economiste et Adminis- 
 trateur. Paris, 1861, 8vo. 
 
 A. Mastier, Turgot, sa Vie et sa Doctrine. Paris, 
 1861, 8vo. 
 
 Tissot, Ttirgot, sa Vie, son Administration et ses Ouv- . 
 rages. Paris, 1862, 8vo. 
 
 H. von Scheel, Turgot als Nationaloikonom. In the 
 Zeitschr. fur die ges. Staats. of Tiibingen. 24th year 
 (1868), p. 243-270. (Giving a short and interesting 
 critical summary of Turgot's economic theories, though 
 the author's object is also to depreciate the merits of 
 Adam Smith.) 
 
 Francois Quesnay, the founder of the physiocratic 
 school, was the son of an advocate who lived mostly in the 
 country. He was at first a surgeon, and afterwards 
 devoted himself to medicine, in which he acquired a 
 certain fame. Louis XV. made him his doctor, and was 
 much attached to him. It was only in 1756, when he 
 had reached the age of 61, that Quesnay wrote for Diderot 
 and dAlembert's great Encyclopaedia the two articles 
 Farmers and Corn. These contain the germs of the new 
 doctrine. They consist of an apology for agriculture 
 and a defence of the interests of the peasants, who 
 suffered from feudal exactions, from the concentration 
 of property in the hands of corporations, from the system 
 of high rents, from the want of capital, from the 
 privileges possessed by large trading companies, and 
 from the prohibitions and high duties on the exporta- 
 tion of agricultural produce. For the cure of these 
 
 L
 
 146 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 evils the author demands full liberty for cultivation 
 and trade. 
 
 But the characteristic features of Quesnay's system 
 show themselves more completely in his Tableau écono- 
 mique, in the Maximes generates du Gouvernemerit écono- 
 mique d' un Royaume and in the Problèma économique. 
 These were followed by the Dialogues sur le Commerce et 
 sur les Travaux des Artisans, explaining more clearly 
 the principle of industrial liberty. Finally in the Droit 
 naturel (1768), he attempts to connect his economic 
 theories with the current philosophical ideas relating to 
 law and politics. 
 
 Quesnay's followers are called sometimes economists 
 from the nature of their studies, and sometimes physio- 
 crats (xpaTrjo-is t^s <f>vcrew<;) from their reverence for 
 natural laws. The main principles of his system are 
 as follows : — 
 
 The world is governed by invariable laws, physical 
 and moral, derived from the order of nature, and con- 
 stituting what is called natural law. Man ought to 
 study this law and not to disturb its action, endea- 
 vouring to bring positive law into conformity with it. 
 He will thus avoid the painful results which bear 
 witness to the existence of natui'al law when it is dis- 
 regarded. The two chief institutions of positive law 
 are liberty and property. The production of wealth is 
 subject to the same natural laws ; material goods are the 
 product of natural forces operating on the soil, which 
 alone can pi'oduce new material. Territorial industry, as 
 it was first in order of time, must also be first in order 
 of merit and importance, because its produce is greater 
 than the labour and expense of obtaining it. Therefore 
 it alone is productive — that is, it yields a net produce
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCEATIC SCHOOL. 147 
 
 equal to the difference between the gross produce and 
 the expenses of cultivation. This net produce is at the 
 disposal of the farmer, those portions being deducted 
 which are respectively claimed by the landlord (rent), 
 and by the state (taxes). Manufacture, which trans- 
 forms the raw material obtained by territorial in- 
 dustry, is useful and necessary, but it does not pro- 
 duce any new commodities. It merely increases the 
 value of commodities already existing, by an amount 
 equal to the value of the labour expended on them. 
 Competition prevents a greater increase of value than 
 this. The manufacturer can only obtain a higher price 
 by saving from the necessary expenses of his mainte- 
 nance, by government favour, or by unusually advan- 
 tageous circumstances. Any special advantages pos- 
 sessed by him, however, cause a corresponding loss to 
 farmers and a diminution of the landlord's rent. Hence 
 manufactures, and, for the same reason, trade, are barren 
 and unproductive industries. The wealth of a country 
 is not increased by money, the mere instrument of 
 exchange, but by an abundant produce from its own soil. 
 On these considerations Quesnay founds his division of 
 the population into three classes : 
 
 1 . The productive class, or the cultivators of the soil. 
 
 2. The controlling class, or the landowners, who do 
 not work themselves. 
 
 3. The barren class, consisting of those who are not 
 included in the other two classes. 
 
 Applying his principles, Quesnay demanded complete 
 liberty for cultivation, and for the sale, both at home and 
 abroad, of the products of the soil ; the abolition of all 
 restrictions on persons or on commodities by which culti- 
 vators were bound ; the multiplication of roads ; the 
 
 l 2
 
 148 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 spread of instruction ; the grant of encouragements and 
 rewards. Manufactures and trade were to be freed from 
 all hindrances to their full development, such as cor- 
 porations, monopolies and regulations. Free competition 
 would then lower the price of manufactured products 
 for the benefit of the farmers, who could thus increase 
 their gains. The system of indirect taxation was unjust 
 and harmful, since all burdens on production must neces- 
 sarily fall on net produce ; a single direct tax on land 
 rent should be substituted for it, as being the most 
 rational and the least costly of all taxes. 
 
 The new teaching set forth in Quesnay's aphoristic and 
 somewhat Sibylline style, very soon became popular 
 among the cultured classes of France. It was vulgarized 
 in hundreds of high-flown writings by enthusiastic dis- 
 ciples, who coloured it with the current philosophy, and 
 showed it to be compatible with the greatest respect for 
 the absolute power of sovereigns. Strong opposition 
 was aroused by the exaggerations of Quesnay's admirers, 
 who affected the prophetic strain, not being content to 
 take the more modest tone of men of science. Notwith- 
 standing this, the traces of physiocratic doctrine on 
 subsequent events and ideas are ineffaceable, although 
 in the following period it was modified by various 
 corrections and additions. 
 
 Among the pupils and admirers of Quesnay was the 
 Marquis of Mirabeau, l'ami des hommes, who wrote 
 lengthy declamatory works, examining all the particulars 
 of physiocracy. Mercier de la Rivière and the Abbi' 
 Baudeau developed the doctrine, more especially on its 
 political side. Le Trosne and Dupont de Nemours (the 
 collector of Quesnay's writings, and Say's contemporary), 
 enlarged the conception of liberty, which at first was
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL. 140 
 
 only applied to agricultural industry. The same order 
 of ideas was followed by Condorcet, Condillac, Baynal, 
 G. Gamier (Adarn Smith's translator), and up to a 
 certain point by Jean Jacques Rousseau, who published 
 in the Encyclopaedia an article, the tendency of which 
 was physiocratic. 
 
 There were several followers of the system in Germany, 
 but they were inferior in merit to the French physiocrats. 
 Among the chief of them were Schlettwein, Mauvillon» 
 Iselin, a Swiss, and the Markgraf Karl Friedrich von 
 Baden. The Markgraf was probably the author of a 
 somewhat rare compendium, Abrégé des Principles de 
 V Economie politique, 1775; and he attempted to apply 
 the system of unique taxation to two villages in his 
 State. But this experiment was badly carried out and 
 still worse received, and it soon came to an end. Em- 
 minghaus justly shows that it cannot be consideied as 
 testimony against the ideas that inspired it. 
 
 A. Emminghaus, Karl Friedrich' s von Baden physiokra- 
 tische Verbindungen, Besirebungen und Versuche. In the 
 Jahrb.f. Nat. Oekon. Vol. XIX. (1872), p. 1, et seq. 
 
 In Italy the physiocratic influence was only complete 
 and decided on a small number of writers. Among these 
 the Tuscan, Ferdinando Paoletti (1717 — 1801), the 
 parish priest of San Donnino, at Villamagna, paid special 
 attention to the subject of the free exportation of corn 
 (/ veri mezzi di rendere felici le società. Florence, 1772.) 
 Gaetano Filangieri (1752 — 1788) borrowed from the 
 physiocrats all the ideas contained in that part of his 
 Scienza della legislazione which treats of political and 
 economic laws (1780). Count Giuseppe Gorani of Milan 
 maintained in several writings the idea of unique 
 taxation.
 
 150 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 Still less influence had the physiocratic school in Eng- 
 land, where the illustrious philosopher and historian, 
 David Hume, published his economic essays in 1752. 
 In these he treats of commerce, of money, of commercial 
 jealousies, of the balance of trade, of interest, of taxa- 
 tion, and of the public debt. His theories, expounded 
 with much originality and ability, were duly appre- 
 ciated by Adam Smith, of whom he was one of the 
 greatest English precursors. 
 
 Jean Vincent Gournay, a learned merchant (1712 — 
 1759), held a notable position among the physiocrats, on 
 account, not of his writings, but of his culture, his con- 
 nections, and his influence. Educated by the works of 
 Petty, Child, and De La Court, and by his own travels, 
 he became, in 1749, Intendant of Commerce, and inde- 
 pendently of Quesnay, whose friend he afterwards be- 
 came, he arrived at almost identical results. Persuaded 
 that the misfortunes of France came from the want of 
 economic liberty, he fell into the opposite extreme. 
 His well-known aphorism of Laissezfaire, laissez passer, 
 became the creed of his school, and is still that of many 
 economists. He denied Quesnay's assertion of the 
 barrenness of manufacture and commerce, but main- 
 tained the principle of a unique tax on land-rent. 
 
 The honour of having attempted the application of 
 economic principles to government belongs to Turgot. 
 This experiment he first made on a small scale, as In- 
 tendant of Limoges ; and then, though only for a short 
 time, as the minister of Louis XVI. If he had re- 
 mained in power he would have peacefully brought 
 about many of those reforms which were afterwards 
 accomplished with violence by the Revolution. 
 
 Before 1755 Turgot had busied himself with economic
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL. 151 
 
 investigations, and had expounded with much clearness 
 and subtlety certain questions of applied economics. 
 When hardly twenty he wrote some letters about paper 
 money to the Abbé Cicé. In these he confutes with 
 vigour and precision the opinions of Terrasson who, 
 following Law's ideas, believed that the State might 
 safely substitute paper for metallic money. In a frag- 
 ment on Value and Money, he states with much pro- 
 foundness the distinction between value to individuals 
 and value to society. 
 
 Having embraced the physiocratic theories, Turgot 
 made a masterly exposition of them in his Reflexions sur 
 la Formation et la Distribution des Richesses, written in 
 1763. It may be considered as the best economic 
 treatise that had yet been published, both for the worth, 
 — at least the comparative worth — of its theories, and 
 the brevity, clearness, and elegance of its style. Though 
 the system expounded in this work is based on the phy- 
 siocratic doctrines, Turgot's originality is observable in 
 certain respects, and especially in his philosophical ideas, 
 and the systematic arrangement of his materials. 
 
 With regard to philosophy, the distinction between 
 Turgot and the other physiocrats and the fundamental 
 principle of all his deductions is that of the rights of in- 
 dividuals. He observes that in many special questions, 
 as in those of mining property and interest on capital, 
 these rights do not coincide perfectly with the public 
 interest, although they are not really opposed. He en- 
 deavours to solve the problem of the reconciliation of 
 these two elements of social progress by determining the 
 limits of their respective spheres of competence. In 
 those cases where the individual initiative does not 
 suffice, he advocates the intervention of the collective
 
 152 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 power, both in material questions and in those concern- 
 ing intellectual and moral culture. And in his own 
 administration Turgot showed that he knew how to pro- 
 mote the prudent action of the State, as for instance in 
 his measures relating to food and to poor-relief. 
 
 As to the systematic arrangement of materials, it was 
 Turgot who clearly separated economics from politics, 
 law, and ethics, with which it was confounded by the. 
 other physiocrats. He thus succeeded in doing what 
 Genovesi had tried to do in his teaching some years 
 before. The traces of this attempt may be seen in the 
 latter's Lezioni di Economia civile, published in 1765, a 
 year before Turgot's Reflexions. Only Genovesi, though 
 clear-sighted arid possessing wide knowledge in many 
 particulars, was too much fettered by the errors of 
 the mercantile system to be capable of arriving at a true 
 system of political economy. He calls the science civil 
 economy, understanding by the term political economy the 
 art of governing the State. 
 
 Beginning with territorial industry, Turgot shows how 
 the unequal distribution of land is the chief cause of 
 economic progress. The soil being cultivated by others» 
 the proprietors are enabled to turn to different occupa- 
 tions and social functions. They are also able to pay 
 the taxes, and thus to bear the burdens of the State. He 
 then examines various kinds of relations between pro- 
 perty and labour, describing their development through 
 the five stages of slavery, serfage, vassalage, the Roman 
 colony system, and leasehold. The necessity for ex- 
 change gives rise to the idea of value, and then to that 
 of money as a measure of value and an instrument of ex- 
 change. But money is only a small part of the capital 
 which is necessary to every undertaking. He then
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCEATIC SCHOOL. 153 
 
 proceeds to analyse the various modes of employing 
 capital in agricultural, industrial, and commercial under- 
 takings, and the functions of the different classes occu- 
 pied in them. In the course of this investigation he finds 
 occasion to make many subtle and accurate observations 
 on the functions of money as the instrument of purchase 
 and of production, as capital and as a commodity. He 
 also demonstrates the reasonableness of interest, which 
 depends, not on the quantity, but on the disposability of 
 capital. 
 
 But we must not, in admiration of the great merit of 
 Turgot's treatise on economics in general, forget his 
 many interesting writings, official and private, on 
 special subjects. Among these, three- — those on mining 
 property, on the interest of money, and on freedom in the 
 com trade — have become classical, from the high order of 
 the principles which animate them and the subtlety of 
 their scientific deductions. 
 
 Most of the works by opponents of the physiocratic 
 school are comparatively unimportant. We certainly find 
 in them many good critical remarks on the erroneous 
 ideas of the exclusive productiveness of land, the barren- 
 ness of manufactures and commerce, and the justice and 
 expediency of a unique tax on land. But they rarely 
 show any progress in scientific development. They 
 nearly all consist either in a reproduction of mercan- 
 tilism or an attempt to reconcile the system of the 
 balance of trade with that of net produce. 
 
 To this species of economic eclecticism the Italian 
 economists of the time for the most part devoted their 
 efforts. They accepted many of the physiocratic doc- 
 trines and were obviously much influenced by the phy- 
 siocratic school. But they did not fully appreciate the
 
 15Ì STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [cii.vr. 
 
 logical connection of the system. They did not see that 
 •when certain premisses were granted they led of neces- 
 sity to the consequences which Quesnay, Turgot, and 
 the other French physiocrats had expounded in all their 
 bearings. 
 
 The French theories had very little influence on 
 Genovesi, who still maintained with thorough conviction 
 the doctrines of the restrictive system, in respect both to 
 internal and international trade. Here and there in his 
 lectures he dwells on the benefits that trade may gain 
 from liberty, and vaguely expresses other opinions of a 
 more liberal nature. But these remarks have no con- 
 nection with his general theories. The best known of 
 h : s lectures is that concerning the corn trade, in favour 
 of which be demanded full freedom, with the approval 
 of the Government, which was then wishing to widen 
 the principles of its action. By its orders a book of 
 Herbert's was translated into Italian, in which the sub- 
 ject was treated from the same point of view as that 
 taken a little later by Quesnay. But notwithstanding 
 his admirable intentions, his wide learning, and indefatig- 
 able industry, Genovesi is very inferior to the physio- 
 crats. Ferrara has made some very good observations 
 on him, of which the substance is as follows : Genovesi 
 gathered together all the information he could find, and 
 arranged it under sections and heads, making a work 
 which concentrated the results of twenty centuries and 
 seemed too complex to be contained in one book ; on the 
 other hand, Quesnay and Smith endeavoured to find for 
 these scattered fragments a common origin, a rela- 
 tion of ideas, where the Neapolitan professor had only 
 strung paragraphs together with no connection. Thus 
 the most learned among the Italian economists of that
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL. 155 
 
 century summed up the older learning on the subject, 
 but did not help in its further progress. His sympathies 
 were with Child, Petty, Hume, and with two Spanish 
 mercantilists, Ustaritz arid Ulloa. Hence it is a strange 
 mistake to compare him to Adam Smith, and a still 
 stranger one to depreciate Adam Smith in comparison 
 with him as Bianchini has done. But neither can we 
 agree with Ferrara in his low estimate of Genovesi's 
 lectures. We ought in fairness to compare them with 
 certain books published shortly before by Forbonnais 
 (1754), and Justi (1755), and others published rather 
 later by Scnnenfels (1765), and Stewart (1767), which 
 were intended, like Genovesi's writings, to gather to- 
 gether the economic knowledge of the time. In com- 
 parison with these Genovesi's merit stands out clearly. 
 His lectures were translated into German (1776), and 
 into Spanish (1785), a proof that he was widely es- 
 teemed. It was certainly to a great extent his enthu- 
 siastic and efficient teaching which stirred up that 
 interest in social subjects so general in Naples during 
 the last ten years of the eighteenth century, and which 
 furnished the materials for the writings of Filangieri, 
 Palmieri, Briganti, Pagano, Galanti, Delfico, Torcia, and 
 many others, zealous promoters of the cause of scientific 
 progress and social improvement. Nor should we forget 
 that Genovesi's pre-eminence was recognised even out- 
 side Naples and Sicily. Among others, Beccaria and 
 "Verri, though for the most part superior to him, quote 
 him with a good deal of praise in their writings. And 
 for mere erudition Genovesi did not only stand first in 
 Italy, but was one of the most learned economists in the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 Giacomo Bacioppi, Antonio Genovesi. Naples, 1871,
 
 156 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 one vol. 12mo. (A meritorious work, biographical and 
 critical.) 
 
 The illustrious criminal jurist of Milan, the Marchese 
 Cesare Beccaria (1738 — 1794), was a man of more pro- 
 found ability, and with considerable aptitude for mathe- 
 matics. He wrote a bright little book on money (1762). 
 He was one of the contributors to the Caffè, a literary, 
 social, and political periodical (1704 — 1765), and pro- 
 fessor of "Chamber Sciences" in 1769 — 1770. From 
 1771 onwards, he was Councillor, first in the Supreme 
 Council of Economists, then in the Magistrato Camerale- 
 In this latter position he found occat-ion for writing many 
 works relating to economic administration (for example 
 on provisions, on money, and on weights and ?neasures) 
 of which only some were published. The others will be 
 brought out shortly by the Royal Institute of Science 
 and Literature in Lombardy. His Lezioni di Economia 
 jìolitica, given in 1769, were not published till 1804, when 
 Baron Custodi included them in his Raccolta di Econo- 
 misti italiani (in vols. xi. and xii. of the modera part). 
 Beccaria was a great admirer of the publicists and eco- 
 nomists of France, with whom he had some personal 
 intercourse in a short visit paid to Paris in 1766. But 
 he only partially accepted the phypiocratic doctrines, 
 and wavered between these and the mercantilist theories . 
 His deductions are closely drawn, and he has more idea 
 than Genovesi of what a methodical work should be. 
 But he has no more power than Genovesi of grasping 
 the fundamental principles of the science. His Ele- 
 menti, though incomplete, contain some good and 
 ingenious remarks on the solidarity of human interests, 
 on the function and importance of labour, and on the 
 nature of capital. We find there too a vigorous attack
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL. 157 
 
 on corporations in arts and trades, on monopolies and 
 privileges, and good ideas in general about internal 
 industrial liberty. With regard to international trade, 
 however, Beccaria is a decided protectionist, though not 
 admitting the prohibitions which Genovesi held to be 
 indispensable. 
 
