482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was generally acquiesced in. The doctrine that money was the 

 only form of wealth was held by nearly all statesmen and trad- 

 ers, and had resulted in the establishment of the so-called mer- 

 cantile system. The physiocrats taught the contrary of both 

 these conceptions. They held that governmental interference 

 with the gainful occupations of the people was bad for both 

 government and people, since it hindered the increase of wealth 

 and the productiveness of taxes. They maintained that money 

 was not wealth except in a secondary sense, as a tool and instru- 

 ment of exchange, since all persons who acquire money find it 

 for their advantage immediately to lay it out for other things. 

 These two contentions of the physiocrats constitute their claim 

 to the admiration of mankind. 



They had another doctrine by which, as it has turned out, 

 they are now more generally distinguished. They held that land 

 was the only source of wealth, and that all occupations except 

 agriculture were unproductive. 



Agriculture, they said, yielded a "net product" over and 

 above the wages of the cultivator during the time he was en- 

 gaged in producing the crop. This net product went to the 

 landlord, and might rightfully be taken by the Government to 

 the extent necessary to defray the public expenses. They accord- 

 ingly proposed and advocated the impot unique, or single tax, on 

 the income derived from landed property. The residue of the 

 net product remaining in the landlord's hands after the payment 

 of taxes was, in their judgment, the annual and sole increment 

 of the world's capital and stock in trade for the upbuilding of 

 civilization. 



All other trades, such as manufacturing and commerce, were 

 sterile. These served as the clerks, the agents, the porters of 

 agriculture. If any of these saved anything from their earnings 

 as the handmaids of agriculture, competition would cut down 

 their gains, so that eventually they would have nothing left over 

 at the end of the year. 



Adam Smith agreed with the physiocrats in their views re- 

 specting governmental interference with private business, and as 

 to the true character and functions of money. He differed from 

 them as to the " net product." He held that land was not the sole 

 source of wealth, but that all useful labor was to be reckoned, 

 equally with agriculture, among the sources. His answer to the 

 physiocrats is embraced in Chapter IX, Book IV, of the " Wealth 

 of Nations." Notwithstanding an occasional subsequent flicker, 

 it may be said, speaking broadly, that if there ever was any 

 economic conclusion upon which the world had agreed it was 

 that the physiocratic docrine of net product and single tax was 

 erroneous. 



