678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a rich uncle of his, who, after dining, broke his wineglasses, saying 

 that the world must live. Say wondered why it would not be as well 

 to break the rest of the furniture, to help more of the world's work- 

 men to live. According to this view, Nero was inspired by true eco- 

 nomical principles when he sung over the burning of Rome. M. de 

 Saint-Chamant once remarked that, if Paris should be destroyed by 

 fire, he would deplore the event as a citizen, but rejoice over it as an 

 economist, for it would give an extraordinary bound to labor. If the 

 doctrine be true, political economy should be the science, not of the 

 production, but of the destruction, of wealth. The error arises from 

 regarding labor rather than its results as the chief object. 



To clear up this error, it is necessary, as Bastiat says, to distinguish 

 between what we see and what we do not see. We see the workman 

 who is engaged in replacing what has been destroyed, but we do not 

 see the other workman who might have been employed to make some- 

 thing else with the money which we now have to apply to the payment 

 of the former workman. Say's uncle certainly furnished work to the 

 glass-factory, but if he had saved his glasses he might have spent the 

 same amount of money in buying other things, and himself had more 

 objects, while the wealth of the state would have been increased. 

 Many hands were emjDloyed in rebuilding the monuments that were 

 destroyed in Paris in 1871 ; but with the money that was thus spent 

 other monuments, schoolhouses, or railways, for example, might have 

 been built, and at the closing up of the account Paris would still have 

 had its palaces, and the state would have gained new halls of instruc- 

 tion and new means of transportation. 



It may be urged that, if our theories are carried out, hosts of trades- 

 men and artisans will be condemned to starvation. The value of this 

 objection may be illustrated by an hypothetical example in life. A 

 wealthy banker sj^ends immense sums in feasts, and induces his friends 

 to spend three or four times as much as he does. The dealers to whom 

 patronage is given accumulate great sums. The public is charmed, 

 trade flourishes. Now comes a preacher thundering against luxury, 

 and instigating a revival of frugality. Balls and feasts are given up. 

 What will be the result of the change ? The banker and his friends 

 are not going to throw their money away or let it be idle, but will do 

 something Avith it to make it return a profit. One will improve a long- 

 neglected piece of land, will plant and drain it, and repair the build- 

 ings ; another will enlarge his factory, and a third will i;ndertake 

 railway contracts. All will make work, and that of a useful and pro- 

 ductive character, so that they may receive interest for their outlays. 

 The same amount of money is spent, and it supports the same amount 

 of work and gives a living to the same number of workmen, only they 

 are employed in the fields, where they are not seen, instead of being 

 engaged in the fashionable shops, where they are always before the 

 eye of the public. Now look at the difference in the effect on the 