 Count Pietro Verri, also a Milanese (1728 — 1797) was 
 the contemporary and friend of Beccaria, his colleague , 
 in public offices, and his fellow-worker in the economic 
 reforms brought about in Lombardy under Maria 
 Theresa and Joseph II. He was inferior to Beccaria in 
 philosophic culture, and a less accurate though more 
 facile writer. He left a good many works on economic 
 subjects ; one calling attention to and explaining the 
 nourishing condition of Lombardy before the Spanish 
 rule (1768) ; others proposing certain useful reforms in 
 the monetary system (17G2), and more emphatically in 
 the system of purchasing corn by the State (1769). His 
 Riflessioni sidle Leggi vincolanti, principalmente nel Com- 
 mercio dei Grani, written in 1769, and printed in 1796, 
 is among the best monographs on the subject. He here 
 advocates unfettered liberty, both for the importation 
 and exportation of corn. The Meditazioni svila Economia 
 politica, published anonymously (Leghorn, 1771), is of 
 a more general character. It is a compendium of the 
 science, easier and more clear than Beccaria's Elementi, 
 and generally rather' remarkable at that period. For the 
 rest, it is based on an economic eclecticism which starts 
 from the idea of net produce, and admits industrial 
 liberty, though it advocates protective duties, and rejects 
 the unique tax system. The Meditazioni of Verri is cer- 
 tainly the best Italian compendium of economics pub- 
 lished during the last century; but, coming some yeais
 
 158 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 after Turgot's Reflexions, it has very much less merit 
 both in substance and form. The little book had much 
 success, notwithstanding. It was reprinted several 
 times, and criticized, but with some severity, by Count 
 Carli. It was twice translated into German, three times 
 into French, and once into Dutch. These circumstances 
 have enhanced the importance of the book and raised 
 the author's reputation. His name as well as that of 
 Beccaria is associated with those reforms in economic, 
 administrative, and financial laws, brought about, as we 
 have before said, by Maria Theresa and Joseph II. 
 
 Giammario Ortes (1713 — 1790), a Venetian priest, is 
 the most illustrious among the Venetian economists of 
 last century. He was an original and profound genius, 
 but his style was unpolished and not free from para- 
 dox. His standpoint was a solitary one, but he was 
 influenced, though he did not think so himself, by the 
 general position and progress of economic studies at the 
 time. He was the author of numerous writings which 
 appeared anonymously, and which have been collected 
 and annotated with much care by Custodi, Cicogna, and 
 Lampertico. Among these, two are especially remark- 
 able, namely, an Apology for Free Trade in the 
 Economia nazionale (1774) ; and the Riflessioni sulla 
 Popolazione delle Nazioni (1790). In the latter work he 
 gives theories on the question of population opposed to 
 those almost universally in vogue at the time, and in 
 great part analogous to those which were rather better 
 expounded by Malthus a few years later. But the 
 general system of this author is based on the false sup- 
 position that the wealth of a country always consists of 
 a determinate quantity, bearing a certain proportion 
 to the number of which the nation is composed.
 
 iv.] THE PHYSIOCKATIC SCHOOL. 159 
 
 Fedele Lampertico, Giammario Ortes e la Scienza 
 economica al suo Tempo. Venice, 1865, 12mo. 
 
 Among other Venetian economists of the time, we may 
 mention Mengotti di Fanzaso, Zanon of Udine, and the 
 Istrian Gian Rinaldo Carli. Carli was president of the 
 Magistrato Camerale at Milan, and was active in the 
 economic reforms of that State. His works are most 
 excellent, especially those on the subject of money. 
 There are also other writers, who are hardly known, as 
 Nani, Donati, Capello, Costantini, Coronelli, Mocenigo, 
 Manin, Scola of Vicenzo, and the Istrian Marchesini. 
 Their works, not without merit, show that even 
 during the last days of the Republic, there existed 
 some enthusiasm for those studies which contribute to 
 the well-being of States. 
 
 The works of Briganti and Palmieri, — Neapolitans — 
 and of Count Donaudi delle Mallere of Piedmont, 
 cannot be compared with the earlier writings of Geno- 
 vesi, Beccaria, Verri, and Ortes. But we find instead 
 some excellent monographs. The question of money, 
 especially, was very well expounded by Ferdinando 
 Galiani, Pompeo Neri, Pagnini (Locke's translator), 
 G. B. Vasco, a Piedmontese, and others. On the subject 
 of food commodities, the best writers were Neri, Verri, 
 and the Tuscan, Fabroni. There were also special 
 treatises on taxation in general, and land-taxes in 
 particular. Among these is an administrative work 
 which has been much praised, published by Pompeo 
 Neri, President of the Giunta which carried out under 
 Maria Theresa the famous Milanese census. The fun- 
 damental ideas of this work were briefly summed up by 
 Carli (1771). 
 
 No less praise should be accorded to Lodovico Ricci
 
 160 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [oh. iv. 
 
 (1742 — 1799), the author of an excellent work Sulla 
 Riforma degli istituti Pii (1787,) containing wide and 
 prudent maxims on the organisation of public poor-relief. 
 Even now it may be profitably consulted. The same 
 question had been discussed at Modena, half a century 
 before, but only incidentally and from the ecclesiastical 
 point of view, by the illustrious Antonio Muratori (Della 
 Carità cristiana, 1723, 4to). Perhaps Ricci might also 
 be recognised as a distinguished financial writer, if his 
 work Dei Tributi (3 vols, folio, 1783) were published. It 
 is at present quite unknown to economic historians. 
 
 Thus we see that during the last half of the 
 eighteenth century, Italy was rich in industrious and 
 worthy economists, full of zeal for the public good, and 
 working together for the principles of civil reform. 
 Doubtless France and England stood first in economic 
 science, but Italy could claim an honourable position 
 amoDjr cultured and enlightened nations.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 
 
 Adam Smith was not the founder of the economic 
 science, nor even the framer of a doctrine resting on 
 fixed foundations, and complete in all its applications. 
 But he was undoubtedly the greatest economist the 
 world has ever seen. He gathered together and co- 
 ordinated all existing materials relating to individual 
 theories. He corrected the exaggerations of the physio- 
 cratic school, while retaining whatever was good in its 
 system. He enriched the science with several theories 
 hardly approached before his time, and gave a better 
 form to many others. Again, the method which he pur- 
 sued was especially well adapted to economic investiga- 
 tions. Finally he deduced from the principles of the 
 science the most important applications which could be 
 made from them to the economic and financial govern- 
 ment of States ; uniting with a genuinely liberal 
 and independent spirit that moderation and maturity 
 of mind which distinguishes men of genius from those 
 who are blinded by party spirit, and by the tyranny of 
 prejudices and exclusive ideas. It has been excellently 
 observed by Roscher that Adam Smith stands in the 
 centre of economic history ; and that whatever was 
 
 M
 
 162 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 written before and has been written since may be con- 
 sidered respectively as the preparation for, and the com- 
 plement of, his doctrine. It is surprising that there has 
 been as yet no complete monograph on this eminent 
 author, — biographical, bibliographical and critical — 
 which might impartially determine his scientific value, 
 in relation to the later progress of the science. 
 
 The essays of Blanqui (1843), Cousin (1850), and 
 Monjean, are by no means adequate to these demands — 
 nor those, more recent and more accurate in parts, by 
 Lavergne (1859), by Laspeyres (1865), by Du Puynode 
 (1865), by Oncken (1874), by Chevalier (1875), by 
 Inama, by Luzzati, by Bagehot (1876), and by Helf- 
 nich (1877). 
 
 The longest and most accurate biography is one by 
 Dugald Stewart, Account of the Life and Writings of Adam 
 Smith, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin- 
 burgh, Vol. iii. Part I. (1793), p. 55-537. It has been 
 reprinted several times, and is contained, with some 
 additions, in the second volume of the works of Stewart, 
 edited by Sir William Hamilton (London, 1858). 
 
 McCulloch enriched the biography of Adam Smith 
 with some fresh particulars, which are given in the 
 Introduction to his edition of the Wealth of Rations 
 (London, 1828, 4 vols. 8vo), and again in his Treatises 
 and Essays (2nd ed., London, 1858, 8vo). 
 
 J. F. B. Baert, Adam Smith en zyn onderzoeh naar den 
 rykdom der Volken. Ley den, 1858. (This is a very 
 accurate work, and full of information, but wanting in 
 acuteness of criticism.) 
 
 G. Picca-Salerno, L'economia politica di Adamo Smith. 
 In the Archivio Giuridico, Voi. xvii., Bologna, 1876, 
 p. 301 — 320. (The best Italian essay on the subject.)
 
 v.] ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 163 
 
 Aug. Oncken, Adam Smith und Immanuel Kant. Ber 
 Einklang und das Wescliselverhdltniss Hirer Lehren iiber 
 Sitte, Staat und Wirthschaft, Part I. ,This work shows 
 the connection between Adam Smith's economic ideas 
 and his moral and political theories. It is, however, 
 frequently inaccurate. 
 
 W. von Skarzynski, Adam Smith als Moralphilosoph 
 und Schopfer der Nationalokonomie. Berlin, 1878, 8vo. 
 (This writer is too ready to depreciate Adam Smith in 
 comparison with the physiocrats.) 
 
 Adam Smith was born at the village of Kirkcaldy, in 
 1723. He studied at the University of Glasgow (1737- 
 40), and then at that of Oxford. In 1748 he went to 
 Edinburgh, where he gave lectures on rhetoric and lite- 
 rature, and gained the friendship of David Hume. The 
 philosophical and moral sciences had more attraction 
 for him than literature, and at Glasgow, where he had 
 first pursued those sciences, he obtained in 1751 the 
 chair of Logic, and in 1752 that of Moral Philosophy. 
 Prom 1752 to 1763 he was teaching moral philosophy. 
 He divided the subject into four parts, natural theology, 
 ethics properly so-called, political law and political 
 economy. At that time Hume's Economic Essays had 
 appeared, and they must have helped to fix Adam Smith's 
 attention on the problems of the social ordering of 
 wealth. There were also many writings of the French 
 physiocrats which he probably consulted. "While he 
 was teaching at Glasgow, he published (1759) his 
 work on the Theory of the Moral Sentiments. This 
 ethical treatise was founded on the principle of sympathy. 
 It agreed generally with the theories professed by the 
 Scotch school, of which Hutcheson and Reid were the 
 leaders, and Adam Smith himself one of the most 
 
 m 2
 
 164 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 intelligent and active followers. The manner and the 
 amount of his economic teaching, and the relations be- 
 tween his opinions at that time and those of the French 
 school are points which remain obscure. Some of his bio- 
 graphers have asserted, but without producing adequate 
 proof, that the principles laid down by the illustrious 
 Scotchman in 1776 are in perfect accordance with those 
 taught from the Glasgow chair more than twenty years 
 before. It is much to be wished that some critic should 
 consult the manuscripts of his lectures, which are said 
 to be preserved, so as to discover what truth there is in 
 this assertion. Having left the University in 1764, 
 Adam Smith became tutor to the young Duke of Buc- 
 cleugh, and accompanied him in journeys on the conti- 
 nent, more especially in France. They stayed for nearly 
 twelve months in Paris, where Adam Smith was much 
 in the society of Quesnay, Turgot, and other philosophers, 
 publicists, and economists, making many cordial friends 
 among them, and acquiring a more thorough knowledge 
 of the economic doctrines of the French school. Return- 
 ing from abroad in October, 1760, he retired to his 
 native village, Kirkcaldy, and after ten years of prepa- 
 ration published his great work. 
 
 Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes 
 of the Wealth of Nations, 1776, two vols. 4to. 
 
 Smith's work was translated into the principal 
 languages of Europe. The first Italian translation was 
 published at Naples, in five vols. 8vo, 1780; but the 
 best is that in Ferrara' s Biblioteca dell' Economista. 
 Praise has been given, among the French translations, 
 to that by the Count Gamier, and among the German 
 translations to a recent one by C. W. Asher (Stuttgart, 
 1861, two vols. 8vo). Among the annotated English
 
 -v.] ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 165 
 
 editions we may name those of Buchanan and McCul- 
 loch. Jeremiah Joyce made an abstract of the Wealth 
 of Nations under the following title : A Complete 
 Analysis of Adam Smith's Inquiry, etc. London, 1797, 
 12mo (3rd ed. 1821). 
 
 The fame of Smith's work grew rapidly, and gained 
 for him the post of Commissioner of Customs for 
 Scotland, which he held until his death, in 1790. 
 
 The Wealth of Nations should not be considered as a 
 scientific treatise written merely for educational pur- 
 poses. Its aim was, rather, a wide treatment of the 
 principal economic questions, given in such a manner 
 that they might be readily apprehended by every culti- 
 vated person. The work is divided into five books. The 
 first two are specially concerned with general theories 
 of pure political economy. The third is mainly historical. 
 The fourth contains a wide criticism of the mercantile 
 and physiocratic systems. The fifth is devoted to ques- 
 tions of application, especially in the department of 
 finance. 
 
 Following the example of Turgot, Adam Smith does 
 not confound political economy with law or politics. 
 In his investigations, however, he embraces both the 
 pure and the applied science, and treats at large of 
 many administrative questions which are now generally 
 severed from political economy, as their decision rests 
 on principles which are not purely economic. 
 
 According to Adam Smith, human labour is the chief 
 source of wealth, wealth being defined as all material 
 objects which make up the necessities, the conveniences, 
 and the pleasures of life. Hence to produce wealth is 
 to add utility and value to material objects. All kinds 
 of labour are not productive, nor even some which are
 
 106 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap, 
 
 necessary or useful. The labour of clergymen, of magis- 
 trates, and of domestic servants, for example, from the 
 economic point of view are unproductive. Productive 
 labour is employed in agriculture, manufacture, and 
 commerce. These are all equally useful and productive, 
 and mutually dependent on each other's progress, as 
 they all alike consist in the pi^eparation and transforma- 
 tion of material products. Adam Smith's system was 
 called industrial, because it started from the conception 
 of labour and industry. The mercantile system started 
 from the idea of money. The physiocratic system started 
 from the conception of land. The two last erred in 
 the direction of exclusiveness, not recognising the 
 productiveness of all material industries. 
 
 Like Turgot, Adam Smith carefully studied th9 
 problem of value, and arrived at the capital distinction 
 between value in use and value in exchange. The first 
 bears relation to the capabilities of; things in satisfying 
 human wants. The second arises from the fitness of 
 products for mutual interchange. Things which, like 
 air, water, light, etc., are universally accessible, have 
 no value in exchange. Value in exchange is founded on 
 and measured by the human labour needed to acquire 
 things and to render them serviceable. 
 
 In treating of the causes of efficiency in human 
 labour, Smith especially insists on the results of the 
 division of labour, which he analyses minutely. Com- 
 bined with exchange, which renders it possible and 
 causes it to be brought to greater perfection, this division 
 is one of the most powerful factors in economic and 
 social progress. Its effects, the causes of its efficiency, 
 its limits, and its principle, are all examined. With 
 this subject, as is ^well-known, the work opens, the
 
 v.] ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 167 
 
 manufacture of pins being particularly referred to by- 
 way of illustration. Not less profound, and perhaps 
 more complete, is bis analysis of the nature, tbe forms, 
 and tbe kinds of capital, and of tbe laws of its forma- 
 tion and its functions. Here bis subtlety, bis origi- 
 nality, and bis circumspection, are especially striking. 
 
 Like tbe physiocrats, Adam Smith advocated the 
 greatest possible liberty in the mechanism of production 
 and of trade. Descending to applications he absolutely 
 condemned slavery, serfage, feudal and other such re- 
 strictions, monopolies, corporations, regulations, the 
 legal determination of prices and wages, bounties, pro- 
 hibitions, high protective duties, and tbe like. In bis 
 opinion, tbe great corollary of economics was liberty, 
 which he deduced from far wider premises than tbe 
 physiocrats. Their starting-points were the advantage 
 of the rural classes and the necessity of increasing tbe 
 net produce of the soil. His were individual self- 
 interest and the harmony of the general interests. 
 
 In bis treatment of circulation he gives analyses 
 which are enriched by illustrations and historical di- 
 gressions on the precious metals, on money, prices, 
 credit and banking. Under distribution be explains 
 the laws of rent, of profits, and especially of wages, 
 pointing out with much penetration tbe causes of tbe 
 apparent disproportion between labour and its reward 
 in various localities and professions. 
 
 With regard to the natural and economic functions of 
 the State, Smith does not merely recognise its negative 
 province of defence and repression. He assigns to it a 
 wide scope in relation to public works, education, etc. 
 Starting from tbe fact that the needs of civil societies 
 oblige the State to appropriate a portion of individual
 
 16S STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chai\ 
 
 profits so as to employ it for the public benefit, he 
 goes on to discuss the following matters. First, the 
 nature of public expenditure. Secondly, the various 
 forms of taxation, and their economic effects. Thirdly, 
 the different systems of public loans, in the discussion 
 of which he especially insists on the dangers and abuses 
 of State credit. 
 
 By the work of Adam Smith political economy lost 
 the exclusive character which the physiocrats had given 
 to it, and was freed from the disguise of the sibylline 
 language which they affected. It gained a definite 
 position among the social sciences, and acquired a 
 definite object. It assumed a special function, and 
 adopted a convenient method. It laid a stone on the 
 great edifice of social progress. But it must not be 
 thought that the new science was perfectly constituted 
 by Adam Smith. The Wealth of Nations did not compre- 
 hend the whole body of economic theories. If it were 
 so, Smith would have done for economics what no single 
 man has ever been able to do for any science, physical 
 or moral. 
 
 The defects of the book are many, and by no means 
 small, notwithstanding the wealth of demonstration and 
 illustration which it displays. It fails as a didactic 
 work, and indeed it was not considered in this light 
 by the author. It has few definitions ; they seem almost 
 to be designedly avoided. The language is popular 
 rather than scientific, and there is no systematic arrange- 
 ment. The interesting digressions into history, statistics, 
 and politics, are too frequent and are foreign to the sub- 
 ject. In short, harmony and proportion are wanting — 
 the necessary conditions of scientific exposition. And 
 further, with regard to essential doctrines, Smith goes
 
 v.] ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 169 
 
 too far in his reaction against the bureaucratic ten- 
 dencies of the time, though not always, nor to the 
 same extent as some who claim to be his followers. 
 But he limits the action of the social power to the 
 defence of persons and property, a merely negative 
 function ; to the diffusion of instruction, a subsidiary 
 function ; and to the execution of certain public works, 
 for which the individual initiative would not suffice. 
 Again, Adam Smith, like the physiocrats, was wrong in 
 his purely material conception of wealth ; he allowed 
 very little importance to incorporeal products. Lastly, 
 he neglected some of the most important economic 
 theories, those of value, population, rent, and inter- 
 national exchange. 
 
 The censures which modern German writers have 
 passed on him are, however, not justified. They at- 
 tribute to him the exaggerations of some of his'disciples, 
 who make the idea of unlimited economic liberty the 
 basis of a theory very different from his. They main- 
 tain that economic science ought to be reconstituted 
 on entirely new foundations, laying down legal and 
 moral principles as the groundwork for wider and more 
 complete theories. These ideas are set forth in a work 
 by Prof. Rosier, which has the merit of acuteness, but 
 is pretentious, and in great part inaccurate. 
 
 H. Rosier, Ueber die Grundlehren der von Adam Smith 
 begrundeten Volkwirthschaflstheorie, 2nd ed. Erlangen, 
 1871. 
 
 The work of Adam Smith contained the germs 
 of new theories which served to correct prevailing 
 errors and to fill up gaps. As an Italian writer has 
 said, it comprehends, if not all, certainly the greater 
 part of the science, manifested in its fundamental
 
 170 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 principles by reasoning of a universal and permanent 
 nature. 
 
