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POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



610 



follower of that school. He was a supporter of the freedom of trade ; 

 he had no prejudices against luxury, but he advocated direct taxation, 

 or the tax on land, and he maintained that large cities were injurious 

 to the prosperity of a country. [FILANGIERI, in BIOG. Drv.] 10. The 

 Marquis Caraccioli, while he was viceroy of Sicily, wrote ' Riflessioni 

 still' Economia e 1'Estrazione del Frumenti della Sicilia fatte ad ocea- 

 sione della Carestia del 1784 ed 1785.' The author, being struck with 

 the fact that Sicily, once the granary of Rome, should be so frequently 

 afflicted with scarcity and famine, sought to investigate the causes of 

 this great change. He recommended freedom of internal trade, but 

 with regard to the exportation of corn, he thought it might be sus- 

 pended at times by an act of government from prudential motives. 

 ] 1 . Saverio Scrofani, on the contrary, in a ' Memoria siilla Liberta del 

 Commercio dei Grani della Sicilia,' published in 1795, advocated an 

 entire and permanent freedom in the corn-trade, quoting the example 

 of Tuscany, where that system had been in practice since 17*J7, and 

 li-vl been attended with the beat results. 12. Mnurizio Solera, a native 

 of Piedmont, wrote in French, ' Essai sur les Valeurs,' which he pre- 

 sented in 1786 to King Victor. He proposed an agricultural bank in 

 order to make up for the scarcity of bullion. But his project was not 

 carried into effect. 13. Lodovico Ricci, a native of Modena, was 

 named, by the Duke Ercole III., member of a commission appointed 

 to inquire into the charitable institutions of the town of Modena. 

 Kicci was the reporter of the commission, and his report was published 

 and dedicated to the duke : ' Riforma degl' Instituti Pii della Citta di 

 Modena,' 1787. He was one of the first in Italy (Ortes and Genovesi 

 had already expressed opinions similar to his) who censured indiscrimi- 

 nate charity as encouraging idleness and improvidence, and thus 

 creating pauperism. Italy abounded at that time, more perhaps than 

 any country in Europe, with charitable institutions. In Modena, 

 which had in the time of Ricci a population of 40,000 inhabitants, 

 there were 7000 destitute persons. Ricci demonstrated from historical 

 facts that pauperism increases in proportion to the facility of obtaining 

 relief. He censured legacies for portioning poor girls, and other pre- 

 miums on marriage, and said that the increase of population should 

 only be the result of labour and frugality, by which the means of 

 subsistence are increased. He proposed that charitable institutions 

 should be supported by private charity, and not by the government, 

 which should not do more than establish workhouses to give employ- 

 ment to paupers and vagrants, instruct the poor classes, and endeavour 

 to raise their moral condition. The advice of Ricci was acted upon by 

 the government of Modena. 14. Giuseppe Palmier!, born in 1721, in 

 the province of Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples, filled several offices 

 in the administration of his country, and wrote observations on the 

 tarif and on national wealth : ' Osservazioni ulle Tariffe con appli- 

 cazione al liegno di Napoli,' and ' Sulla Ricchezza Nazionale." In 

 speaking of commerce, he says that a full and universal liberty would 

 b the best system, but as this liberty is not admitted by any nation, 

 the nation that should alone put it in practice might find it turn to 

 its disadvantage, and its condition would be that of a lamb among 

 wolves. He therefore advises not the prohibitive but the restrictive 

 system, or in other words, a system of custom-house duties on the 

 principle of reciprocity. 15. Count Mengotti of Feltra, in the Venetian 

 state, wrote, in 1791, a book against the exclusive mercantile system, 

 v. lii'-h he styled ' II C'olbertisino,' from the name of Colbert, the great 

 patroniser of that system. This work was written in reply to a query 

 proponed by the Economical Society of Florence, which was put in the 

 following words : " Whether in a state which, by its locality and the 

 nature of its soil, is susceptible of increase of produce and population, 

 it be most advisable to favour manufactures by certain restrictions on 

 the exportation of the raw materials, or to leave it an entire freedom * " 

 Mengotti recommended perfect freedom of trade, and his book obtained 

 the prize. It is one of the best written works of the Italian political 

 economists. Mengotti, Beccaria, and Galiani are three writers who, by 

 their style, have succeeded in enlivening an abstruse subject and 

 making their dissertations entertaining as well as instructive. Men- t 

 gotti wrote also a memoir, ' Sul Commercio dei Romani,' which ob- 

 tained, in 1787, the prize from the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles 

 -. of Paris. Mengotti maintained, that until the first Punic war 

 mans had no commerce in an extended sense ; that from the 

 i 'unic war to the battle of Actium their commerce consisted in 

 ng home the spoils of other nations; that from Augustus to 

 utine thuir trade was mainly passive and ruinous; they pro- 

 ' nothing, and bought foreign luxuries and even the necessaries 

 of life with the money they extorted from the subject provinces, and 

 at last they fell gradually again into poverty and barbarism. 



The above are the principal Italian political economists of the 18th 



century. The complete collection of all the Italian writers on political 



my was edited by Custodi, in 50 volumes 8vo. Melzi, the vice- 



i ' -nt of the Italian republic, supplied the author with the necessary 



funds for the undertaking. Custodi was afterwards made by Napoleon 



counsellor of state of the kingdom of Italy, baron, knight of the iron 



crown, and secretary of finance. 



