60 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



Political happens, government pays merchants at the expence 

 Economy. Q f i ts own subjects, that foreigners may buy cheaper of 

 * -v^- them. 



Thus nearly all the favours, which governments 

 confer on trade and manufactures, are contrary even 

 to sound policy or justice; and, judging of them by 

 the law of profit and loss, we should infer that all 

 this attention bestowed by government on trade had 

 done more ill than good. But political economy is in 

 great part a moral science. After having calculated the 

 interests of men, it ought also to foresee what will act 

 upon their passions. Ruled as they are by self-interest, 

 pointing out their advantage will not be sufficient to de- 

 termine their pursuit of it. Nations have sometimes need 

 of being shaken, as it were, to be roused from their tor- 

 por. The small weight which would suffice to incline 

 the balance with a calculating people, is not sufficient 

 when that balance is rusted by prejudice and long con- 

 tinued habits. In such a case, a skilful administration 

 must occasionally submit to allow a real and calculable 

 loss, in order to destroy an old custom, or change a de- 

 structive prepossession. When rooted prejudices have 

 abandoned to disrespect every useful and industrious 

 profession ; when a nation thinks there can be no dig- 

 nity except in noble indolence ; when even men of 

 science themselves, carried away by public opinion, 

 blush at the useful applications made of their discover- 

 ies, and in such applications see nothing but what they 

 call the cookery of their sciences ; it perhaps becomes 

 necessary to grant favours altogether extraordinary to 

 the industry which it is necessary to create, to fix in- 

 cessantly the thoughts of a too lively people on the 

 career of fortune which lies before them, intimately to 

 connect the discoveries of science with those of art, 

 and to excite the ambition of those, who have always 

 lived in idleness, by fortunes so brilliant as at length 

 to make them think of what may be accomplished by 

 their wealth and their activity. 



It is true, the mercantile capital of a nation is limited 

 in a given time; and those who dispose of it, always de- 

 siring to put it out to the greatest advantage, have no 

 need of any new stimulant to augment it, or turn it into 

 thechannels where it best produces profit. Butall thecapi- 

 tal of a nation is not mercantile. Inclination to idleness, 

 which public institutions have fostered among certain 

 nations, not only binds men, but also fetters fortunes. 

 The same indolence, which makes those people 

 lose their time, makes them also lose their money. The 

 annual revenue of territorial fortunes forms of itself 

 an immense capital, which may be added to or deducted 

 from the sum devoted to support industry. In south- 

 ern countries, the whole revenue of the nobility was 

 annually dissipated in useless pomp ; but to recal the 

 heads of noble families into activity has likewise been 

 found sufficient to give them habits of economy. The 

 great French or Italian proprietor, becoming manufac- 

 turer, has at once given a useful direction to the reve- 

 nue of his land, by adding his own activity to that of 

 a nation becoming more industrious, and added like- 

 wise all the power of his wealth, which formerly lay un- 

 employed. 



The torpor of a nation may sometimes be so great, 

 that the clearest demonstration of advantages which 

 it might derive from a new species of industry, 

 shall never induce it to make the attempt. Example 

 alone can then awake self-interest. French industry 

 has found, in the single little state of Lucca, more than 

 ten new branches, to employ itself upon with great ad- 



vantage both for the country and those who engaged in Political 

 them. The most absolute liberty was not sufficient to Economy, 

 direct attention to these objects. The zeal and activity """"V"" 

 of the Princess Eliza, who called into her little sover- 

 eignty several head manufacturers, who furnished them 

 with money and houses, who brought the produce of 

 their shops into fashion, has founded a more durable 

 prosperity in a decaying city ; and restored to a bene- 

 ficent activity, much capital and intellect, which but 

 for her would for ever have remained unemployed 



When government means to protect commerce, it 

 often acts with precipitation, in complete ignorance of 

 its true interests; almost always with a despotic vio- 

 lence, which tramples under foot the greater part of 

 private arrangements; and almost always with an ab- 

 solute forgetfulness of the advantage of consumers, 

 who, as they form by far the most numerous class, 

 have more right than any other to confound their well- 

 being with that of the nation. Yet it must not be in- 

 ferred that government never does good to trade. It 

 is government which can give habits of dissipation or 

 economy ; which can attach honour or discredit to in- 

 dustry and activity ; which can turn the attention of 

 scientific men to apply their discoveries to the arts : 

 government is the richest of all consumers; it en- 

 courages manufactures by the mere circumstance of 

 giving them its custom. If to this indirect influence, it 

 join the care of rendering all communications easy ; of 

 preparing roads, canals, bridges ; of protecting pro- 

 perty, of securing a fair administration of justice ; if 

 it do not overload its subjects with taxation ; if, in 

 levying the taxes, it adopt no disastrous system, -it will 

 effectually have served commerce, and its beneficial in- 

 fluence will counterbalance many false measures, many 

 prohibitory laws, in spite of which, and not by reason 

 of which, commerce will continue to increase under it. 



CHAP. V. 



OF MONEY. 



Wealth incessantly circulates from producers to con- or Money, 

 sumers, by means of money. All kinds of exchange 

 are accomplished under this form, whether the means 

 of producing wealth are transmitted from one proprie- 

 tor to another, or when land or moveable capital chan- 

 ges its owner, or when labour is sold, or when the 

 object destined to be consumed reaches the hands that 

 are to use it. Money facilitates all these exchanges ; 

 it occurs among the different contractors as a thing 

 which all desire, and by means of which every one 

 may find what he immediately requires ; as a thing, 

 moreover, submitted to invariable calculation, and by 

 means of which all other values may be appreciated, 

 this alone being their scale. 



Money performs several functions at once : it is the 

 sign of all other values; it is their pledge and also 

 their measure. As a sign, money represents every 

 other kind of wealth ; by transmitting it from hand to 

 hand, we transmit a right to all other values. It is 

 not money itself, which the day-labourer requires ; but 

 food, clothing, lodging, of which it is the sign. It is 

 not for money that the manufacturer wishes to ex- 

 change his produce, but for raw materials, that he may 

 again begin to work ; and for objects of consumption, 

 that he may begin to enjoy. It is not money which 