 During the fifty years which followed the publication 
 of Smith's book, the theories for which he pleaded did 
 not find a ready or a wide acceptance in practice, which 
 was still pledged to the old traditions of the restrictive 
 systems. But they descended gradually to a select 
 body of men who, first in England, then in France, 
 Germany, Italy, Russia, the Low Countries and else- 
 where, set themselves to explain, to comment upon, 
 to arrange, to complete, and in some particulars to 
 rectify them. 
 
 The first place belongs to England, both in originality 
 and in the work of correcting and completing Smith's 
 system. In the period in question that country may 
 boast of the illustrious names of Malthus and Ricardo. 
 
 Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) was the author 
 of several economic works. He is immortalised by his 
 explanations of the theory of population [Essay on the 
 Principles of Population as it Affects the Future Improve- 
 ment of Society), by his attacks on Godwin's com- 
 munism, and on the vicious system of legal charity. 
 With regard to the first subject, he pointed out that 
 many evils which were falsely attributed to political 
 causes were really the inevitable result of the dispro- 
 portion "between population and the means of subsist- 
 ence. His doctrine, imperfect in statistical expression, 
 but at the bottom economically sound, has survived the 
 abuse and the equivocations with which people sought to 
 confute it. His Principles of Political Economy and his 
 Definitions are inferior in merit ; and his restrictive 
 ideas about the com trade are erroneous. 
 , David Ricardo was a rich and skilful banker (1772—
 
 v.] ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 171 
 
 1823). In his Principles of Political Economy, he 
 briefly expounds the doctrine of production, and chiefly 
 occupies himself with the theories of distribution and cir- 
 culation. In these subjects he shows much originality, 
 though he is wanting in clearness, and reasons too much 
 in the abstract. But he made important investigations 
 on the laws of value and of profits, on the elasticity of 
 taxation, on money, on banking, and on private and 
 public credit generally. But Ricardo' s fame rests on 
 the theory of rent, which had already been expounded 
 by Anderson (1777), by West (1815), and by Malthus, 
 but with less profundity and fulness. This doctrine 
 was for a long time misunderstood by economists, and 
 is even now opposed by many ; according to Mill it is 
 their pons asinormn. It has become with much difficulty 
 an acquisition of the science; but economists are 
 endeavouring now to formulate it with greater precision 
 and breadth. J 
 
 There were others who contributed to the progress of 
 economics in England. The illustrious Jeremy Bentham 
 opposed, after Turgot, restrictive laws on the interest 
 of money, and convinced Adam Smith himself, when not 
 yet decided in favour of absolute liberty. Among 
 writers of less importance, James Mill was the authoi 
 of a work in which the theories of Adam Smith, 
 Malthus, and Ricardo, are explained with precision and 
 brevity. 
 
 James Mill, Elements of Political Economy, London, 
 1821, 3rd ed., 1826. 
 
 To a French writer, J.-B. Say (1767-1832), we must 
 ascribe the merit of having developed in a clear, orderly, 
 and attractive manner, the truth contained in Adam 
 Smith's work. The principles of the new science of
 
 172 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [CHAP. 
 
 economics were made familiar to the learned men of 
 Europe in Say's Tratte d' Economie politique, Paris, 1803, 
 two vols., 8vo. (0th ed., prepared by H. Say, 1841, royal 
 8vo), and in later writings of less merit. He expounded 
 these principles with great clearness, and with rigorous 
 logic argued from them to their results. His definitions 
 and examples were framed with great care, and he 
 illustrated with some originality the theories of im- 
 material products, markets, and consumption. On the 
 other hand, Say advocated the limitation of the func- 
 tions of the State to an even greater extent than Smith. 
 Not having much legal knowledge, he underestimated 
 the importance of these functions. Again, he was wil- 
 fully blind to the progress which the theories of value 
 and distribution had made through the work of 
 Ricardo. 
 
 Say taught economics publicly at the Conservatoire des 
 Arts et Metiers and at the Collège de France. Among 
 his contemporaries were Tracy, Droz, Charles Comte, 
 and Ganilh. The first wrote a compendium of political 
 economy as a complement to a philosophical treatise 
 inspired by the theories of the sensational philosophy. 
 Droz was a Christian philosopher and an excellent 
 economist. Charles Comte, Say's son-in-law, was the 
 author of a good monograph on property, and of a 
 Treatise on Legislation which was not finished. Ganilh's 
 numerous writings deserve praise in some special points, 
 but they are imbued with the narrow views of protection. 
 
 In Germany many excellent men of science and 
 professors modified the so-called Chamber Sciences with 
 the results of Adam Smith's doctrine. This was done 
 at first without much originality, as in the works of 
 Sartorius, Liider, Kraus and Schliizer. Later on there
 
 v.] ADAM SMITH AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS. 173 
 
 were some praiseworthy attempts to determine more 
 precisely the fundamental conceptions of the science, 
 the most successful being those by : 
 
 G. Huf eland (died 1817), Neue Grundlegung der 
 Staatswirthschaftskunst, Giessen, 1807-1813, two vols. 
 8vo ; and 
 
 J. F. E. Lotz (died 1838), Revision der Grundbegriffe 
 der Nationalwirtlischqftslehre, Coburg, 1811-14, four 
 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Among the compendiums of this period the following 
 may be consulted : 
 
 L. H. von Jakob (died 1827), Grundsdtze der 
 National 'okonomie, Halle, 1805 (3rd ed. 1825). Clear 
 but not profound. 
 
 J. F. E. Lotz, Ilandbuch der Staatswirthschaftslehre, 
 Erlangen, 1821-22, three vols. 8vo (2nd ed. 1837-38). 
 An extensive treatise taking in the science of finance. 
 
 The Cours d'Economie politique, written in French by 
 the German Heinrich Storch (died, 1835), for the use of 
 his pupils the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael of 
 Russia, made the doctrines of Adam Smith known in 
 that vast empire. In pure economics the author shows 
 little originality. But with regard to applications he has 
 been pi'aised for the careful attention with which he 
 treats the subjects of slavery, banking, paper money, «fee. 
 
 In Holland Smith's teaching was expounded by Count 
 Hogendorp and by Gogel, illustrious patriots and 
 publicists. It was given forth in Switzerland in 
 Sismondi's first work (1803), and a little later by Count 
 Szecheny in Hungary. Lastly in distant America, 
 Franklin and others in the United States, and Da 
 Silva-Lisboa in Brazil, sought to adapt it to the 
 circumstances of another civilization.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Economic science, having been built up by Adam Smith 
 upon solid foundations, has been gaining ground ever 
 since, as an element in general culture, and especially as 
 the most important of the social sciences. During the 
 last fifty years the progress of economics has been very 
 rapid. The science has triumphed over the numerous 
 adversaries who fought against its diffusion for quite 
 opposite reasons ; some fearing its influence in hasten- 
 ing civil reform, others knowing it to be hostile to 
 disorderly, ill-timed, and dangerous attempts to upset 
 the existing economic order. 
 
 In this revival of economic studies the leading nations 
 were England, France, and Germany. They were 
 followed by Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and the Low 
 Countries, all eager for progress. In the last ten years 
 Spain, Portugal, Russia, the Scandinavian States and 
 Hungary, have taken part in the movement. It has 
 been spread by the public and private teaching of the 
 science afforded in many of the higher class educational 
 institutions. In some countries its teaching has been 
 extended even to some of the secondary schools, and
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 175 
 
 more thoroughly to those devoted to industrial and 
 professional instruction. 
 
 The progress of legislative reform, resulting from 
 the progress of political economy, has led to the 
 further advance of the science. The effects of more 
 enlightened economic legislation have been specially 
 important. Such effects are, for instance, the extension 
 of the means of transport and communication ; the 
 organisation and multiplication of credit institutions ; 
 the growing liberty of manufacturing industry and of 
 home and foreign trade ; the emancipation of territorial 
 property from feudal restrictions ; the reorganisation of 
 public poor-relief ; the reform and simplification of 
 the system of taxation and public finance in general. 
 
 In like manner the circle of students of political 
 economy has been widened by the consolidation of 
 the representative classes, and by the liberty of printing, 
 association, and union, which have resulted from it. 
 Having a more or less direct interest in the manage- 
 ment of public affairs, these classes have a special 
 motive for cultivating the branches of knowledge which 
 investigate those phenomena most closely connected 
 with the general welfare. 
 
 § 1. — England. 
 
 After the time of Adam Smith and his earlier 
 disciples, political economy became almost a popular 
 science in England. The influence of its principles may 
 be observed in improved institutions, and in the founda- 
 tion of colleges and other educational institutes for work- 
 ing men, which, however, were not quite so numerous as 
 has been sometimes stated. These did much good in
 
 176 • STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 arresting the inroad of socialist theories, which have 
 therefore never taken such firm root in England as in its 
 neighbour, France. Economic knowledge was perhaps 
 even more effectually diffused in reviews, magazines, and 
 other periodical publications designed for the spread of 
 general culture and for the treatment of questions of 
 the day. There were periodicals for different political 
 opinions as well as for different classes. The Quarterly 
 Review, the organ of the Tories ; the Edinburgh Review, 
 that of the Whigs ; Frnsers Magazine, the Westminster 
 Review, the Fortnightly Review, &c, radical organs, were 
 the most popular. Among special publications, which 
 were fewer in comparison, were the Journal of the Statis- 
 tical Society (appearing every three months) and the 
 Economist^ a weekly newspaper, occupying itself chiefly 
 with monetary, banking, and commercial questions. 
 There were also several journals representing the 
 interests of the working classes and of the institutions 
 which had been created for their benefit. 
 
 The Manchester League, — promoted by Cobden, 
 Bright, and others, maintaining a persistent agitation, 
 and supported by Sir Robert Peel and his succes- 
 sors, Earl Russell, Mr. Gladstone, &c. — succeeded 
 in bringing about great reforms in economic and 
 financial politics. The Corn Laws, the Navigation Act, 
 and protective duties, were abolished ; the income-tax 
 was re-introduced ; many taxes were either abolished 
 or lowered. Other reforms greatly improved the con- 
 dition of the working classes, as for instance the 
 numerous factory acts, the liberty granted to combina- 
 tions of workmen, the legal recognition of trades unions, 
 the laws relating to friendly societies, co-operative 
 societies, building societies, &e. On the one hand,
 
 vr.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTUKY. 177 
 
 hurtful forms of government intervention were done 
 away with. On the other hand, the action of the 
 State was more energetic in certain directions, in spite of 
 doctrinal objections made by those who exaggerated the 
 theory of absolute freedom. It supervised public in- 
 struction, banks of issue, and railways. It created post- 
 office savings-banks and government life insurance. It 
 undertook the telegraph service, and improved many 
 other public services more or less closely connected 
 with the economic prosperity of the nation. 
 
 The writings of Thomas Tooke (1773-1858) were 
 partly contemporary with, and partly later than, those 
 of Malthus and Ricardo. He was the author of the 
 celebrated History of Prices, continued by William 
 Newmarch ; a work which is a rich storehouse of facts 
 and theories about the doctrine of circulation, and more 
 especially that of credit (1838-57, six vols. 8vo.). 
 Colonel Robert Torrens (1784-1864) was the author of 
 an Essay on the Prochiction of Wealth (1821), and of 
 several monographs. He maintained, with Lord Over- 
 stone, Norman, and McCulloch, those restrictive theories 
 {currency principile), with regard to banks of issue, 
 which are opposed to those (free banking principle) 
 which were professed by Tooke, Wilson, Fullarton, and 
 Mill. The currency principle was the theoretical basis 
 of the famous Act of 1844, which increased the privilege 
 of the Bank of England. Economic knowledge was 
 diffused in Ireland by Richard Whately, Archbishop of 
 Dublin (died 1863), the author of some preliminary 
 lectures on economics (Introductory Lectures, 1831). 
 J. R. McCulloch, a learned, clear, and laborious, though 
 not a profound writer, published manuals of economics 
 and finance, a dictionary of commerce, and a bibliography 
 
 N
 
 178 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 of political economy. He "promoted investigations on 
 the early English economists, which were encouraged 
 by the Political Economy Club, created in London by 
 nineteen economists in 1821. A more original and 
 acute thinker was Nassau William Senior (1790-1804:), 
 twice professor at Oxford, in 1826 and 1847. He wrote 
 a most excellent article, Political Economy (183G), in 
 the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, and several very in- 
 teresting monographs on the measure of wages, absen- 
 teeism, and especially on the international distribution 
 of the precious metals. We owe to him also a complete 
 analysis of cost of production. He was less happy in 
 his wages fund theory, which is now almost completely 
 disproved. 
 
 But the first place among English economists belongs 
 undoubtedly to John Stuart Mill (180G-1873). He is 
 known as an eminent philosopher principally by his 
 System of Logic ; he is equally distinguished as a publicist 
 by his books on Liberty and Representative Government, 
 and as an economist of the first rank by his Essays on 
 some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy, 1844 (2nd 
 ed. 1874), written in 1829-30. In these be explained 
 his theories on method in economics, the influence of 
 consumption on production, the conception of productive 
 and unproductive consumption, profits, and interest. 
 He gives more particular attention to the laws of inter- 
 national trade, subtly investigating the dihtribution of 
 commercial profits among the different nations. Later 
 on, he published his classical work, Principles of Political 
 Economy, with some of their Applications to Social Philo- 
 sophy, London, 1848, two vols. 8vo. (6th ed. 1865, two 
 vols. ; People's edition, 1873, one vol.). Even now this is 
 the best English tieatise on economics. It accords in the
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 179 
 
 main with the doctrines of Smith, Malthus, and Ricardo, 
 but these are amplified, corrected, and enriched by Mill's 
 separate investigations. He consulted less-known works 
 by Rae, Chalmers, Wakefield, &c. Such economic ques- 
 tions as bore most directly on his own time and country 
 occupied his attention more especially ; and particularly 
 those which concerned wages and the condition of the 
 working men generally. Though an eclectic, he was at 
 bottom temperate, notwithstanding some ardent phrases 
 and some concessions, more apparent than real, to 
 socialism, which he thought might be possibly applied 
 in the remote future. But in spite of this and of his 
 narrow philosophic utilitarianism, Mill is an orthodox 
 economic writer, arid is among those who have best 
 understood the character of the science, its special 
 method, and its points of contact with social and 
 political cpiestions. 
 
 Among contemporary English economists, J. E. Cairnes 
 (died 1875) stands foremost, professor first at Dublin 
 and then at University College, London. We must 
 pass over those of less note, as Scrope, Eisdell, Hearn, 
 Musgrave, Shadwell ; and numerous authors of merely 
 special works, as Sargant, Baxter, Scratchley, Lewins, 
 &c. Professor Cairnes was the author of several mono- 
 graphs which have been collected in two volumes, 
 Essays on Political Economy, Political Essays, 1873 ; 
 of a work on slavery in the United States (The Slave 
 Power, 1862) ; of a most interesting work on method in 
 economics mentioned above (p. 38), the Character and 
 Logical Method of Political Economy, and a still more 
 important work entitled, Some Leading Principles of 
 Political Economy newly expounded, 1874. In this last 
 work, after touching slightly on the more generally 
 
 k 2
 
 ISO STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 received theories, he occupies himself chiefly with giving 
 new developments and greater exactness to the doc- 
 trines of supply and demand, value, cost of production, 
 wages, international commerce, &c, correcting some 
 inaccuracies of Mill's. 
 
 Professor W. Stanley Jevons, now of University 
 College, London, has dealt particularly with circulation, 
 exchange, commerce, value, money, credit, and crises. 
 Among his writings is the Theory of Political Economy 
 (1871, 2nd ed. 1879), in which he advocates the appli- 
 cation of the calculus to economic investigations, and 
 another work, very clear and good, on money, abounding 
 in facts and very important technical illustrations : 
 Money and the Mechanism of Exchange, London, 1875 
 (4th ed. 1878). 
 
 Professor Fawcett, of Cambridge, is the author of 
 several writings; on pauperism (1871), on the condition 
 of working men, on free trade (1878), and of an ex- 
 cellent Manual of Political Economy, London, 1863 
 (5th eel. 1876). This manual is a compendium of Mill's 
 Principles, enriched by special development of questions 
 relating to the precious metals, slavery, trades unions, 
 co-operative societies, local taxation, etc. Mrs. Fawcett, 
 who assisted him in this work, gathered together its 
 doctrines in a little book called Political Economy for 
 Beginners, 1870 (3rd ed. 1874). Another excellent 
 compendium is that by Mr. and Mrs. Marshall, The 
 Economics of Industry, London, 1879. 
 
 The late W. T. Thornton has written on population, 
 on peasant proprietors, and more especially on labour 
 and working men's societies. His book On Labour 
 (1869, one vol.) is an excellent work. It made a great 
 impression on Mill, and induced him to abandon his
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 1S1 
 
 theory of the wages fund, which has also been opposi d 
 by Lange, the American economist Walker, arid 
 Brentano. It is, however, still maintained by Fawcett, 
 and with some modifications by Cairnes and Lampertico. 
 
 Credit and banking have been treated in several 
 works by H. Dunning Macleod, a learned and acute, 
 but somewhat paradoxical writer. His works contain 
 many good observations on special questions, but are 
 also full of dangerous errors and old sophisms under a 
 new form. His doctrines are more briefly given in 
 Econo'iaics for Beginners, London, 1878. 
 
 There have been other writers on banking subjects. 
 The excellent work called Lombard Street (London, 
 1873) was written by Walter Bagehot (died 1877), who 
 succeeded Wilson as editor of the Economist. To Mr. 
 Goschen we owe original illustrations of the theory 
 of the course of the exchange, Theory of the Foreign 
 Exchanges, 8th ed., London, 1875. 
 
 Professor James E. Thorold Rogers has done good 
 work in his history of agriculture and prices in England 
 from 1255 to 1783, of which two volumes are already 
 out, History of Agriculture and Prices in England, 
 Vols. I. and IL, London, 1866. 
 
 Mr. Cliffe Leslie is the author of learned and very 
 interesting essays, and is especially noted for his works 
 on systems of agriculture, and on financial reform. He 
 represents the doctrines of the historical school, and in 
 part also those of the so-called professorial socialists of 
 Germany, though he avoids many of their exaggerations. 
 Professor J. K. Ingram is also very favourable to the 
 inductive method. He has lately (1878) reproduced 
 with much clearness the objections made against the 
 classical economists by A. Comte and the positivists.
 
 132 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 § 2. France. 
 
 Political Economy has never been popular in France, 
 and is called litterature ennuyeuse even among cultivated 
 people. It has been opposed by protectionists and 
 socialists ; the first being powerful in the sphere of 
 Government, the second among the working-classes. 
 But at intervals, in a transitory and exceptional 
 way, it has made some slight progress in popular 
 opinion. This has been especially the case since I860, 
 when the movable scale was abolished and a great 
 treaty of commerce concluded with England. Here 
 and there thè science has been taught in the law 
 schools. 
 