In England, the science of political economy made a marked progress 

 in the Litter part of the 18th century through the exertions of Adam 

 Smith, who is considered as the founder of the modern school. In 

 177'i Smith published his great work, with the modest title of ' An 

 Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.' In 



ABT8 ADD SCI. DIV. VOL. VI. 



the first book he treats of the division of labour and its wonderful 

 effects, of the real and nominal price of commodities, the wages of 

 labour, the profits of stock, and the rent of land. Book ii. treats of 

 the nature, accumulation, and employment of stock or capital. Book 

 iii. is in a great measure historical, and treats of the different progress 

 of opulence in different nations. Book iv. is employed in discussing 

 the various systems of political economy. Smith did not follow 

 implicitly either the mercantile system or that of the economists ; he 

 showed, in opposition to the latter, that the labour of manufacturers 

 and merchants is productive and is a source of wealth ; but he at the 

 same time considered agriculture as the most productive kind of 

 labour, and the home trade as more productive than foreign trade. 

 These positions have been combated by writers who have adopted 

 many of his general views. On the subject of foreign trade, modern 

 writers on political economy are divided, some maintaining that all 

 foreign trade is advantageous to a country precisely in the degree in 

 which it is profitable to those who are engaged in it, and independently 

 of war and peace and other national vicissitudes; whilst others contend 

 that the immediate interest of the trader is not in all cases a criterion 

 of the permanent national interest. 



Adam Smith's doctrine of universal free trade has found many 

 opponents, and is in fact still a theory, for it is not in practice in any 

 country, though in our own a much nearer approximation to it is made 

 than in any other. His definition of productive and unproductive 

 labour has been contradicted by Malthus, in his ' Principles of Political 

 Economy,' and in France by Say and others. Smith considered com- 

 merce as an exchange between producers of various commodities, but 

 not as a cause of fresh production by stimulating new wants in the 

 producers. His doctrine of the " natural rate of wages " has also been 

 controverted. ( McCulloch's " edition " of Smith's ' Wealth of 

 Nations,' with a ' Biography of the Author, and Notes and Supple- 

 mentary Dissertations,' by the editor.) 



In 1798 Malthus published his 'Essay on the Principle of Popu- 

 lation,' in which he demonstrated that " an increase in the means of 

 subsistence is the only sure criterion of a real permanent and beneficial 

 increase in the numbers of any people." He stated that the population 

 never falls below the level of subsistence, but that it tends, on the 

 contrary, always to exceed it, and is only kept down by moral or 

 physical checks. A consequence of these positions is, that any artificial 

 stimulus to the increase of population by premiums on marriage, laws 

 against celibacy, &c., is injudicious. These inferences had been antici- 

 pated by the Italian political economists Ortes and Ricci. 



In France, J. B. Say published, in 1802, ' Traite^ d'Ecouomie Politique,' 

 in which he expounded the principles of Adam Smith, adding many 

 original and important illustrations, especially on the nature and causes 

 of gluts resulting from over-production, which, he maintained, can only 

 be partial and temporary, and can never occur in every species of com- 

 modity at once. Say has written several other works on political 

 economy. Gamier also translated the work of Smith into French. 



In 1815 appeared an ' Essay on the Application of Capital to Land,' 

 by Mr. West, Oxford, 1815 ; and about the same time Malthus 

 published ' An Enquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent,' a subject 

 which was afterwards investigated and expounded by Mr. Ricardo, iu 

 his ' Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," published iu 1817, 

 and which is generally considered as the most important work on 

 political economy since the time of Adam Smith. [RicAiioo, in BIOG. 

 DIV.] The writings of James Mill were also valuable contributions to 

 the literature .of the science. 



Among other contemporary writers on political economy, may be 

 mentioned, in England, John Stuart Mill, J. H. McCulloch, N. W. 

 Senior, Thomas Tooke, G. R. Porter, Lord Brougham, Archbishop' 

 Whately, C. Knight, William Ellis, Col. Torrens, and Lord Overstoue. 

 Many of these names will be found in their respective places in the 

 Bioo. Drv. In France, Sismondi has written several works on political 

 economy : ' De la Richesse des Nations, ou Nouveaux Principes 

 d'Economie Politique ; ' and ' Etudes sur 1'Economie Politique,' which 

 latter work contains many interesting facts, exhibited and commented 

 upon in the usual attractive if not always strictly logical manner 

 of the author. Ganilh published a general review of the principal 

 systems of political economy : ' Des Systemes d'Economie Politique, et 

 do Li Valeur comparative do leurs Doctrines,' 2 vols. 8vo, 182J, a work 

 well deserving a perusal, being written in a temperate spirit and un- 

 assuming tone. Frederick Bastiat, also, by numerous works, con- 

 tributed largely to the popularising of political economy in France ; 

 and he has had many successors. 



In Germany, Storch published, in French, ' Cours d'Economie 

 Politique,' 6 vols., Petersburg, 1815, and also ' Betrachtungen tibor 

 die Natur des Nationaleiukommeus,' Halle, 1825. Schmalze wrote 

 ' Staatswirthschaftslehre,' 2 vols., Berlin, 1818 ; and Jakob, ' Grundsiitze 

 der Nationalokonomie,' Halle, 1825. 



The Spaniards had two writers on political economy towards the end 

 of the last century, Ulloa and Ustariz. The latter wrote ' Teorica y 

 Practica de Comercio y de Marina,' fol., Madrid, 1791. 



Political economy has not been neglected in the United States of 

 North America, but few works, we believe, have yet been produced 

 that liave attracted much attention in Europe. Tucker's ' Laws of 

 Wages, Profits, and Rent investigated,' and his ' Theory of Money and 

 Banks investigated,' are valuable contributions to the science. 



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