542 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



economics, generally considered as the founders of the 

 " orthodox " political economy, are Malthus and Bicardo. 

 They established what have been termed the iron laws 

 of economic science. Notably through Malthus' " law of 

 population," and still more through Eicardo's " theory 

 of rent and wages," the conception of an inexorable 

 fate governing the industrial conditions of society and 

 pressing hard upon the labouring masses was introduced 

 and widely adopted by the extreme school of political 

 economists in this country. 



As the statistical school elaborated the idea of the 

 " homme moyen," so the economic school of Eicardo 

 elaborated that of the "homme tconomique" In the 

 former the human being was looked upon merely as a 

 unit, in the latter merely as a machine. Economics 

 were regarded merely as a theory of wealth, and the 

 three factors upon which, according to Adam Smith, 

 wealth depended viz., rent, wages, and profit were 

 examined by Eicardo much to the disadvantage of 

 labour, which nevertheless was admitted to lie at the 

 foundation of the whole social fabric. 



Though neither Malthus nor Eicardo was personally 

 deficient in sympathy and kindly feeling towards others, 

 the fact that they, especially the latter, attempted to 

 reduce economics to the treatment of a few isolated 

 problems, amenable to exact and deductive reasoning, 

 provoked in those who took a larger and more generous 

 view of the social problem, a violent opposition. 



The " orthodox " political economy was already, during 

 the lifetime of John Stuart Mill, who adopted it with 

 certain mitigating qualifications, violently denounced in 