 Notwithstanding the important obstacles which have 
 been mentioned, France can boast in the present century 
 of a number of excellent economists. Since 1842 there 
 has been regularly published the Journal des Econo- 
 mistes, which contains many good special writings. 
 Every month, too, the leading French economists meet 
 in the Société des Economistes to discuss questions of 
 theory and application. The Dictionnaire de V Economie 
 politique, edited by Coquelin and Guillaumin (Paris, 
 1851-53, 2 vols, royal 8vo.), is an alphabetical ency- 
 clopaedia of economic science. It certainly has many 
 defects, and ought in great part to be rewritten to bring 
 it into accordance with the subsequent progress of the 
 science. But it is a scientific monument such as no 
 other nation can boast of. Boccardo was stirred up by 
 it to bestow on Italy a work of the same kind, with the 
 help of the materials collected in it and elsewhere. 
 Among the innumerable authors of special works, of
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 183 
 
 ivhom many are now forgotten, we may mention the 
 Following. DeGeranclo (died 1812), rather an adminis- 
 trator than an economist, was the author of the classical 
 work Be la Bienfaisance publique (1839, 4 vols.). G. A. 
 Blanqui (died 1854) was a professor and a brilliant 
 ihough light writer, and the successor of Say at the 
 Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. L. R. Villerme, 
 a physician, a philanthropist, and an economist, wrote 
 a remarkable work on the Physical and Moral Condition 
 of the Working Classes (1840, 2 vols.). He was, with 
 Baron Charles Dupin, one of the first in France to give 
 his attention to the abuses of the labour of women 
 and children, a subject treated with much force by 
 Jules Simon, Leroy-Beaulieu, Tallon, and others. Leon 
 Faucher, the minister (died 1854), wrote some Etudes 
 sur V Angleterre (1845), which were a good deal read at 
 one time. Charles Coquelin (died 1852) was the author 
 of a brightly written volume on credit and banking 
 (1848), not very profound, and now forgotten, other 
 works having supei'seded it. 
 
 Charles Dunoyer and Frederic Bastiat had a wider 
 fame, and are still well known. Dunoyer (died 1862) 
 is the author of a work of considerable originality 
 rm titled De la liberté du travail, &c. (Paris, 1845, 3 
 vols. 8vo.). In this book he treated diffusely of th? 
 conditions which give the greatest amount of energy to 
 human labour in all its applications, and especially with 
 regard to the so-called immaterial industries. Bastiat 
 (died 1850) was a less profound, but a more popular 
 ind effective, writer. His style was powerful, and he 
 was eminent as a critic and a publicist. His brief 
 scientific career, prematurely cut off, was marked by 
 two periods. During the first, fired by the success of
 
 184 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 Cobden and the English league, he wished to be- 
 come the apostle of free trade in France. He trans- 
 lated the best speeches of the English champions of 
 commercial liberty (Cobden et la Ligue, 1845), and con- 
 futed in his Sophismes économiques (1846-47) the argu- 
 ments of the protectionists, reducing them by rigorous 
 logic ad absurdum. Later on he attacked socialism, 
 and showed in several little works, all very interesting, 
 its connection with the theories of protection. He was 
 less successful in the pure theory, bis arguments in this 
 sphere being influenced by his alarm at the inter- 
 pretations which certain socialists put upon the doctrines 
 of Malthus and Iticardo. In his Harmonies économiques 
 (1850; 2nd ed. 1851) he expresses ideas about value, 
 population, and rent, which are neither original nor 
 exact, being founded to a great extent upon ambigu- 
 ities. Thus they lead to an economic optimism which 
 closes its eyes to the possibility of social perturba- 
 tions and momentary conflicts between the interests of 
 the various productive classes, such as in reality often 
 necessitate the moderate intervention of the social power. 
 Among recent French economists, however, Michel 
 Chevalier stands first (died 1879). He was a former 
 Saint-Simonist and a brilliant writer, and was the 
 author of a Cours d'economie politiqtie (Paris, 1842-50, 
 3 vols. 8vo. ; 2nd ed. 1855-66). In this work he ex- 
 pounded admirably the subj< cts of money and the means 
 of transport. In other writings he treated of the 
 probable dej/reciation of gold, the protective system, the 
 organization of labour, liberty of banking, &c. Chevalier 
 was a professor at the Collège de France, and took a 
 leading part in arranging the treaty of commerce with 
 England in 1860.
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 185 
 
 Louis Wolowski (died 1876), of Polish origin, was an 
 opponent of Chevalier. He was professor at the Con- 
 servatoire des Arts et Metiers, and wrote chiefly on 
 mortgage credit, commercial liberty, banks of issue, and 
 monetary problems generally. His arguments with regard 
 to banks of issue are sometimes too exclusive, and he 
 holds that paper currency should be issued by a single 
 government bank possessing a legal monopoly. In 
 monetary questions he defends the double standard 
 system with arguments which are partly original, and 
 are at least comparatively valuable. 
 
 Hippolyte Passy wrote little but well on systems of 
 cultivation (1853), and on the causes of inequalities of 
 wealth. L. de Lavergne (died 1880), an agriculturist as 
 well as an economist, described the agrarian conditions 
 of England and France and the relations between agricul- 
 ture and population. Louis Reybaud (died 1879), a 
 novelist as well as an economist, began by studying 
 modern socialism in some of its principal representatives. 
 He then published several volumes on the regime des 
 manufactures, in which, at the demand of the French 
 Institute, he described the conditions of the various 
 industries, silk, wool, cotton, iron, etc. Levasseur is 
 known to fame chiefly by his two histories of the 
 working- classes in France, before and since 1789. De 
 Parieu has written on the subject of taxation in a 
 very learned and excellent treatise, leaving nothing to 
 be desired except greater originality and a better style. 
 Subsequently he entered into money questions, and 
 became the most decided and the soundest champion 
 of the introduction into France of the single gold 
 standard. 
 
 There are also many authors of treatises and com-
 
 1S6 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 pendiums of political economy, of which we may mention 
 a few. Courcelle-Seneuil, Mill's translator, besides 
 some excellent works on banking operations, industrial 
 undertakings, and socialism, wrote a Traite théorique et 
 pratique d'economie politique (Paris, 1858-59, 2 vols. 
 8vo., 2nd ed. 1867) which is certainly one of the best 
 treatises in the Fx'ench language. Joseph Gamier is 
 the author of an elementary course of economic studies 
 {Traile d'economie politique, 8th ed., Paris, 1880 ; also 
 Notes et petits Traités, 2nd ed. 1858 ; Traiti de finances, 
 3rd ed. 1872), a compilation which is not altogether very 
 profound, and has grave defects, but contains many 
 dates and interesting references. Henri Baudrillart, 
 an accurate writer, a philosopher and a journalist, has 
 written an admirable compendium [Manuel d' Economie 
 politique, 1857, 3rd ed. 1872) and other works in which 
 he specially illustrates the relations between economics 
 and morality. 
 
 In his Lectures d'economie p>olitique rationelle (Paris, 
 1861, 1 vol. 18mo.), the Russian Colonel, Wolkoff, tried to 
 spread in France the theories of the German von Thiinen 
 on rent and wages. The work of the distinguished 
 mathematician Cournot (died 1877), Principes de la theorie 
 des richesses (Paris, 1863, 8vo.), is very good in many 
 respects. In this book and in that begun by Leon 
 Walras, professor at Lausanne {Elements d'economie 
 politique pure, 1874), the writers propose the application 
 of algebraic analysis to economic investigations. 
 
 We cannot enumerate all the authors of special 
 works, among whom are Horace and Leon Say, M. 
 Monjean, the Marquis d'Audiffret, P. Boiteau, A. 
 Batbie, Frederic Passy, R. Fontenay, P. Paillottet, 
 J. J. Clamagéran, V. Modeste, G. du Puynode, A.
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN" THE 19th CENTURY. 187 
 
 Clement, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, A. de Foville, and many 
 others. "We have said enough to show that in the 
 present century France may boast of excellent economists 
 who are too often ignored by those of England and 
 Germany. 
 
 § 3. Germany. 
 
 It would be an arduous task to give even a brief 
 account of the progress of economic science in Germany 
 during this century. This progress has indeed been 
 most remarkable, although denied by some, and ex- 
 aggerated with easy-going complacency by others. A 
 great deal of information about it has been collected in 
 a learned work by Professor Cusumano with much 
 diligence and accuracy. But his facts are not always 
 lucidly expounded and co-ordinated, nor brought into 
 their necessary connection with the development of 
 the culture, the legislation, and the economic conditions 
 of Germany. 
 
 V. Cusumano, Le Scuole economiche della Germania 
 in rapporto alla questione sociale. Naples, 1875, 1 
 vol. 8vo. 
 
 Among those German economists who have been in 
 the main faithful to the new scientific bent given to 
 political economy by Adam Smith, and have expounded 
 his doctrines with breadth, learning and moderation, 
 the first place doubtless belongs to Karl Heinrich Rau 
 (died 1870). He was a professor in the university of 
 Heidelberg, and the author of a complete course of 
 political economy. This work was divided by him into 
 the three parts of national economy, economic politics, 
 and the science of finance. It is an encyclopaedia 
 of economic doctrines, being rich in statistical and
 
 188 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 bibliographical illustrations, and paying special attention 
 to the application of economics to the administration of 
 the State. Rau was gifted with qualities which enabled 
 him for many years to keep his work on a level with 
 the progress of the science. He had a solid mind, wide 
 culture, and an impartial judgment. His opinions 
 were moderate, his exposition orderly and clear ; and 
 he had a keen perception of the relation between theory 
 and practice. His work was used as a text-book in the 
 principal universities of Germany, and till 1854 it met 
 with no serious competition. Indeed many works which 
 were written before and after it were forgotten or 
 neglected in consequence, several of them being of some 
 merit. Such, for example, were those by Zachariii (1832), 
 by Riedel (1838-42), by Schmitthenner (1839 et seq.), 
 by Kudler (1846), by von Schuz (1846), and some others. 
 
 K. H. Rau, Lelirbucli der politischen Oekonomie, 1st 
 vol., Leipzig, 1826 (8th ed. 1868), 2nd vol., 1828 (5th 
 ed. 1862), 3rd vol., 1832 et seq. (5th ed. 1864). 
 
 Greater originality and more acute ability distinguish 
 some of Rau's contemporaries who illustrated certain 
 branches of economic and financial science in extensive 
 monographs. The principal of these are Nebenius and 
 Hoffmann, statesmen and administrators; von Thiinen, 
 a rich philanthropist ; and Hermann, a man of science 
 and a professor. 
 
 Nebenius, to whom honour is due for the active 
 part which he took in the negotiations concerning the 
 Zollverein, is the author of a famous monograph on 
 public loans. Notwithstanding the progress since made 
 in the analysis of the economic consequences of national 
 indebtedness, this is still the most learned and complete 
 work on the subject.
 
 vr.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 189 
 
 Nebenius, Der òffentliche Credit. Carlsruhe, 1820, 
 8vo. (2nd ed. 1st vol. 1829). 
 
 Hoffmann, the excellent director of the Statistical 
 Office at Berlin, was a no less acute thinker, besides 
 having wide administrative experience ; in some respects, 
 however, he is too much influenced by prejudices and 
 by his desire to defend Prussian institutions. Among 
 his economic works the best are those on money (1838) 
 and on taxes (1840). In the first he shows himself to 
 be one of the most decided champions of the single gold 
 standard system, the idea of which seemed quite absurd 
 in that country and at that time. 
 
 Count Johann Heinrich von Thiinen, an agriculturist 
 and economist, was a self-taught writer, standing alone 
 in his opinions. He treated the theories of the distribu- 
 tion of wealth, and more especially those of rent and 
 wages, with a wholly abstract method, partly similar to 
 that of Ricardo. His analysis of the influence that the 
 distance of the market exercises on methods of culture 
 may be considered as a most useful complement of the 
 doctrine of rent. But on the other hand, his theory of 
 natural wages is rendered impossible by the difficulty 
 of fixing with mathematical exactness the relative 
 importance of capital and labour in production. 
 
 J. H. v. Thiinen, Der isolirte Staat in Beziehuny auf 
 Landwirt/i scha/t und National - Oehmomie, 2nd ed. 
 Rostock, 1842-63, 4 vols. 8vo. 
 
 A still wider influence on the progress of economic 
 investigations was exercised by the Researches published 
 in 1832 by Friedrich Benedict Wilhelm Hermann (died 
 1869). He was an aide mathematician, a professor of 
 political economy, and later on drrector of the Royal 
 Statistical Office at .Monaco. Hermann chiefly turned
 
 190 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 his attention to determining the more general concep- 
 tions of the science, which he did with great critical 
 acumen, profoundness of doctrine and exactness of 
 method, far surpassing in his book the previous works of 
 Lotz, Huf eland, and many others. His analysis of the 
 theories of productiveness, capital, prices, rent, profits, 
 and consumption, has enriched the science with useful 
 demonstrations and important corrections which have 
 been very valuable to later economists. The fame of this 
 author, which some of his countrymen have declared to 
 be decreasing, will certainly last longer than that of 
 many of his detractors. His writings had an influence on 
 the researches of Helferich, Roscher, Schàffle, Mangoldt, 
 and Schmoller, which was too great and beneficial to be 
 soon forgotten. 
 
 F. B. W. v. Hermann, Staatswirtitschaftliche Unter- 
 suchungen, Munich, 1832. 8vo. (A 2nd edition, in great 
 part re-written, was published after the death of the 
 author in 1870.) 
 
 The above writers may be considered the successors 
 of Adam Smith's school, the opinions of which they 
 corrected and otherwise modified in several respects. 
 Their modifications were most frequent in relation to 
 administrative matters, the German economists gene- 
 rally giving larger scope to the action of the State. 
 There was another school of economists who were 
 animated by hostility to what they called English or 
 cosmopolitan economics, in opposition to which they 
 wished to create a national or German political economy. 
 
 Several publicists, aptly called romanticists by Roscher, 
 took up these reactionary theories, which had arisen 
 during the wars with the first Napoleon. They opposed 
 economic liberty in all its forms, and endeavoured to
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19tii CENTURY. 191 
 
 idealise the happy economic conditions promoted by 
 those feudal institutions which had disappeared with the 
 Revolution. The iirst place among the champions of 
 this school belongs to Friedrich Gentz, the friend of 
 Mettermeli, the Swiss Karl Ludwig von Haller, and 
 above all, to Adam Miiller. Similar ideas have bten 
 professed more recently, but with some modification, by 
 Kosegarten, Lavergne-Peguilhen, and some others. 
 
 We must not confound the reactionary economists 
 with the so-called social conservatives. These occupy 
 themselves especially with the condition of working men, 
 for the improvement of whom they advocate State inter- 
 vention, in opposition to the liberal school. Wagener, 
 the author of a political conservative dictionary, is one 
 of this school. Another is Professor V. A. Huber, the 
 unwearying promoter of co operative societies, and the 
 author of a great number of writings tending to pro- 
 pagate them. Podbertus (died 1876) was another, 
 whose researches into the economic antiquities of Porne 
 were marked by great acuteness. He was an oppo- 
 nent of the theory of rent, but not a very successful 
 one. Finally, there was R. Meyer, a journalist and the 
 author of a work which is remarkable for the abundance 
 of facts which it contains about what he calls the 
 struggle for the emancipation of the fourth estate. 
 
 P. Meyer, Ber Emanzi pationskami>f des vierten 
 Standes, 1874 et seq. 
 
 The protectionists form another group of opponents 
 to the doctrines of Adam Smith. They had most in- 
 fluence in Southern Germany, where new industries 
 which were only moderately flourishing demanded the 
 help of duties. They tried to modify the liberal polky 
 which hivd previously triumphed in Prussia as regards
 
 192 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 the Zollverein. Among German protectionists Friedrich 
 List is the most eminent for his originality, his patriot- 
 ism, and the excellence of some of his monographs. 
 He expounded his doctrine in an unfinished work en- 
 titled Das nationale System der politischen Oekonomie, 
 1st vol. 8vo., Stuttgart, 1841. List's system proclaimed 
 the temporary necessity of protectionism to help the 
 growth of important industries in Germany, and thus to 
 educate the nation at the cost of a momentary loss to 
 consumers. His system has some point of contact with 
 the ideas propounded under analogous conditions in the 
 United States, before the time of List by Alexander 
 Hamilton, and after his time by Carey. It met with 
 acceptance among practical men, journalists, and up to 
 a certain point among economists, and was not without 
 influence on the theories latterly professed with greater 
 breadth of view by the historic school. 
 
 The historic school can claim among contemporary 
 writers the three illustrious professors, Bruno Hilde- 
 brand of Jena, Wilhelm Roscher of Leipzig, and Karl 
 Knies of Heidelberg. 
 
 In an unfinished work, Die Nationalokonomie der 
 Gegenwart und Zukunft, 1st vol., Frankfort on the Main, 
 1848, Bruno Hildebrand (died 1878) has given an 
 extensive criticism of various economic systems, distin- 
 guishing what in his opinion is true in them from what 
 is false. His censures of Smith are exaggerated, but 
 in his objections to socialistic opinions he is nearly 
 always just. 
 
 Still greater reputation attaches to the name of 
 Roscher, the author of most excellent historical works, 
 and some interesting monographs on the corn trade, colo- 
 nies, manufacturing industry, luxury, tfcc. His greatest
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 193 
 
 work is a course of political economy, not yet finished, 
 which is one of the most remarkable economic treatises 
 of our time. 
 
 "W. Eoscher, System der Yolksicirthschaft, 1st vol., 
 Grundlagen der Nationcdokonomie, Stuttgart, 1854, 14th 
 ed., 1879. 2nd vol., Xalional-Oekonomik des Ackerbaues, 
 &c, 1860; 8th ed. 1875. 
 
 This work is devoted to the exposition of general 
 theories and their application to territorial industries. 
 Fundamentally, Eoscher is a moderate and sound fol- 
 lower of the doctrines of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, 
 von Thiinen, Hermann, and Mill. In his two volumes he 
 has gathered together valuable materials from classical 
 literature, from historical, geographical, and statistical 
 works, and from books of travel, to illustrate the various 
 phases of economic civilisation in nations, and to show 
 that legislation ought to take these varieties of culture 
 into account. Eoscher was completely successful in his 
 arguments with doctrinarians and idealists, who think 
 that the results of their abstract speculations can be 
 directly applied, without taking the circumstances of 
 time and place into consideration. He fell into an error 
 very like that into which the historic school in law had 
 fallen, denying the existence of general economic laws, 
 or at least underrating their importance. This led to 
 the profession by many of his pupils of immoderate 
 opinions which he himself had avoided, but which they 
 deduced from his theories. 
 
 A no less profound writer than Roscher, inferior to 
 him in historic learning, but his superior in legal know- 
 ledge, is Knies. He formulated with greater decision 
 the canons of the historic school in a book called Die 
 politische Oekunomie vom Stand j/unlcte der geschichtlichen 
 
 o
 
 194 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 Methode, Brunswick, 1853. The style of this work is 
 not very clear. Later on he illustrated in some capita] 
 monographs certain of the principal questions in the 
 doctrine of circulation, as those concerning railwaj-s 
 (1853), and telegraphs (1857), finally, and more fully, 
 those of money and credit, in the classical and still 
 unfinished work entitled Geld und Kredit ; 1st part, Das 
 Gdd, Berlin, 1873 ; 2nd part, Ber Kredit, 1876-79. 
 
 The progress of modern statistics has helped to 
 moderate a little the exclusiveness of some of the 
 partisans of the historic school and also the exaggerated 
 belief in the deductive method. This progress was 
 chiefly owing to Quetelet, Guerry, Dufau, and in Ger- 
 many itself to the illustrious Engel, WappHus, v. Oettin- 
 gen, and several others. The short but profound and 
 most excellent woi'ks of Riimelin are a model of the 
 true method to be followed in economic investigations. 
 They also bear witness to their author's lofty impar- 
 tiality in his criticism of the works of foreign classical 
 authors. 
 
