37 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



CHAP. i. 



OBJECTS AND ORIGIN OF THE SCIENCE. 



'oiiiical POLITICAL, ECONOMY is the name given to an im- 

 inomy. p ortant division of the science of government. The 

 object of government is, or ought to be, the happiness 

 of men united in society ; it seeks the means of secur- 

 ing to them the hiffaeH degree of felicity compatible 

 with their nature, and at the same time of allowing 

 the greatest possible number of individuals to partake 

 in that felicity. JJut man is a complex being; he ex- 

 periences moral and physical wants ; therefore his hap- 

 piness consists in his moral and physical condition. 

 The moral happiness of man, so far as it depends on 

 his government, is intimately connected with the im- 

 provement of that government : it forms the object of 

 civil policy, which ought to diffuse the happy in- 

 fluence of liberty, knowledge, virtue, and hope, over 

 all classes of the community. Civil policy should 

 point out the means of giving to nations a constitution, 

 the liberty of which may elevate the souls of the citi- 

 zens ; an education which may form their hearts to 

 virtue, and open their minds to knowledge ; a religion 

 which may present to them the hopes of another life, 

 to compensate for the sufferings of this. It should 

 seek not what suits one man, or one class of men, but 

 what may impart most happiness, by imparting most 

 worth, to all the men living under its laws. 



The physical well-being of man, so far as it can be 

 produced by his government, is the object of Political 

 Economy. All the physical wants of man, for which 

 he depends on his equals, are satisfied by means of 

 wealth. It is this which commands labour, which pur- 

 chases respectful service, which procures all that man 

 has accumulated for use or pleasure. By means of it, 

 health is preserved, and life maintained ; the wants of 

 infancy and old age are supplied ; food, and clothing, 

 ::nd shelter, are placed within the reach of all. Wealth 

 may, therefore, be considered as representing all that 

 men can do for the physical well-being of each other ; 

 and the science, which shows to governments the true 

 system of administering national wealth, is an im- 

 portant branch of the science of national happiness. 



Government is instituted for the advantage of all 

 the persons subject to it ; hence it ought to keep the ad- 

 vantage of them all perpetually in view. And as, in re- 

 spect of civil policy, it should extend to every citizen 

 the benefits of liberty, virtue, and knowledge, so it 

 ought likewise, in respect of political economy, to 

 watch over all the advantages of the national fortune. 

 Abstractly considered, the end of government is not 

 to accumulate wealth in the state, but to make every 

 citizen participate in those enjoyments of physical 

 life which wealth represents. Government is called to 

 second the work of Providence, to augment the mass 

 of felicity on earth, and not to multiply the beings 

 who live under its laws, faster than it can multiply 

 their chances of happiness. 



Wealth and population are not, indeed, absolute 

 signs of prosperity in a state; they are so only in 

 relation to each other. Wealth is a blessing, when 

 it spreads comfort over all classes ; population is 



VOL. XVII. PART I. 



an advantage, when every man is sure of gaining an Political 

 honest subsistence by his labour. Hut a country may Bcooomjr. 

 be wretched, though some individuals in it arc amass- """Y^" 

 ing colossal fortunes; and if its population, like that 

 of China, is always superior to its means of subsist- 

 ence; if it is contented with living on the refuse of 

 animals; if it is incessantly threatened with famine, 

 this numerous population, far from being an object of 

 envy, is a calamity. 



The improvement of social order is generally ad- 

 vantageous to the poor as well as to the rich ; and 

 political economy points out the means of preserving 

 this order by correction, but not of overturning it. 

 It was a beneficent decree of Providence, which gavi- 

 wants and sufferings to human nature ; because out of 

 these it has formed the incitements, which are to 

 awaken our activity and push us forward to develop 

 our whole being. If we could succeed in excluding 

 pain from the world, we must also exclude virtue; if 

 we could banish want, we must also banish industry. 

 Hence it is not the equality of ranks, but happi- 

 ness in all ranks, which the legislator ought to have 

 in view. It is not from the division of property, that 

 he will procure this happiness, but from labour and 

 the reward of labour. It is by maintaining the activi- 

 ty and hopes of the mind; by securing to the poor man 

 as well as to the rich, a regular subsistence and the 

 sweets of life, in the performance of his task. 



The title given by Adam Smith to his immortal 

 work, on the science we are now engaged with, ' The 

 future and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,' forms at 

 the same time the most precise definition of that 

 science. It presents a much more exact idea, than the 

 term political economy, afterwards adopted. The latter 

 designation, at least, requires to be understood according 

 to the modern acceptation of the word economy, not 

 according to its etymology. In its present sense, 

 economy denotes the preservative, administrative, and 

 the management of property ; and it is because we u*e 

 the somewhat tautological phrase domestic economy 

 for the management of a private fortune, that we have 

 come to use the phrase political economy for the man- 

 agement of the national fortune. 



From the time when men first entered into social 

 union, they must have occupied themselves with the 

 common interests originating in their wealth. From 

 the beginning of societies, a portion of the public- 

 wealth was set apart to provide for the public wants. 

 The levying and management of this national revenue, 

 which no longer pertained to each, became an essential 

 part in the science of statesmen. It is what we call 

 jinance. 



Private fortunes, on the other hand, made the interests 

 of each citizen more complex; being exposed to the at- 

 tacks of cupidity and fraud, their wealth required to be 

 defended by the public authority, according to the fun- 

 damental article of the social contract, which had com- 

 bined the strength of individuals to protect each with the 

 power of all. The rights over property, the divisions of 

 it, the means of transmitting it, became one of the most 

 important branches of civil jurisprudence; and the 

 application of justice to the distribution of national pro- 

 perty, formed an essential function of the legislator. 