 Gustav Riimelin, Reden und Atifsatze, Tubingen, 
 1875, 8vo. 
 
 A somewhat different line was taken by the followers 
 of the so-called liberal school, called by its adversaries, 
 not very appropriately, the Manchester school of Ger- 
 many. Composed for the most part of journalists and 
 publicists, this school was chiefly educated in economics 
 by the easy works of Say and Bastiat. It turned its 
 attention to legislative applications, and to bringing 
 about the triumph of complete liberty in commerce and 
 industry. The liberal economists formed the Society 
 of Political Economy in Berlin under the presidency 
 of Prince-Smith (died 1874); they organised yearly
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 195 
 
 congresses of economists to diffuse liberal ideas, and 
 founded in 1863 a three-monthly review of political 
 economy, Vierteljahrsscltrift filr Volhswirihschaft und 
 Cidturgeschichte. They also did a good work by their 
 agitation for the reform of the old restrictive laws on 
 the employment of labour, the limitation of interest, im- 
 prisonment for debt, working-men's dwellings, &c. They 
 promoted the reform and unification of the systems of 
 money, weights and measures, the organisation of bank- 
 ing, the abolition of protective duties, &c. Among others 
 of the school, Schulze-Delitzsch has acquired a great 
 reputation, not so much for his somewhat superficial 
 learning, as for his successful efforts towards the creation 
 of banks for the people, distributive and productive 
 societies, and other forms of co-operative association. 
 To the same group of economists belong Faucher, Braun, 
 Wolff, Michaelis, and Wirth, the author of a Course of 
 Political Economy which sums up the tendencies of the 
 school. It is perhaps still better represented in the 
 excellent dictionary of political economy edited by 
 Rentzsch, Handworterbuch der Yolksimrtltschaftslehre, 
 Leipzig, 1865. Again, other writers of the school are 
 distinguished for temperance of doctrine, and for their 
 ■unquestionable competence in certain special questions. 
 Ad. Soetbeer, Mill's translator — for many years secretary 
 to the Chambers of Commerce at Hamburg, and now 
 honorary professor at Gottingen — is the author of 
 several writings on the subject of money and the 
 urecious metals, favouring a single gold standard. V. 
 Bohmert, now Director of Statistics at Dresden, and 
 editor of the excellent periodical, Der Arbeiterfreund , has 
 written a very instructive book on the participation of 
 workmen in profits (1878). A. Emminghaus is the author 
 
 o 2
 
 196 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 of many excellent monographs, amorig -which is the 
 Economi/ of Manufactures (1868) praised above. All the 
 three last-mentioned authors avoided to a great extent 
 the extreme opinions of many other partisans of the 
 school, and their investigations were more profound. 
 
 A different standpoint is taken by other economists, 
 among whom may be numbered most of the professors of 
 economics in the German universities. Following in 
 the steps of the first writers of the historical and statis- 
 tical schools, they professed little faith in universal, or, 
 as some say, natural, laws. They believed only in his- 
 torical and relative laws, discovered by the inductive 
 method, and deduced from simple psychological and 
 abstract premisses. They doubted the omnipotence of 
 the principle of liberty and individual self government, 
 and assigned a large sphere to the modifying action of 
 the social power. Questions concerning the distribution 
 of wealth attracted their special attention, and they 
 endeavoured at least to help on the solution of the 
 "social question." They are distinguished by their 
 ability, their culture, their numbers, and their influence 
 on the cultivated classes. Their doctrines, tending to a 
 reconstruction of economic science, were given out in 
 a large number of special works, and in the best economic 
 reviews, such as the Zeitschrift fur die gesammte Siaats- 
 ivissenschaft, published every three months since 1844, 
 at Tubingen ; and the Jahrbiicher fur Nationalokonomie, 
 which has been issued every month at Jena since 1863. 
 Among the numerous polemical writings which express 
 the opinions of these economists, those of Wagner, 
 Schmoller, and von Scheel will suffice to give an idea 
 of the new doctrines. The not very appropriate name 
 of professorial socialists (Catheder-SociaHsten) has been
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IX THE 19th CENTURY. 197 
 
 given to the followers of the school by their opponents, 
 because they supported the principle of authority. 
 
 Ad. Wagner, Rede ilber die sociale Frage, Berlin, 
 1872. 
 
 H. v. Scheel, Die Theorie der socialen Frage, Jena,. 
 1871. 
 
 G. Schmoller, Ueber einige Grundfragen des Rechts 
 und der Volkswirthschaft, Jena, 1875. 
 
 Schmoller was answered from tho liberal standpoint, 
 and with many good observations of a partial nature, by 
 the distinguished publicist, 
 
 H. v. Treitschke, Der Socialismus und seine Conner, 
 Berlin, 1875. 
 
 Friedrich Albrecht Lange (died 1876) shows still 
 more divergent tendencies, and even agrees on many 
 points with the true socialists. This can be seen from 
 his book, Die Arbeiterfrage (3rd ed., Winterthur, 1875), 
 which abounds in acute and important discussions. 
 
 The most important work of the new school is the 
 Course of Political Economy, by Professor Adolf Wagner 
 of Berlin, consisting in a new edition, piepared with 
 the help of Nasse, of Bau's Course, which had become 
 somewhat out of date. Next in importance is an origi- 
 nal work of Wagner's, of which two volumes have been 
 published. From these may be gathered the importance 
 of the book, and its merits, both in the substance, the 
 arrangement of material, and the manner of exposition. 
 These so-called professorial socialists had no difficulty 
 in overcoming the arguments of certain weak economists 
 who wished to reproduce in Germany the doctrines of 
 iiastiat, and of liberalism at any price. Consequently, 
 they deceived themselves as to the originality and 
 importance of their discoveries. They confounded
 
 193 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 economics with morals and law, under pretext of better 
 harmonising their results. They did not distinguish 
 theories, which are for the most part general, from appli- 
 cations, which are always contingent. They, and especi- 
 ally Brentano, exaggerated the importance of induction. 
 For the gradual and peaceful evolution of political 
 economy they wished to substitute a revolution, which 
 they justified by an undeservedly severe condemnation 
 of the defects and errors of the classical economists, and 
 especially those of England and France. They started 
 from the false supposition that the scientific progress of 
 other nations at the present time is almost nothing 
 in comparison with the acquisitions of the science in 
 Germany. 
 
 To other economists, who cannot be enumerated here, 
 we owe important monographs. Among those of which 
 the merits have been most thoroughly tested are the 
 works of Professors Hanssen and Helferich. Umpfen- 
 bach, Laspeyres, Dietzel, Lexis, and some other writers 
 have not directly taken part in the fierce controversies 
 between the so-called professorial socialists (Wagner, 
 Engel, Schmoller, v. Scheel, Brentano, Held, Schonberg, 
 etc.), and the so-called German Manchester school. 
 Wagner himself and Nasse are specialists of the first 
 class in matters of credit and banking. 
 
 Lorenz Stein, a professor in the University of 
 Vienna, is entitled to special mention as the author of 
 profound and original works, chiefly on the sciences of 
 administration and finance. Though they are not free 
 from defects, and are in general somewhat too abstract, 
 they have several good qualities. 
 
 A. E. F. Schaffle, a journalist, professor, and for a 
 .short time Minister of Commerce at Vienna, published,
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 199 
 
 at the same time with some good special works, a course 
 of political economy. It is very remarkable for rich- 
 ness and variety of observation, for its original develop- 
 ment of the conception which distinguishes general 
 from particular economics, and for its other merits 
 These are, howevex*, rather thx'own into the backgxxmnd 
 by the inequality of the style, which is sometimes 
 simple and popular, sometimes too abstract, and spoiled 
 by philosophical mannerism. 
 
 A. E. F. Schaffle, Das gesellschaftliche System der 
 menschlichen Wirthschaft. 3rd ed., Tubingen, 1873, 2 
 vols. 8vx>. 
 
 A recent economic compendium by Professor H. 
 Bischof, of Gx'az, will serve to give a conception 
 of Schàftìe' s ideas, &nd of his manner of expounding 
 and ax'X'anging the fundamental principles of the 
 science. 
 
 H. Bischof, Grundzihge eines Systemes der Xational- 
 òkonomik. Graz, 1874-6, 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 In connection with this it will be well to mention a 
 vex*y x-ecent sketch published by Professor Held, of 
 Bonn, which, though rather more temperate and prudent, 
 is in agreement with the principles of the professox*ial 
 socialists. 
 
 Ad. Held, Grundriss fur Vorlesungen iiber National- 
 okonomie, Bonn, 1876, 8vo. (2nd ed. 1878). 
 
 Professor H. v. Mangoldt (died 1868) was an acute 
 thinkex', with a well-balanced mind, full of sound, 
 vax-ied, and profound culture. He wrote a short but 
 precise and corx-ect compendium, and then published 
 the first volume of a larger wox-k, which is, most 
 unfortunately, imperfect. It only comprehends the 
 doctrines of production and distribution. Excepting the
 
 200 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 authoi''s ei'roneous ideas about rent, these works are 
 among the best, the most temperate and sober of all that 
 have been published in Germany. He confounded rent 
 with returns on monopolies, an idea which is considered 
 an important discovery by several economists of merit 
 even in France (Boutron), and in Italy (Arrivabene, 
 Lampertico, and Toniolo). In reality, it is an equivo- 
 cation not far removed from that which characterises 
 the ideas of Carey and Bastiat on the same subject. 
 
 H. v. Mangoldt, Grundriss der Volksivirthsc/taftslehre, 
 Stuttgart, 1863, 8vo. (2nd ed., prepared by F. Klein- 
 wiich ter, 1871); Volkswirthschaftslehre, 1st vol., Stutt- 
 gart, 18G8, 8vo. 
 
 The eminent position now occupied by Germany in 
 the progress of economic studies demands from the 
 economists of other countries a patient study of German 
 works. Profound investigation, accurate historical and 
 statistical research, the number and merit of their 
 educational writings, their precise determination of 
 fundamental principles, their separation of economics 
 from the administrative and financial sciences, have 
 gained for them this position. Works of great im- 
 portance, and showing immense industry and careful- 
 ness, have been written by Mohl and Stein on adminis- 
 tration, and by Bau, Malchus, Nebenius, Hoffmann, 
 Stein, Hock, Wagner, Vocke, and several others, on 
 finance. But it cannot be denied that the German 
 economists have many grave defects. They exaggerate 
 their own importance in comparison with the economists 
 of England, France, and Italy. They are too subtle, 
 and sometimes even sophisticated or pedantic, in 
 doctrinal controversies. Again, their stj'le is usually 
 neither clear nor elegant. We must, however, regard
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 201 
 
 as ridiculous the arrogant contempt for these economists 
 which is professed by many who are not capable of 
 understanding or appreciating their writings. Equally 
 mistaken is the blind admiration of a few Italian 
 writers who wish to reproduce exactly in their own 
 country doctrines which requh'e many corrections and 
 additions. 
 
 § 4. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland. 
 
 In the Netherlands there has been no abatement in the 
 old enthusiasm for the study of economic questions, and 
 especially of those relating to commerce, credit, and 
 colonies. Eminent statesmen, like Thorbecke, were 
 also distinguished economists. In the small but 
 flourishing Universities of Leyden, Utrecht, and 
 Grbningen, economics have been zealously taught by 
 Tydemann, Yissering, Ackersdijk, later by v. Rees 
 (died 1868), and at the present time by d'Aulnis dal 
 Greven and by Tellegen. Popular compendiums like 
 that of de Bruyn Kops have not been so numerous as 
 careful monographs. These are often written by 
 university students on the occasion of their examina- 
 tion for degrees, under the superintendence of professors 
 who suggest themes and indicate the best sources. 
 Among contemporary Dutch economists, besides those 
 already mentioned, there are van Ilouten, Baert, van 
 Voorthuysen, Verloren, Fokker, Buys, van Hall, &c. &c. 
 Yissering, the Minister of Finance, an excellent writer, 
 is the author of various essays and of a manual of 
 applied political economy. This work is clear, well- 
 arranged, and full of information concerning Dutch legis- 
 lation. Professor Pierson, of Amsterdam, has published 
 excellent monographs on the definition of wealth, on
 
 202 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 rent, woges, value, money, banking, the course of the 
 exchanges, and colonies. He is also the author of a 
 very good elementary economic treatise intended for 
 the purpose of industrial and professional education. 
 
 S. Vissering, Handboeck van pr adiscile Staathuishoud - 
 kunde. 4th ed. Amsterdam, 1878, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 1ST. G. Pierson, Grondbeginselen der Staathuishoud - 
 kunde. 2nd part. Haarlem, 1875-76, 8vo. 
 
 But the best living economist of Holland is the 
 illustrious president of the Bank of the Netherlands, a 
 specialist of the highest order in matters relating to 
 money and credit. He is the author of a history of 
 ancient banks of deposit in his own country (1838); of 
 some excellent monographs on the work of charitable 
 institutions (1844), and on the monetary standard 
 (1869) ; and more recently of a sober, profound, and 
 accurate treatise illustrative of the theories of pro- 
 duction, distribution, and international exchange. 
 
 "W. C. Mees, Overzicht van eenige Hoofdstukken 
 der Staathuishoudkunde. Amsterdam, 1866, one vol. 
 8vo. 
 
 A good example of the industry of the Dutch econo- 
 mists may be seen in the interesting articles con- 
 tained in two monthly reviews, De Economist, and 
 De Gids, the first of a special, the other of a general, 
 character. 
 
 In Belgium, too, economic knowledge has been culti- 
 vated, though with less profundity. In the legal 
 faculties (Ghent, Liége, Brussels, Louvain), and in 
 other educational institutions, economics were taught, 
 and often by men of distinction like Brasseur, Périn, Do 
 Molinari, and De Laveleye, the authors of works which 
 are excellent in many respects. In an unfinished economic 

 
 Vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 203 
 
 Manual (Ghent, 1860-62, 2 vols.), Brasseur has de- 
 veloped, with much learning and clearness, but without 
 much originality, the theories of production and circula- 
 tion. Périn (De la richesse dans ìes sociétés chrétiennes, 
 2nd ed., Paris, 1868, three vols. 18mo.) treats of the re- 
 lations between economics and religion. De Molinari, a 
 brilliant writer and journalist, is competent in certain 
 special questions, but on the subjects of credit and 
 government intervention his opinions are somewhat 
 eccentric (Cours d'economie politique, Paris, 1855-63, 2 
 vols. 8vo; Questions d'economie politique, Brussels, 1861, 
 2 vols. 8vo.). De Laveleye, a publicist and an elegant 
 writer, is the author of articles and monographs which 
 have a good deal of popularity. He is now professor at 
 Liege, and of late he has inclined to the opinions of 
 the so-called professorial socialists. His writings on 
 free trade, on agriculture in Switzerland and in Belgium, 
 on monetary questions, and especially the volume on 
 Primitive Property (1874), are worth studying carefully. 
 They contain information and observations which are 
 very useful even to those who do not share the opinions 
 of the author. 
 
 There are also other writers of interest in the same 
 country. Jobard is an advocate of eccentric views on 
 what is called industrial and literary property. Frère 
 Orban, a statesman, is specially competent in banking 
 matters, and recently defended the single monetary 
 standard (1874), against Wolowski and De Laveleye. 
 Vischers and Duepétiaux are the authors of a number 
 of interesting writings on questions relating to working 
 men and to provident and charitable institutions. 
 L 'Economiste belge, edited by de Molinari, published in 
 a collected form for several years the special works ci
 
 204 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [CHAP. 
 
 learned Belgians >vhich now appear in the Revue de 
 Belgique. 
 
 Switzerland, and especially the French part of the 
 country, is not wanting in economists, and there are 
 professorships of economics in the faculties of law at 
 the Polytechnic School of Zurich. At one time there 
 were some excellent economists working on the economic 
 part of the Bihliot/tèqice univer selle, now being published 
 at Geneva. Among living authors of monographs 
 specially relating to questions of the day, the writings 
 of Feer-Herzog on money are particularly good. Naville 
 is the author of a somewhat rigid and severe classical 
 work, in which the defects of legal charity are pointed out. 
 But the two most eminent economists of Switzerland 
 are Sismondi and Cherbuliez. 
 
 G.-C.-L. Sismonde de Sismondi (died 1842) expounded 
 Adam Smith's theories in his book, Be la richesse com- 
 merciale (Geneva, 1803, 2 vols. 8vo). In another work, 
 Nouveaux p T ^ nG W es d'economie politique (Paris, 1819, 
 2nd ed. 1827, 2 vols. 8vo), he took a separate line. 
 Alarmed at the dangers which accompany economic pro- 
 gress, and caring much for the well-being of the working 
 classes, he attacked the division of labour, machinery, 
 and competition. Without making any decided pro- 
 posals, he framed the premisses from which socialism 
 afterwards deduced pernicious consequences. In his 
 Etudes sur l'economie j)olitique (Paris, 1837-38, 2 vols. 
 8vo.) he gathered together some monographs on agricul- 
 ture, manufactures, the balance between production and 
 consumption, commerce, colonies, slavery, etc. 
 
 Superior to Sismondi both as a publicist and ae an 
 economist, though less popular, was the Genevese writer 
 Antoine-Élise Cherbuliez (died 1869), the author of
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 205 
 
 many economic writings, published in the Journal des 
 Economises, in the Biblioihèque univer selle, in the Dic- 
 tioimaire de l' economie politique, and separately. In his 
 Études sur les causes de la misere (Paris, 1852, 12mo.), he 
 urges that the wealthier classes should help to raise the 
 others by economic and moral protection. But his most 
 important work is the Precis de la science économique 
 (Paris, 1862, 2 vols. 8vo), which is certainly the best 
 tieatise on economic science in the French language. 
 The exactness of method, the profundity of investiga- 
 tion, the order and clearness of exposition displayed 
 in this work are most admirable, as well as the clear- 
 ness with which the pure science, the applied science, 
 and administrative economics are kept distinct from 
 one another. It is impossible to recommend the 
 book enough to those who wish to study the economic 
 sciences deeply. 
 
 § 5. Spain and Portugal. 
 
 The instability of government, the administrative, 
 economic, and financial disorder, the many obstacles to 
 the diffusion of science in general, and the want of 
 originality in the writers on social science, who nearly 
 always imitate French books, suffice perhaps to explain 
 the comparatively small importance of contemporary 
 Spanish and Portuguese writers, paiticularly of those 
 who wrote before 1848. 
 
 We may say of the Spanish compendiums that, though 
 without striking defects, they show neither breadth nor 
 profundity of doctrine, neither acuteness of criticism 
 nor exactness of method. Among these may be cited the 
 Elementcs of Vallesantoro (1829), the Tratado (1831)
 
 206 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 of Espinosa de los Monteros, the Principles of Pazo y 
 Degalgado (1840), the Compendia of Gazquez Rubi 
 (1856), the Mementos of Rubio y Dorado (1873), and 
 these of Aller (187-1). The book of this kind which is 
 now most widely adopted in schools, and which is indeed 
 not without merit, is the Filosofia del interés yxrsonal, 
 (Madrid, 1865, 2nd ed. 1874) by Professor Mariano 
 Carreras y Gonzales. 
 
 Larger treatises have been published by Florez 
 Estrada, who has expounded, with occasional originality, 
 the theories of Adam Smith, Malthus, and Ricardo. 
 He is also the author of a work (Curso de economia poli- 
 tica, Paris, 1831, 2 vols. 8vo., 6th ed. 1848), which was 
 translated into French, and was for some time popular 
 both in Spain and other countries. 
 
 E. M. del Valle {Curso de economia polii., Madrid, 
 1842) and A. Borrego {Principios de economia polit., 
 Madrid, 1844) are writers of rather less reputation. 
 Prof. M. Colmeiro, better known as a writer on adminis- 
 trative law, and as the historian of economics in Spain, 
 was at first an ardent protectionist. He is the author 
 of a Tratado dementar de economia politica eclectica, 
 (Madrid, 1844-45, 2 vols.), which he afterwards sum- 
 med up in his Principios de econ. polit. (Madrid, 1865, 
 2nd ed.), which was written after he had become favour- 
 able to free trade. B. Carballo y Wanguemert (died 
 1844) has expounded ideas which are wider and more in 
 accordance with received theories in his Curso de eco- 
 nomia politica (Madrid, 1855-56, 2 vols. 8vo). And 
 lastly, Prof. S. D. Madrazo, of the University of 
 Madrid, published a still longer work (Lecciones de 
 econ. polit., Madrid, 1874-76, 3 vols. 4to). 
 
 Among authors of special works may be noted the
 
 vi.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 207 
 
 numerous defenders of free trade, as, for example, San- 
 romà, Figuerola, Bona y Ureta, Ochoa, &c, who wrote 
 on that subject in the review Gaceta economista ; and a 
 large number of financial writers, as Canga y Arguelles, 
 the author of a brief summary ■(Mementos de lacier:,, 
 de hacienda, 1833), and of a large dictionary (Dizio- 
 nario de hacienda, London, 1826-27, 5 vols.), Conde 
 (Examen de la hacienda publico, de Espana, 1853), and 
 Lopez Narvaez, who wrote a somewhat superficial treatise, 
 Tratado de hacienda publico, (1856) ; L. Maria Pastor 
 (died 1872), the author of some good treatises on tax- 
 ation and on credit (Filosofia del credito, Madrid, 1858, 
 2nd ed.), and of an excellent history of public debt in 
 Spain (Historia de la deuda publico espanola, Madrid, 
 1863). 
 
 Still more recently a treatise by Piernas y Hurtado, 
 and by De Miranda y Eguia (Manual de instituciones de 
 hacienda publico espanola, 2nd ed., Madrid, 1875), has 
 appeared, containing much information on the history 
 and present organisation of Spanish finance, and another, 
 more brief, by F. Lozano y Montes (Compendio de, 
 hacienda publico, Madrid, 1876). 
 
 Among the monographs concerning other points of 
 political economy, there is a most interesting history of 
 Spanish banks by P. Santillan (Historia sobre los Bo 
 &c, Madrid, 1865, 2 vols. 4to.), and an essay on landed 
 property in Spain by De Cardenas (Ensayo sobre la 
 historia de la propriedad territorial en Espana, Madrid, 
 1873-75, 2 vols. 4to.). The superficialities of the Spanish 
 economists and their almost entire ignorance of any 
 other than Spanish and French books make the econo- 
 mic interest of their work centre upon such writings as 
 these, in which the economic institutions of their
 
 208 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [char 
 
 country are historically described and criticised with 
 special competence. 
 
 The state of things in Portugal was even less favour- 
 able to economic science than in Spain. After 1803 
 Rodriguez de Brito proposed that it should be taught in 
 the faculty of law. But the proposal was not taken up, 
 as public opinion was decidedly against it, having been 
 for a long time under the influence of the restrictive 
 system which had been inaugurated in the previous 
 century by the Marchese di Pombal. We learn this fact 
 from José Accursio clas Neves, the author of some good 
 pamphlets (Variedades score objectos relativos as artes, 
 commercio e manufacttiras, &c, 1814 et seq.). 
 
 The first Portuguese compendium of political economy, 
 the greater part of which is taken from the works of 
 Tracy and Storch, was written by José Ferreira-Borges 
 (Instituicòes de econ.polit., Lisbon, 1834). Others have 
 appeared since, as the Preleccòes of Ag. Alb. da Silveira- 
 Pinto (Oporto, 1838), the Nocòes elementares of Ant. 
 d Oliveira-Marreca (Lisbon, 1838), and a very short 
 French compendium by Pinheiro-Ferreira (Precis d'un 
 cours d'écon. polit., Paris, 1840, 12mo.). 
 
 A chair of economics having been founded at the 
 University of Coimbra iu 1836, it was given to Professor 
 Adriano Pereira Forjaz de Sampajo. He published a 
 compendium, the first edition (1839) being formed on 
 the model of Say's Catechism, and the second (1841) on 
 that of Rau's Treatise. It was much enlarged in later 
 editions, and especially in the fifth. Though written 
 with very little originality, and simply folllowing the 
 French writers, it became the text- book of the Univer- 
 sity, and caused earlier compilations to be forgotten. 
 
 A. Pereira Forjaz de Sampajo, Novos elementos de
 
 VI.] POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 19th CENTURY. 209 
 
 economia politica e estadistica (Coimbra, 1858-59, 3 
 vols. 8vo.) 
 
 Later on the public teaching of the science of finance 
 was introduced, which occasioned the publication of 
 two financial works. One was the Estudos financeiros 
 of Mendonga Cortez, also a professor at Coimbra ; the 
 other the Introduccào a sciencia das financas of Carnido 
 de Figueiredo (Coimbra, 1874). 
 
 Among the monographs we may record that by Morato 
 Roma on money {De la monnaie, Lisbon, 1861), Serze- 
 dello's work on banks (Os bancos, &c, Lisbon, 1867), 
 and that by the Visconte di Benalcanfor on the Vienna 
 Exhibition [Vienna e a Exposicao, Lisbon, 1874).
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 
 
 The economic works published in Italy during the 
 present century are not so interesting historically as 
 those of the last century. But we may say without 
 exaggeration that the science can boast of some distin- 
 guished Italian contemporaries, whose names demand at 
 least a passing mention. 
 
 The progress of the science has necessarily been 
 chai*acterised by the political conditions of the various 
 provinces of the peninsula. We may therefore con- 
 veniently divide our present account into four distinct 
 periods. 
 
 § 1. 1796-1830. 
 
 The progress of economic science during the first 
 thirty years of the nineteenth century was kept back by 
 various circumstances. These were : — The mistrust of 
 government ; the deficiencies in public instruction ; the 
 difficult relations existing between the various Italian 
 States, and between them and other countries. 
 
 There were, however, excellent writers who struggled 
 courageously with the difficulties of the time, and proved
 
 cu. vii.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 211 
 
 themselves competent to join in economic controversies. 
 The important collection of the Scrittori classici italiani 
 di economia politica was made by the diligent Baron 
 Pietro Custodi, subsidised by the government of the 
 Italian Republic, and later by that of the kingdom of 
 Italy. It was published at Milan between 1802 and 
 1816, and contains a large number of works belonging 
 to the second half of the previous century, and of 
 earlier works which had been more or less forgotten. 
 
 After the fall of the kingdom of Italy several 
 economic writings were printed from time to time in 
 reviews and academic collections ; among which it 
 will be enough to mention the following : — The Biblio- 
 teca italiana of Milan (from 1816 onwards) ; the Con- 
 ciliatore (Milan, 1818-19), which was soon suppressed 
 by Austrian policy; the Atti dell' Accademia dei Geor- 
 gqfili, and the Antologia of Florence. The two last 
 works vigorously defended the principles of economic 
 liberty against the protectionist ideas taught in the 
 schools and supported by Gioja. 
 
 Longer elementary treatises and compendiums, which 
 were more or less in agreement with the theories of 
 Adam Smith-and Say, succeeded one another at intervals. 
 The first to appear was a volume by the Neapolitan 
 jrofessor, Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi (1813). Then 
 came the long and not very thoughtful works of Carlo 
 Bosellini (died 1827), a native of Modena, and of 
 Adeodato Ressi, of Romagna, a professor in the Univer- 
 sity of Pavia (died 1822). Better arranged are the 
 scholastic works of two Sicilian professors, Ignazio 
 Sanfilippo, of the University of Palei'mo, and Salvatore 
 Scurleri, of the University of Catania, both protectionists. 
 
 The Nuovo Prospetto delle Scienze economiche (Series I., 
 
 p 2
 
 212 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [cuw. 
 
 Teorie, Milan, 1815-1817, G vols. 4to.), by Melchiorre 
 Gioja, of Piacenza, is superior to all the foregoing works. 
 The illustrious author had proposed to himself to sum 
 up in a treatise on economics, finance, and administration 
 all that had been written and thought on these subjects. 
 As it is, in the volumes which have appeared he has 
 illustrated with much learning the principal doctrines of 
 political economy. The judgment with which he com- 
 pares the opinions of celebrated writers is not always 
 just or impartial, and his method is not adapted to 
 make the science, attractive or to recommend its results. 
 Again, he is often not successful in his arguments against 
 Adam Smith and Say. And though he has cleared up 
 certain special doctrines by original observations, we 
 must set against this his mistaken apology for the 
 restrictive system. 
 
 Although they have not published any general 
 economic works, the following writers deserve special 
 attention. 
 
 Luigi Molinari Valeriani (died 1828), a professor at 
 Bologna, wrote some excellent works, though obscure 
 and careless in style, in which he specially illustrated 
 the theories of value, price, money, and the exchanges, 
 and also showed the close relations which exist between 
 economics and jurisprudence. 
 
 The Tuscan author Giovanni Fabbroni (died 1822) 
 wrote interesting monographs, the most important being 
 those defending liberty in the corn-trade. They were 
 collected in two volumes (Florence, 1847-48). 
 
 Francesco Fuoco (died 1810), a Neapolitan, who had 
 an eventful life, wrote some profound essays, Sàggi 
 economici (Pisa, 1825-27). At first they did not receive 
 much attention, but later on they were praised in
 
 vii.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 213 
 
 Germany by Mohl, and they are really remarkable for 
 the acute observations on certain abstract points of 
 doctrine which they contain. Fuoco was one of the 
 first to point out the importance of Ricardo' s theory of 
 land rent. 
 
 Paolo Balsamo (died 181 G), a Sicilian, was a brave 
 patriot, an agriculturist, and an economist. In the 
 University of Palermo he taught the doctrines of Adam 
 Smith, and attacked with constant pertinacity the anti- 
 economic institutions which still existed in his country. 
 In Piedmont, Count Prospero Balbo (died 1837) 
 proposed to found a chair of political economy in the 
 University of Turin, but this was prevented by the 
 events of 1821. Two other Piedmontese writers were 
 Giuseppe Cridis and Francesco Gambini of Asti. In 
 Lombardy and Venetia there were Bacchetti, Ridolfi, 
 de Carli, and de Welz of Como, the author of a para- 
 doxical book called the Magia del credito (1824, two 
 vols.). In Tuscany there were Targioni, Capponi, 
 Ricci, Ridolfi, &c. In Romagna the works of Mon- 
 signor Poalo Vergani, Count Marco Fantuzzi, Abbot 
 Nicola Maria Nicolai, and a number of memorie in the 
 Giornale arcadico (1819 et seq.), are noteworthy. At 
 Naples, Marulli, Winspeare, and Lodovico Bianchini, 
 in some of his early writings, kept alive the interest 
 in the science of Galiani and Genovesi. Finally, in 
 Sicily, among numerous partial and occasional writings, 
 Niccolò Palmeri's (died 1837) Saggio delle cause e dei 
 rimedi delle angustie attuali dell' economia agraria della 
 Sicilia (Palermo, 1826) is particularly interesting. 
 In this essay the author attacks with much vigour 
 the restrictive theories which then predominated in 
 legislation and instruction.
 
 214 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 § 2. 1831-1848. 
 
 Although the political condition of Italy had not 
 changed, or had changed very little, in the fifteen years 
 which preceded 1848, some progress in the study of 
 economics was made, chiefly at Milan and Naples. 
 
 At Milan the Annali universali di statistica were 
 started in 1824 by Custodi, Gioja, and Roinagnosi. 
 After Gioja's death, Romagnosi (died 1835) became the 
 moving spirit of the economic department of this 
 periodical. His writings and conversation educated a 
 number of men who have since rendered useful service 
 to the social sciences. Among these may be cited 
 Carlo Cattaneo, Cesare Correnti, and Giuseppe Sacchi, 
 the last of whom directed the Annali until their cessa- 
 tion in 1871, warmly advocating the principles of free 
 trade. 
 
 At Naples Lodovico Bianchini started a review called 
 Il Progresso (1832-46, forty vols.), which contains 
 numerous writings by young economists. The most 
 distinguished of them are Carlo Mele, M. de Augustinis, 
 Baron G. Durini, P. S. Mancini, and some others, all 
 having liberal principles. 
 
 In other countries the reputation of Italian econo- 
 mists was kept up by several illustrious exiles ; for 
 example, the Neapolitan Chibti, and the still more able 
 Mantuan Count, Giovanni Arrivabene, the Nestor of 
 living Italian publicists. Pellegrino Rossi of Carrara, 
 the distinguished criminalist, was invited to Paris to 
 occupy the chair left vacant by G. B. Say. He gave 
 there, not without opposition at first, lectures on eco- 
 nomics, which were brilliant if not original, popularising
 
 V'ir.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 215 
 
 the doctrines of Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, MacCulloch, 
 and Senior. 
 
 In the Congressi degli Scienziati (1839-4G) economic 
 investigation made advances, overcoming not a few- 
 obstacles. In what were innocently called the Sezioni 
 di agronomia and tecnologia questions were specially 
 discussed relating to food, agriculture, savings-banks, 
 beneficient institutions, railways, &c. 
 
 Among the economists of this period Eomagnosi 
 stands first. During the last unfortunate years of his 
 life he occupied himself with economic investigations, 
 dealing chiefly with general subjects, such as : the 
 point of view, the arrangement, and the definition of 
 economic science ; its relations with jurisprudence ; the 
 conditions, advantages, and limits of economic liberty 
 in many of its applications ; and the theory of 
 population — about which he fell into grave errors. 
 
 The Milanese writer, Carlo Cattaneo, was inferior in 
 doctrine to Romagnosi, but his style is far more power- 
 ful. In the Politecnico, which he edited, he treated 
 with much discretion economic questions in their rela- 
 tion to practical needs. He had a special interest in 
 questions connected with rural legislation and with free 
 trade, which he ardently defended, combating, among 
 other arguments, the specious sophisms of the German 
 protectionist, Friedrich List. 
 
 In 1840 a young Neapolitan, Antonio Scialoja, of Pro- 
 cida, attempted, in a work entitled Principìi a" economia 
 sociale, to connect with a good philsopbical basis the 
 more general economic doctrines. He well deserved 
 his appointment to the chair of Political Economy, which 
 had been restored in 1846, at the University of Turin. 
 Here he taught for a year, and would no doubt have
 
 216 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 written economic works later on, as was hoped, if the 
 cares of State had not deprived him of sufficient strength 
 and leisure. 
 
 But the fame of Romagnosi, Rossi, Cattaneo, and 
 Scialoja must not make us forget other most meritorious 
 writers on economics. Count Carlo Ilarione Petitti di 
 Roreto (died 1850) treated with great profoundness the 
 subjects of public poor-relief, the labour of women, and 
 lotteries ; he attempted also to cope with the new and 
 hazardous theme of railways. Giovanetti, a lawyer of 
 Novara, and, like Petitti, a contributor to the Annali 
 di statistica, opposed the grist tax and the duties on 
 the production of raw silk. Count G. B. Michelini 
 wrote chiefly on forest legislation ; and Count R. G. 
 di Salmour illustrated with much learning the subject 
 of landed and agrarian credit (1845). 
 
 In Lombardy Andrea Zambelli gave forth from the 
 chair of Pavia, as in Venetia Cristoforo Negri did from 
 that of Padua, the sound doctrines of the masters of 
 the science. In the same province Baldassare Poli 
 compared with much precision and clearness the prin- 
 ciples of various schools ; Pio Magenta wrote on charit- 
 able institutions from the administrative point of view ; 
 and Francesco Restelli treated of the influence of 
 industrial and commercial associations on public pros- 
 perity, this subject having been suggested by the Lom- 
 bardian Institute of Science. In the Venetian provinces 
 we may note some writings by Bernardi, Casarini, and 
 Zennari on public poor- relief, by Tolomei on the sub- 
 jection of pasture-land, by Meguscher (a Tyrolese) on 
 forests, and a few others. 
 
 In Tuscany the Accademia dei Georgofili kept up with 
 frequent lectures the zeal for economic studies and the
 
 vir.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 217 
 
 Leopoldine traditions. In the Romagna too there was 
 no lack of economists, especially among the writers in 
 the Giornale Arcadico, which had for a long time a well- 
 deserved reputation. It will be enough to mention 
 Cardinal Luigi Monchini, who gave a very good account 
 of the management of beneficent institutions in the 
 city of Rome, with complete statistical information, 
 and the Abbot Marco Mastro fini, whose theological- 
 legal economic book on Usury (1831), though intended 
 to settle the ancient controversies, really served to 
 excite their renewal. But the book was soon forgotten. 
 
 At Naples the vivacious and imaginative intellects of 
 the publicists were exercised in economic and financial 
 controversies, occasioned by various questions of the day, 
 such as those relating to sulphur, to the shipping-trade 
 between the provinces of the mainland and Sicily, free 
 ports, duties on books, the Tavoliere di Puglia, 1 and 
 the conversion of rent. Among the many writings 
 published on these subjects there are several which 
 present a general interest. 
 
 In Sicily the Giornale dell' Ufficio di Statistica, edited 
 since 1848 by Francesco Ferrara, with the help of able 
 coadjutors, became the centre of studies which prove 
 that wider ideas and the doctrines of commercial liberty 
 had gained ground there. 
 
 § 3. 1849-1858. 
 
 The vicissitudes of 1848 and the political reaction 
 which followed them in most parts of Italy brought 
 together at Turin, among a number of other emigrants, 
 
 1 The Tavoliere di Puglia is the name of some landed property 
 
 of the State in the Neapolitan provinces.
 
 21S STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 several economists who wrote chiefly in reviews. La 
 Rivista contemporanea, which appeared between 1853 
 and 1869, contained a good many writings on economic 
 subjects. 
 
 The highest position among the Italian economists 
 of this period was held by the Sicilian, Francesco 
 Ferrara, a professor at the University of Turin from 
 1849 to 1858. He was a writer of remai-kable ability 
 and of great power in criticism, especially negative 
 criticism. He was widely read in English and French 
 works, and was indefatigable in impartial investigation 
 as to the origin of the science. He also showed great 
 diligence and sagacity in his editorship of the Biblio- 
 teca dell' Economista, which is a rich collection of general 
 and special economic works, such as the literature of 
 no other nation can boast of. His brilliant style, easy 
 and incisive language, and passionate ardour in contro- 
 versy gained a school of followers for him in a very 
 few years. In this school were educated, directly or 
 indirectly, the greater number of professors now 
 teaching in Italy. Ferrara's influence was to a great 
 extent most useful, and would have been more so if 
 he had not helped to diffuse error at the same time 
 with truth. He shared the paradoxical opinions of 
 Carey and Bastiat with regard to value and rent, and 
 he believed that all the problems of economic legis- 
 lation were to be solved by the merely negative prin- 
 ciple of laisser-faire, interpreted and applied in a manner 
 far from agreeing with the ideas of Adam Smith. 
 
 There was no want of general treatises in this period, 
 among which are those by Giacomo Savarese (1848), 
 unfinished; one less known by Trinci (1858); the 
 Corso of Trincherà (1S52), a Neapolitan, formed on the
 
 VII.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 219 
 
 model of Rossi's, and the Discorsi of Marescotti (1853- 
 56). Shorter compendiums were multiplied, such as 
 those by Meneghini (1851), Rusconi (1852), the above- 
 mentioned Trincherà (1855), and De Luca (1852); and, 
 superior to all the others, the Trattato teorico-pratico di 
 economia politica, by the young Genoese, Gerolamo 
 Boccardo (Turin, • 1853, three vols. 12mo., reprinted 
 several times). Boccardo is a disciple of Ferrara, 
 an admirer of Bastiat, and a clear, simple, and pleasant 
 writer of great diligence. Some years after the appear- 
 ance of the Trattato he published a voluminous Dizio- 
 nario (1857 et seq.), comprehending all branches of 
 economic doctrine. It is formed on the model of 
 Coquelin and Guillaumin's French dictionary. 
 
 In Lombai dy a number of students of economic science 
 published the Crepuscolo, a liberal review, which was 
 suppressed in 1857. It was contributed to by Correnti, 
 Broglio, Allievi, de Cristoforis, Zanardelli, and some 
 others. Antonio Mora began some interesting writings 
 on money, on public loans, and on mortgage credit, 
 which were gathered together in the Giornale delle 
 Scienze politico-legali (1850-53). Stefano Jacini, of 
 Casalbuttano, published an interesting book on Pro- 
 prietà fondiaria e la popolazione agricola in Lomh a/rdia 
 (Milan, 1854, 3rd ed. 1857). On this excellent model 
 were formed two new works by Salmour on landed 
 and agrarian credit. 
 
 In Yenetia, Valentino Pasini di Schio (died 1861), 
 whose life and writings were described by Lampertico 
 and Bonghi, showed profoundness and moderation of 
 mind in some monographs which he wrote. Political 
 cares, however, and a premature death prevented his 
 powers from bearing more abundant fruit. The I
 
 220 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 di Ristorazione economica delle Province Venete, by G. 
 B. Zannini (died 1866), was a bold protest against the 
 Austrian administration. 
 
 In Tuscany the Georgofili, Corbani from the chair of 
 Siena, and a few economists, among them the Bosellini 
 and Martinelli, in Emilia, most efficiently pursued 
 economic investigations. At the same time there was 
 a large number of economists in the southern provinces. 
 Scialoja, who did not occupy any post at the university, 
 being engaged in the duties of other public offices, gave 
 a brief but very remarkable example of his economic 
 knowledge in his vivacious little book, Carestia e Governo 
 (1853). Lodovico Bianchini was the author of two 
 works on economic and financial history, and of some 
 less successful attempts at treating the pure science. 
 His fame was almost greater in other countries than it 
 was in Italy, where it was injured by the interference 
 of the Bourbon Government. 
 
 Among the Sicilian economists the following are note- 
 worthy : — the two emigrants, Cordova and Busacca, 
 learned and industrious writers, and distinguished later 
 on in high public offices ; Giovanni Bruno, a Professor 
 at the University of Palermo ; F. Maggiore Perni, and 
 Giulio Albergo. In his Storia dell' economia pubblica in 
 Sicilia, the completion of which was expected for many 
 years, the last-mentioned writer described works which 
 were little known in other parts of Italy. 
 
 § 4. 1859-1880. 
 
 The political revival of Italy exercised no little 
 influence on economic progress. Professorships of 
 economic science were multiplied in the universities, 
 and were created in industrial and professional schools.
 
 vii.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 221 
 
 Complete liberty of discussion and of the press, and the 
 agitation of urgent economic and financial questions — 
 some of a complicated nature — gave rise to scientific 
 investigations, and to official and parliamentary publi- 
 cations which show unmistakable signs of the growing 
 national culture. But it cannot be denied that, notwith- 
 standing the noticeable improvement of the last few 
 years, Italy does not hold the honourable position that it 
 has held in other times. There has been a want of ori- 
 ginality in Italian writers and teachers (that is, among 
 those who have devoted themselves wholly to economic 
 science) and very imperfect knowledge of later economic 
 progress, especially in England and Germany. The 
 somewhat heterodox ideas diffused by Ferrara have 
 prevailed widely, side by side with an optimism imbibed 
 from the Harmonies of Basti at. The first of living 
 Italian economists is undoubtedly Angelo Messedaglia, a 
 Veronese writer. His mind is remarkably acute, and his 
 economic and statistical knowledge both profound and 
 wide. In his mathematical acquirements he is also dis- 
 tinguished. As a writer he is precise, cautious, tem- 
 perate, and effective. Since 1858 he has been eminent as 
 a professor in the University of Padua. His works on 
 public loans (1850), on population (1858 et seq.), and his 
 other economic and statistical monographs are among 
 the most striking publications of the day, and make us 
 most anxious for the appearance of his works on money 
 and credit. 
 
 The Bolognese, Marco Minghetti, a cultured and 
 elegant writer, as well as an eloquent orator, published 
 a most remarkable and excellent work, mentioned before, 
 on the eve of his laborious and honourable career in the 
 highest offices of the State. The title of this work was,
 
 222 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 Economia pubblica e le sue attinenze colla morale e col 
 diritto (1859). Later on he collected his minor writings 
 in a little volume (1872). 
 
 Fedele Lampertico of Vicenza was a pupil and 
 friend of Messedaglia, and one of the most diligent of 
 the living Italian economists. His writings on the 
 Isthmus of Suez, on Ortes, on mining legislation, and 
 on the reports on paper-money, not to speak of minor 
 writings, give undeniable proof of his great analy- 
 tical subtlety, his wide and solid learning, and his 
 thorough knowledge of the best Italian and foreign 
 works. His Economia dei Popoli e degli Stati (vols, i.— 
 v., Milan, 1874-80) is intended as a complete course of 
 economic, financial, and administrative studies. It is a 
 work of the highest order, containing the best results of 
 German science, interpreted and modified to meet Italian 
 views. What it wants is greater simplicity and homo- 
 geneousness of style, and more order and proportion in 
 the subjects treated. 
 
 Besides Lampertico' s Corso there are other treatises. 
 Some, by de Rocchi, Bruno, Maj orano, and others, are 
 unfinished ; others, by Reymond (1860-61), Mares- 
 cotti(1861), Ponsiglioni (1870-72), G. E. Garelli (1875), 
 and S. Pizperno, are good in parts, and wholly conscien- 
 tious. The Principii d' economia sociale, by Professor 
 Antonio Ciccone, is a long work, of which a second 
 edition, considerably enlarged, has already appeared 
 (1874, three vols, royal 8vo). 
 
 A brilliant exception to the other compendiums, 
 which, as a rule, are not worth much, is the Sunto cV Eco- 
 nomia politica, by Emilio Nazzani, a Pavian professor 
 (2nd ed., Milan, 1875). This work is very remarkable 
 for its exact scientific orthodoxy, and its wide and sound
 
 vii.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 223 
 
 learning, not concealed by the modesty and simplicity of 
 the style, which is also sober, clear, and elegant. No 
 less could have been expected from the author of the 
 Saggio sulla rendita fondiaria (Forlì, 1872), and of the 
 essays on ]yrojits (Milan, 1877), and on the demand for 
 labour (1880), which are among the best monographs 
 published in this period. 
 
 We have not space to name the large number of 
 writers on special subjects in tbe different parts of 
 Italy. There are a few authors, however, who deserve 
 to be associated with those already mentioned. 
 
 In Piedmont, Liguria, and Sardinia there was a want 
 of activity in the study of economics, which was culti- 
 vated in a merely accessory way by distinguished states- 
 men like Sclopis and Sella, or by able jurisconsults like 
 Pescatore, the author of an excellent work on taxes 
 (1867). Todde, Virgilio, Boselli, Pellarcioni, and 
 Alessando Garelli are noteworthy ; and more especially 
 Vittorio Ellena, Maggiorino Ferraris, and Carlo F. 
 Ferraris. Carlo Ferraris is an economist of acute and 
 versatile mental powers, and of wise judgment. He 
 is the author of an excellent monograph on money 
 and the forced currency (1879), and of other remarkable 
 essays on economics, statistics, and administration (1880). 
 
 At Genoa Gerolamo Boccardo, having brought to- 
 gether a great deal of new material by laborious study, 
 is publishing a third series of the Biblioteca dell' Eco- 
 nomista, to continue and complete the other two series. 
 His editorship of the work is marked by great breadth 
 of view and impartiality. 
 
 In Lombardy there are new names to be associated 
 with those of the veterans of the science before men- 
 tioned, such as Arrivabene, Poli, Sacchi, and, ogain,
 
 224 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 Cattaneo (died 1869), in whose later writings scientific 
 calmness was sacrificed to his preoccupation with politics. 
 Enrico Cernuschi, a Milanese, is the author of an in- 
 genious and somewhat paradoxical work, the Meccanica 
 degli scambii. He defends the double standard to an 
 exaggerated extent, and is hostile to banknotes'» and co- 
 operative societies. Enrico Fano is a distinguished 
 specialist on the subjects of provident institutions and 
 co-operation. Stefano Allocchio is the author of essays on 
 free-trade and mortgage credit which have been praised. 
 Among younger writers the following are distinguished : 
 Romanelli, Buzzetti, Manfredi, Nicolini, Loria, the 
 author of a powerful volume on land-rent (1880), and 
 Pietro Rota of Bergamo (died 1875). Rota's Princijrii 
 di scienza bancaria (2nd ed. 1873), and the Storia delle 
 banche (1874), raised hopes, too soon cut off, of later 
 works which would have been remarkable for subtility 
 learning, and simplicity of style. 
 
 The Lombard economists are rivalled by those of 
 Venetia, the disciples, directly or indirectly, of Messe- 
 daglia and Lampertico. The ablest of them is Luigi 
 Luzzati, the zealous advocate of popular banks and 
 other co operative societies. Later on he was Min- 
 ghetti's most active coadjutor in the Ministry of Agricul- 
 ture and Commerce ; and he showed his ability in the 
 negotiation of commercial treaties. As a lecturer he 
 was eloquent and influential ; as a writer, simple, and 
 averse to vague and exaggerated formulas. His writings 
 are very useful, being mostly written with the intention 
 of combating prejudices and paving the way for reforms. 
 Considering his distinguished merits and his singleness 
 of purpose, the most severe critic will pardon Luzzati 
 a few inaccuracies and an occasional excess of emphasis.
 
 vii.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 
 
 Among Venetian economists there are, besides Ales- 
 sandro Rossi, the following writers : — Emilio Morpurgo, 
 an elegant writer of economic, statistical, and financial 
 articles ; Elia Lattes, who has given a learned and able 
 account of the early Venetian banks, and of mortgage 
 credit ; Alberto Errerà, the laborious compiler of books 
 and articles on economic history and statistics ; Tullio 
 Martelli, the historian of the Internazionale ; Stivanello ; 
 Forti, the editor of the Giornale degli Economisti (which 
 has now stopped) ; Salvioni, &c. ; and finally, Giuseppe 
 Toniolo, the sober and accurate writer of memoirs on 
 small industries, on method, on the moral element in 
 economics, on wages, on participation in profits, and on 
 rent. 
 
 •In Central Italy and in Tuscany the good traditions 
 of the science were kept up in teaching and writing ; in 
 the former by Torrigiani, Montanari, Marescotti, Marti- 
 nelli, Carpi, Piperno ; and Pompilj ; and in the latter 
 by Ridolfi, Corsi, Cini, Andreucci, Rubieri, Fontanelli, 
 the two Sonnino, Franchetti, Protonotari, the careful 
 director of the Nuova Antologia, and others. 
 
 In the southern provinces the writers on the social 
 sciences, though sometimes a little vague and abstract, 
 and even careless in style, are now as always zealous 
 in the study of economics. There is a distin- 
 guished group of teachers who are free from the 
 above defects, and who from time to time have given 
 excellent proofs of profound and able investigation. 
 The highest positions in this group are held by Scialoja 
 (died 1877), Magliani, Baer, de Cesare, Racioppi, and 
 the Sicilian Busacca. Among those whose powers have 
 been less tested we may note the Neapolitans, Miraglia, 
 Schiattarella, Lo Savio, Simoni, Fiorilli, Fortunato, and 
 
 Q
 
 226 STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. [chap. 
 
 more especially — on account of the line of study which 
 they followed — Antonio Salandra, a critic of great ability 
 and of varied and solid culture ; Cognetti de Martiis, 
 a learned contributor to the Biblioteca dell' Econo- 
 mista, an authority on the Neapolitan economists, and 
 well versed in monetary theories ; Tommaso Fornari, 
 who is preparing a learned and accurate historical work on 
 the Neapolitan economists ; and the Sicilians, Vito Cusu- 
 mano and Giuseppe Ricca Salerno, who specially studied 
 the German economists. Cusumano was the author of 
 some learned historical works, some of which have been 
 already mentioned. Ricca wrote three excellent mono- 
 graphs on the theory of capital (1877), the theory of 
 wages (1878), and the theory of public loans (1879), be- 
 sides many remarkable critical articles which appeared 
 in various reviews. 
 
 During the last seven years the more accurate study 
 which has been bestowed on foreign writers, particularly 
 by young men from the universities of Northern Italy, 
 has given an effectual impulse to scientific investigation. 
 The instructors of these younger economists were pub- 
 licly denounced in 1874 by Ferrara, and branded as 
 Germanists, socialists, and corrupters of the Italian 
 youth. This provoked a prompt and successful retort 
 from Luzzati, who, with the help of Lampertico and 
 Scialoja, convoked in Milan the first Congress of Econo- 
 mists (January, 1875). The purpose of this gathering 
 was to make clear the intentions of those who do not 
 blindly believe that the science was born and died 
 with Adam Smith and his commentators. It gave rise 
 to vivacious and not invariably courteous disputes, 
 diffusely stated in a large number of writings, which, 
 either from hasty compilation or from an incomplete
 
 vii.] CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ECONOMISTS. 227 
 
 study of authorities, seldom led to serious or satisfactory 
 results. Better results perhaps may come before long. 
 But we must, in conclusion, express the hope that 
 calm scientific discussion will no longer be disturbed 
 by political wrangling, from which the economist 
 should hold himself steadily aloof.
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS QUOTED IN 
 THE TEXT.

 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS QUOTED IN THE TEXT. 
 
 Accursio das Neves, 208 
 
 Ackersdijk, 201 
 
 Agricola, Giulio, 114, 115 
 
 Albergo, 220 
 
 Alberti, 103 . 
 
 Albertus Hagnus, 103 
 
 Alciato, 114 
 
 Aller, 206 
 
 Allievi, 219 
 
 Allocchio, 224 
 
 Anderson, 171 
 
 Andreucci, 225 
 
 Antonine of Florence, 106 
 
 Apollodoros of Leinnos, 90 
 
 Aquila, 115 
 
 Argelati, 133 
 
 Aristotle, 66, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 102, 
 
 104, 121 
 Arrivabene, 200, 214, 223 
 Asher, 164 
 Augustinus, De, 214 
 
 Babbage, 22 
 
 Baden Karl Friedrich von, 119 
 
 Baer, 225, 
 
 Baert, 162, 201 
 
 Bagehot, 162, 181 
 
 Balbo, 213 
 
 Balchen, 81 
 
 Ballerini, 140 
 
 Balsamo. 213 
 
 Bandini, 139 
 
 Barianno, 114 
 
 Bartolo di Sassoferrata, 104 
 
 Bastiat, 23, 183, 194, 200, 218, 219, 
 
 221 
 Batbie, 145, 183 
 Baudeau, 148 
 
 Baudrillard 24, 25, 73, 110, 186 
 Baxter 179 
 
 Beccaria, 143, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159 
 Becher, 128 
 Belloni. 140 
 
 Benalcanfor, 209 
 Bentham, 69, 171 
 Berkeley, 136 
 Bernardi, 216 
 Bernardino da Busto, 114 
 Bernardin of Siena, 106 
 Beroaldo, 107 
 
 Bianchini, 79, 155, 213, 214, 220 
 Biedermann, 84, 119 
 Biel, 106 
 Bischof, 199 
 
 Blanqui, A. 75, 79, 80, 81, 162, 183 
 Blanqui, G. A., 183 
 Block, 26 
 Bluntschli. 32, 114 
 Boccardo, 46, 182, 219, 223 
 Bocchi, 133 
 
 Bodin, 110, 111, 117, 119, 121 
 Bodio, 26 
 Bohmert, von. 195 
 Boisguillebert, 137, 138 
 Boiteau, 186 
 Bona y Ureta, 207 
 Bonghi, 219 
 Borghini, 114 
 Borrego, 2u0 
 Boselli, 223 
 Bosellini, 211, 220 
 Boterò, 111, 121 
 Boutron, 200 
 Brachelli, 27 
 Brasseur, 202, 203 
 Brater, 144 
 Braun, 195 
 
 Brentano, 45, 181, 198 
 Briganti, 155, 159 
 Bright, 176 
 Broedersen, 140 
 Broggia, 140 
 Broglio, 219 
 
 Bruno Alberto, d'Asti, 115 
 Bruno, Giordano, li- 
 Bruno, Giovanni, 78, 220, 222 
 Bruyn Kops, De, 201
 
 232 
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Buchanan, 165 
 Budaeus, 114 
 Budelio, 115 
 Buoninsegni, 114 
 Buridan, 105, 115 
 Busacca, 220, 225 
 Buzzetti, 224 
 Buys, 201 
 
 Cadet, 138 
 
 Cagnazzi, de Samuele, 211 
 
 Cairnes, 8, 38, 72, 179, 181 
 
 Calkoen, 97 
 
 Callicratidas, 90 
 
 Calvin, 113 
 
 Campanella, 132 
 
 Canga y Argnelles, 207" 
 
 Capello, 159 
 
 Capponi, 213 
 
 Caraffa, 107 
 
 Carballo y Vanguemert, 79, 206 
 
 Cardenas, De, 207 
 
 Carey, 23, 43, 81, 192, 200, 218 
 
 Carli, 158, 159 
 
 Carli, De, 213 
 
 Carlisle, 118 
 
 Carnido de Figueiredo, 209 
 
 Carpi, 225 
 
 Cari - eras y Gonzales, 206 
 
 Casai'ini, 216 
 
 Cato, 97 
 
 Cattaneo, 214, 215, 216, 224 
 
 Cernuschi, 224 
 
 Cesare, De, 225 
 
 Chalmers, 179 
 
 Chares of Pharos, 90 
 
 Cherbuliez, 16, 19, 204 
 
 Chevalier, 162, 184 
 
 Child, 129, 150, 155 
 
 Chitti, 214 
 
 Cibrario, 99 
 
 Ciccone, 222 
 
 Cicero, 97 
 
 Cicogna, 158 
 
 Cini, 225 
 
 Cicé, 151 
 
 Clamageran, 134, 186 
 
 Clement, Antoine, 24, 187 
 
 Clement, Pierre, 125 
 
 Cliffe Leslie, 72, 181 
 
 Cobden, 176, 184 
 
 Cochut, 134 
 
 Cognetti de Martiis, 217, 226 
 
 Colin, 125, 138 
 
 Colmeiro, 83, 118, 206 
 
 Colonna, Egidio, 104 
 
 Columella, '.>7 
 
 Comte, Charles, 172, 182 
 
 Concilia, 120 
 
 Conde, 207 
 
 Condillac, 149 
 
 Condorcet, 149 
 
 Contzen, 99, 106 
 
 Copernicus, 115, 116 
 
 Coq, 22 
 
 Coquelin, 183 
 
 Coquelin et Guillaumin, 137, 144, 
 
 182, 219 
 Corbani, 220 
 Cordova, 220 
 Cornewall Lewis, 37, 42 
 Coronelli, 159 
 Correnti, 214, 219 
 Corsi, 225 
 
 Cossa, 89, 99, 129, 143 
 Costantini, 159 
 
 Courcelle-Seneuil, 19, 21, 49, 186 
 Cournot, 45, 186 
 Court, Jeau De la, 132, 150 
 Court, Pierre De la, 132 
 Cousin, 162 
 Cridis, 213 
 Cristoforis, De, 219 
 Culpeper, 130 
 Custodi, 82, 114, 140, 156, 158, 211 
 
 214 
 Cusumano, 103, 106, 187, 226 
 
 Daire, 134, 144 
 
 D'Alembert, 145 
 
 Dameth, 24 
 
 Dankwardt, 30 
 
 D'Audriffret, 186 
 
 D'Aulnis de Bourouill, 46 
 
 D'Aulnis dal Greven, 201 
 
 Davanzati, 114, 116 
 
 Delfico, 155 
 
 Del Valle, 206 
 
 Diderot, 145 
 
 Dietzel, 198 
 
 Dithmar, 136 
 
 Donati, 159 
 
 Donaudi delle Mallere, 159 
 
 Doni, 112 
 
 Doria, 139 
 
 Droz, 23, 68, 172 
 
 Ducpétiaux, 203 
 
 Duiau, 26, 37, 194 
 
 Duhring, 79, 81 
 
 Du Mesnil-Marigny, 86 
 
 Dunoyer, 183 
 
 Duns Scotus, 103 
 
 Dupont de Nemours, 148 
 
 Dupin, 183 
 
 Durini, 214 
 
 Dutot, 138 
 
 Duval, 127 
 
 Einert, 30 
 Eisdell, 179 
 
 Ellena, 223 
 Emminghaus, 22, 149, 195
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 233 
 
 Endemann, 31, 102 
 
 Engel, 26, 194, 198 
 
 Errerà, 225 
 
 Eschines, 92 
 
 E spinosa de los Monteros, 206 
 
 Fabbroni, 159, 212 
 Fabiano da Genova, 114 
 Fano, 224 
 Fantuzzi, 213 
 Faucher, Jules, 195 
 Faucher, Leon, 183 
 Fauvean, 45 
 Favre, 115 
 
 Fawcett, Henry, 16, 180 
 Fawcett, M. G. , 16, 180 
 Feer-Herzog, 204 
 
 Ferrara, 17, 18, 23, 45, 57, 126, 140, 
 144, 154, 164, 217, 218, 219, 221, 226 
 Ferraris, Carlo, 32, 223 
 Ferraris, Maggiorino. 223 
 Ferreira-Borges, 208 
 Figuerola, 207 
 Filangieri, 149, 155 
 Fiorilli. 225, 
 
 Florez Estrada, 15, 79, 206 
 Fokker, 201 
 Fontanelli, 225 
 Fontenay, 186 
 Forbonnais, 143, 155 
 Fornari.,127, 226 
 Forti, 225 
 Fortunato, 225 
 Fo ville. De, 187 
 Franchetti, 225 
 Frank, 112 
 Franklin, 173 
 Frère-Orban, 203 " 
 Frout de Fontpertuis, 92 
 Fullarton, 177 
 Funk, 106 
 Fuoco, 212, 213 
 
 Gab aglio, 27 
 
 Gaetano (v. Tommaso da Vio), 113, 
 
 114 
 Galanti, 155 
 Galeani Napione, 111 
 Galiani, 126, 159, 213 
 Gambini, 213 
 Ganilb, 172 
 
 Garelli, Alessandro, 223 
 Garelli, Giusto Emanuele, 222 
 Gamier, Germano, 149, 164 
 Garnier, Joseph, 79, 144, 186 
 Gasser, 136 
 Gazquez, Rubi, 206 
 Gebhart. 103 
 Genovesi, 128, 143, 152, 154, 155, 156, 
 
 157, 159, 213 
 Gentz, 191 
 
 Gerando, De, 183 
 Gerson, 105 
 Giginta, 119 
 Gilbert, 118 
 
 Gioja, 14, 26, 211, 212, 214 
 Giovanetti, 216 
 Gladstone, 176 
 Glaser, 88, 93, 119 
 Godwin, 170 
 Gogel, 173 
 Goldschmidt, 31 
 Gorani, 140, 149 
 Goschen, 181 
 Gournay, 150 
 Graswinkel, 132 
 Gregory of Toulouse, 111 
 Grotius, 132 
 Grote, 215 
 Guerry, 26, 194 
 Guicciardini, 110 
 Guillaumin, 138 
 
 Hagen, 92 
 
 Hakluyt, 118 
 
 Hall, van, 201 
 
 H allei-, 191 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 192 » 
 
 Hamilton, Sir William, 162 
 
 Hanssen, 198 
 
 Harrington, 131 
 
 Harris, 136 
 
 Haushofer, 22, 26 
 
 Hearn, 179 
 
 Held, 119, 198, 199 
 
 Helferich, 190, 198 
 
 Helfnich, 162 
 
 Henry of Ghent, 104 
 
 Herbert, 154 
 
 Hermann, 50, 72, 96, 188, 189, 190, 
 
 193 
 Herodotus, 89 
 Heymann, 134 
 Hildebrand, 46, 92, 192 
 Hieron, 90 
 
 Hippodamus of Miletus, 91 , 
 Hobbes, 129 
 Hock, 200 
 
 Hoffman, 188, 189, 200 
 Hogendorp, 173 
 Horn, 138 
 Hòrnigk, von, 128 
 Houten, van, 201 
 Hoyta, von, Ì05 
 Huber, 191 
 Hufeland. 173, 190 
 Hugo, 49 
 
 Hume, 150, 155, 163 
 Hutcheson, 135, 163 
 
 Inama, 162 
 Ingram, 72, 181 
 Iselin, 149
 
 234 
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Jakob, 173 
 Jacini, 219 
 Jevons, 46, 136, 180 
 Jobard, 203 
 Jourdain. 102, 105; 
 Joyce, 165 
 Justi, 142 
 
 Kautz, 57, 72, 79, 80, 84, 85 
 
 Kellner, 144 
 
 Kleimviichter, 200 
 
 Klock, 121, 128 
 
 Knapp, 26 
 
 Knies, 46, 110, 192, 193 
 
 Kolb, 27 
 
 Kosegarten, 191 
 
 Kraus, 172 
 
 Kiibel, 87 
 
 Kudler, 188 
 
 Laboclaye, 22 
 
 Lacroix, 129 
 
 Lampertico, 26, 72, 158, 159, 181, 200, 
 
 219, 222, 224, 226 
 Lange, 181, 197 
 Langenstein, von, 105 
 Laspeyres, 83, 132, 144, 162, 198 
 Latini, Brunetto, 103 
 Lattes, 225 
 
 Laveleye, De, 202, 203 
 Lavergne, 144, 162, 185 
 Lavergne-Peguilben, 191 
 Law, 134, 138, 151 
 Le Hardy de Beaulieu, 203 
 Leroy-Beaulieu, 183, 187 
 Le Trosne, 118 
 Levasseur, 134, 185 
 Lewins, 179 
 Lexis, 26, 198 
 List, 81, 192, 215 
 Locke, 129, 133, 159 
 Longe, 181 
 Lopez Narvaez, 207 
 Loria, 224 
 Lo Savio, 225 
 Lotz, 79, 173, 190 
 Lozano y Montes, 207 
 Luca, De, 219 
 Liider, 172 
 Lurnbroso, 87 
 Lutber, 113 
 Luzzati, 162, 224, 226 
 
 Macaulay, 25 
 
 Machiavelli, 110 
 
 MacCullocb, 14, 15, 78, 128, 137, 162, 
 
 177, 215 
 Macleod, 181 
 Madrazo, 206, 
 Maffei, 140 
 
 Magenta, 216 
 
 Maggiore Perni, 220 
 
 Magliani, 225 
 
 Majorana, 222 
 
 Malcbus, 200 
 
 Malestroit, 117 
 
 Malthus, 158, 170, 171, 177, 179, 193, 
 
 206, 215 
 Mancini, 214 
 Manfredi, 224 
 
 Mangoldt, 15, 43, 72, 190, 199, 200 
 Manin, 159 
 Manna, 32 
 Manzoni, 62 
 Marchesini, 159 
 Marescotti, 219, 222, 225 
 Mariana, 111 
 Marshall, Alfred, 180 
 Marshall, Mary P. 180 
 Martello, 225 
 Mario (v. Winkelblech) 
 Martinelli, 220, 225 
 Marulli, 213 
 Mastier, 145 
 Mastrofini, 217 
 Mauvillon, 149 
 Medina, Giovanni di 119, 
 Mees, 202 
 Meguscher, 216 
 Melanchtbon, 113 
 Mele, 214 
 Melon, 138 
 
 Mendoni;a Cortes, 209 
 Meneghini, 219 
 Mengotti, 159 
 Meruier de la Rivière, 148 
 Messedaglia, 15, 43, 47, 221, 222, 224 
 Meyer, 191 
 Michaelis, 195 
 Michelini, 216 
 Mill, James, 15, 171 
 Mill, John Stuart, 6, 8, 16, 19, 37, 
 
 171, 177, 178, 179, 180. 193, 195 
 Minghetti, 24, 30, 221, 224 
 Mirabeau, 148 
 Miraglia, 225 
 
 Miranda y Egreia, De, 207 
 Mocenigo, 159 
 Modeste, 186 
 Mohl, 78, 92, 200, 213 
 Molinari, De, 202, 203 
 Molster, 81 
 Monmisen, 25, 49 
 Monjean, 162, 186 
 Montanari, Augusto, 116, 225 
 Montanari, Geminiano, 133 
 Montchrétien, 126, 127 
 Montesquieu, 139 
 Mora, 219 
 Morato Roma, 209 
 More, Sir Thomas, 112 
 Monchini, 217 
 Morpurgo, 26, 225
 
 INDEX OF AUTHOKS. 
 
 235 
 
 Miiller, 191 
 Mun, 126, 127, 128 
 Muratori, 160 
 Musgrave, 179 
 
 Nani, 159 
 
 Nasse,' 117, 197, 198 
 
 Naville, 204 
 
 Nazzani, 15, 17, 72, 222 
 
 Nebenius, 188, 189, 200 
 
 Negri, 216 
 
 Neri. 98, 159 
 
 Newmarch, 177 
 
 Nicolai, 213 
 
 Nicolini, 224 
 
 Niebuhr, 49 
 
 Norman, 177 
 
 North, Sir Dudley, 129, 1"0 
 
 Obrecht, 121 
 Ochoa, 207 
 Oettingen, 26, 194 
 Oliveira-Marreca, 208 
 Oncken, A. 162, 162, 163 
 Onken, W. 93 
 Orèsme, 105, 115 
 Ortes, 158, 159, 222 
 Overstone, 177 
 
 Pagano, 155 
 
 Pagniui, 159 
 
 Paillottet, 186 
 
 Palmeri, 213 
 
 Palmieri, 155, 159 
 
 Paoletti, 149 
 
 Paradisi, 143 
 
 Parieu, De, 31, 115 
 
 Pascoli, 139 
 
 Pasini, 219 
 
 Passy, Frédéric, 186 
 
 Passy, Hippolyte, 185 
 
 Pastor, 207 
 
 Patrizzii, 107 
 
 Patterson, 136 
 
 Paul, 98 
 
 Pazo y Degalgado, 206 
 
 Pecchio, 82, 83, 140 
 
 Peckham, 118 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 176 
 
 Pellarcioni, 223 
 
 Pereira Forjaz de Sampajo, 208 
 
 Périn, 202, 203 
 
 Perni, 220 
 
 Perry, 79 
 
 Pescatore, 223 
 
 Petitti, 216 
 
 Petty, 129, 130, 150, 155 
 
 Phaleas of Cbalcedon, 91 
 
 Philolaos of Thebes, 90 
 
 Pickford, 72 ' 
 
 Piernas y Hurtado, 207 
 Pierson, 83, 201, 202 
 Pinheiro-Ferreira, 208 
 Piperuo, 225 
 Pizperno, 222 
 Platina, 107 
 Plato, 90, 92,93, 94, 112 
 Pliuy, 66, 97 
 Poli, 216, 223 
 Pompili, 225 
 Ponsiglioni, 222 
 Pontano, 107 
 Prince-Smith, 194 
 Protonatari, 225 
 Proudbon, 23 
 Puffendorf, 135 
 Puynode, Du, 162, 186 
 Pythagoras, 90 
 
 Quesnay,-143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 
 
 150, 154, 164 
 Quetelet, 26, 194 
 
 Racchetti, 213 
 
 Racioppi, 155, 225 
 
 Rae, 179 
 
 Raleigh, 118 
 
 Rau. 14, 15, 17, 19, 50, 79, 88, 187, 188, 
 
 197, 200, 208 
 Raynal, 149 
 Rees, van, 83, 201 
 Reid, 163 
 Rentzsch, 195 
 Ressi, 211 
 Restelli, 216 
 Reybaud, 185 
 Reymond, 18, 222 *" 
 Ricardo, 45, 170, 171, 172, 177, ITU, 
 
 184, 189, 193, 206, 213, 215 
 Ricca Salerno, 162, 226 
 Ricci, 213 
 
 Ricci, Lodovico, 159, 160 
 Ridolfì, Cosimo, 213 
 Ridolfi, Angelo, 213 
 Ridolfi, Luigi, 225 
 Riedel, 188 
 Rivet, 30 
 Rocchi, De, 222 
 Rodbertus, 191 
 Rodriguez de Brito, 208 
 Rogers, 181 
 Rooz, De, 81 
 
 Romagnosi, 26, 30, 214, 215, 216 
 Romanelli, 224 
 Rondelet, 24 
 Roscher, 15, 17, 40, 47, 48, 49, 50, 76, 
 
 83, 84, 88, 90, 105, 106, 116, 128, 161 
 
 162, 190, 192, 193 
 Rosellis, De, 114 
 Rosier, 169 
 Bossi, Alessandro, 225
 
 236 
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Rossi, Pellegrino, 9, 15, 16, 19, 30, 73, 
 
 214, 216, 219 
 Rota, 224 
 Rousseau, 149 
 Rubieri, 225 
 Rubio y Dorado, 206 
 Riimelin, 194 
 Rusconi, 219 
 Russell, 176 
 
 Sacchi, 214, 223 
 
 Salandra, 226 
 
 Salfi, 126 
 
 Salmour. 216 
 
 Salvioni, 225 
 
 Sanfilippo, 211 
 
 Sanromà 207 
 
 Santillan, 207 
 
 Santis, De, 126, 127 
 
 Sargaut, 179 
 
 Sartorius, 172 
 
 Saumaise, 132 
 
 Savarese, 218 
 
 Say, Jean Baptiste, 14, 15, 68, 69, 79, 
 
 149, 171, 194, 208, 211, 212, 214 
 Say, Leon, 186 
 Say, Horace, 172, 186 
 Scàruffi, 116 
 Schaffle, 190, 198, 199 
 Scheel, von, 98, 145, 196, 197. 198 
 Schiattarella, 47, 225 
 Schlettwein, 149 
 Schluzer, 172 
 Schmitthenner. 188 
 Schmoller, 190, 196, 197, 198 
 Schùnberg, 198 
 Scratchley, 179 
 Schroder, 128 
 Schuhrnacher, 45 
 Schulze-Delitzsch, 195 
 Schiiz, von, 188 
 Schwarzkopf, 83 
 Seialoja 28. 215, 220, 225, 226 
 Sclopis, 223 
 Scola, 159 
 Scrope, 179 
 Scuderi, 211 
 Sella, 223 
 Seneca, 97 
 
 Senior, 8, 72, 178, 215 
 Sercambi, 105 
 Sergio, 143 
 Serra, 126, 127 
 Serzedello. 209 
 Settembrini, 140 
 Shadwell, 179 
 Silva Lisboa, Da, 173 
 Silveira-Pinto, 208 
 Simon, 183 
 Simoni, 225 
 Sismondi 173, 204 
 Skarzynski, 163 
 Smith, Adam, 75. 119, 128, 129, 135, 
 
 145, 149, 150,1155, 161—175, 179, 187, 
 190, 191, 193, 200, 206, 211,212, 813 
 215, 218, 226 
 
 Socrates, 91, 92 
 
 Soetbeer, 195 
 
 Sola, 115 
 
 Sonnenfels. 142, 155 
 
 Sonnino, 225 
 
 Soto, 119 
 
 Stafford, 117, 119 
 
 Stein, 82, 90, 198, 200 
 
 Stewart, Sir James, 143, 155 
 
 Stewart, Dugald, 162 
 
 Stivanello, 225 
 
 Storch, 173, 208 
 
 Struzzi, 129 
 
 Szecheny, 173 
 
 Tallon. 183 
 
 Targioni, 213 
 
 Telesio, 112 
 
 Tellegen, 201 
 
 Terrasson, 151 
 
 Tesauro, 115 
 
 Thales, 66 
 
 Thiers, 25, 134 
 
 Thorbecke, 201 
 
 Thornton, 180 
 
 Thucydides, 89 
 
 Thiinen, von, 45, 186, 188, 189, 193 
 
 Tissot, 145 
 
 Todde, 223 
 
 Tolomei, 216 
 
 Tolomeo of Lucca, 104 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, St. 103, 104 
 
 Tommaso da Vio, 113, 114 
 
 Tomolo, 200, 225 
 
 Tooke, 177 
 
 Torcia, 155 
 
 Torrens, 177 
 
 Torrigiani, 225 
 
 Tracy, 14, 172, 208 
 
 Travers-Twiss, 79, 80 
 
 Treitschke, von. 197 
 
 Trincherà, 79, 86, 218, 219 
 
 Trinci, 218 
 
 Turbolo, 156 
 
 Turgot, 16, 144, 145, 150, 151, 152. 153 
 
 154, 158, 164. 165, 166, 171 
 Tydemann, 98, 201 
 
 Ulloa, 155 
 Umpfenbach, 198 
 Usselinx, 182 
 Ustaritz, 155. 
 
 Valeriani, Molinari, 30, 212 
 
 Vallesantoro 205 
 
 Varrò, 97 
 
 Vasco, 159 
 
 Vauban, 137 
 
 Veegens, 132 
 
 Vergani, 213
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Verloren, 201 
 Verri, 155, 157, 159 
 Vidari, 31 
 
 Villani, Giovanni, 103 
 Villani, Matteo, 103 
 Villeneuve-Bargemont, 79, 
 Villermé, 183 
 Virgilio, 223 
 Vischers, 203 
 Vissering, 201, 202 
 Vocke, 200 
 Voorthuysen, 201 
 
 Wagener, 191 
 
 Wagner, 26, 196, 197, 198, 200 
 
 Waitz, 31 
 
 Wakefield, 179 
 
 Walker, 181 
 
 Walras, 46, 186 
 
 Wappaus, 194 
 
 Welz, De, 213 
 
 West, 171 
 
 Whateley, 57, 72, 177 
 
 Whewell, 37, 45 
 
 Wilson, 177, 181 
 
 Winkelblech, 79 
 
 Winspeare, 213 
 
 Wirth, 79, 195 
 
 Witt, De, 132 
 
 Wolff, 195 
 
 Wolkoff, 186 
 
 Wolowski, 47, 105, 115, 185, 203 
 
 Woolsey, 32 
 
 Xenophon. 94, 97 
 
 Zachariae, 188 
 Zambelli, 216 
 Zanardelli, 219 
 Zannini, 220 
 Zanon, 159 
 Zennari, 216 
 Zwingli, 113 
 
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