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POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



tible ; but, when the question is between wages and 

 profits, as it is put by the economical writers, the 

 preference of high profits at the expense of wages, 

 seems not to be well founded as a general doctrine, 

 though it may be true of G reat Britain. 



After disposing of the question, whether agricul- 

 tural, manufacturing, or commercial industry, is 

 most advantageous to a nation, and concluding, as 

 all now agree, that they are equally conducive to 

 national wealth, contrary to the opinion of Adam 

 Smith, who gave the preference to agriculture, the 

 writers on economy then go into the inquiry, how 

 far any one of these branches is objectionable on 

 account of its effect on the character of the popula- 

 tion. In this respect, foreign commerce is un- 

 doubtedly the most injurious of the three. As to 

 manufacturing, its varieties are almost infinite, and 

 no general remark is applicable to the effects of all 

 upon the persons employed. It seems, indeed, to 

 be now pretty well agreed, that the mode of con- 

 ducting any branch of manufacture, and the system 

 of educating and employing the operatives, deter- 

 mine the effects of the employment upon the cha- 

 racter and habits of the population; and that it is 

 not the necessary effect of this or that branch of 

 manufacturing, to degrade and corrupt the persons 

 employed in it. In this opinion the writers on eco- 

 nomy generally agree. 



The same writers agree generally in the definition 

 of value, as being determined by the amount of 

 marketable things, for which an article can be ex- 

 changed. It is also well settled that demand de- 

 termines the market value ; but they assert again, 

 or at least seem to imply, that value and cost are 

 synonymous. They also generally imply, by the 

 mode of using the term cost, that it is some defi- 

 nite, fixed quantity. This use of language throws 

 great obscurity on their speculations on this sub 

 ject, since the cost of producing an article varies 

 from week to week, by the variation of the price of 

 the materials, and the wages ; and the same kind 

 and quality of articles will, at the same time, cost 

 one producer more than another. The proposition 

 that cost regulates value, is laid down by the writers 

 with great solemnity, and inculcated at great length. 

 It is a subject on which there certainly is a great 

 deal of unprofitable prolixity in the books ; for what 

 argument or illustration is necessary to establish the 

 proposition, that men will not continue long to pro- 

 duce an article by which they lose money ? The 

 proposition seems to stand in quite as great need of 

 an apology for stating it, as of a disquisition to ex- 

 plain or support it. 



Mr Ricardo's theory of rent is an ingredient in 

 recent treatises on political economy. The result 

 of his theory is, that if there was no difference in 

 the productive qualities of all the parts of the whole 

 territory of a nation, there would be no such thing 

 as rent. The conclusion of his theory is, that every 

 additional bushel of corn raised in a country costs 

 more than the preceding. Very few persons will 

 probably assent to the first of these two proposi- 

 tions, and the last is absurd as applied to many 

 countries. He doubtless had England in his view 

 in framing his theory; but Mr Lowe denies its ac- 

 curacy in respect to England, as a matter of fact, 

 upon the statement of cultivators themselves. Mr 

 M'Culloch goes into a consideration of the effect 

 of the fluctuations of wages upon the cost of com- 

 modities, in order to establish the proposition, that 

 if the cost of the production of two articles depends 

 upon the use of machinery, and the machinery for 

 one is of short duration, and that for the other of 

 long, then a rise in wages will affect the cost of the 

 products of the transient machinery, more than that 



of the other. He discusses this proposition quite 

 elaborately, for the purpose, apparently, of showing 

 that an increase of wages will, in eflect result in a 

 comparative enhancement of the profits of the pro- 

 ducer who uses tile durable machinery; for he has 

 only to pay the advanced wages for working his 

 machine, whereas the other must pay both for re- 

 placing and for working his. This is rather an 

 obscure and nice distinction, and, to be just, requires 

 that the price of the durable machine shall not have 

 risen in value, in consequence of the increase of the 

 expense of building a new one, by reason of the rise 

 of wages ; whereas, it is according to common ex- 

 perience to suppose that it would rise in value, in 

 which case Mr M'Culloch's theory vanishes. 



Passing over what relates to consumption (q. v.), 

 the above are some of the leading doctrines and 

 theories of what is called the science of political 

 economy, as taught by recent writers in Britain and 

 France ; a science of which Adam Smith is said, by 

 its professors, to be the founder. Perhaps no study 

 of the day, which bears the name of science, presents 

 more vague theory, grave, mysterious empiricism, 

 dull prolixity, inconsequential arguments, gratui- 

 tous assumptions, jejune discussions, and elaborate 

 triviality. There are many useful truths, which 

 pass under the name of political economy ; but a 

 large proportion of the treatises, from that of Adam 

 Smith downwards, by the disciples of his school, 

 seem to bear the same relation to an intelligible 

 practical development of the causes and phenomena 

 of national growth, wealth and decline, that alche- 

 my does to modern chemistry. 



For other branches of political economy, see the 

 articles Banks, Bounties, Circulating Medium, 

 Commerce, Consumption, Corn Laws, Credit, 

 Debtor and Creditor, Direct Tax, Labourers, Lab- 

 our-saving Machines, Lotteries, Mercantile System, 

 Money, Monopoly, Literary Property, Patent, Physi- 

 ocratical System. The following are some of the 

 principal writers on political economy : 1. On the 

 mercantile system : Stuart's Inquiry into the Prin- 

 ciples of Political Economy (3 vols., London, 1767) ; 

 Genovesi, Lezioni di Commercio ossia d'Economia 

 civile (2 vols., Bassano, 1769) ; Busch, Abhandlung 

 von dem Geldumlauf(2 vols. ; new edition, Ham- 

 burg, 1800). 2. On the physiocratic or agricultu- 

 ral system : Quesnay, Tableau economique avee son 

 Explication (Versailles, 1758) ; this work was 

 printed, with several others on the same system, in 

 a collection edited by Dupont de Nemours, entitled 

 La Physiocratie (6 vols., Yverdum, 1768) : Turgot, 

 Recherches sur la Richesse et COrigine des Richesses 

 nationales (Paris, 1774); Le Trosne, De I'Orde 

 social (Paris, 1777) ; Theodore Schmalz, Staat- 

 swirthschaftslehre(2 vols., Berlin, 1818). 3. Adam 

 Smith's system, as set forth by himself, and devel- 

 oped by his followers : Adam Smith's Inquiry into 

 the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (2 

 vols., London, 1776; 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1814): 

 Sartorius, Von den Elementen des Nationalreicht- 

 hums und von der Staatswirthschaft (Gottingen, 

 1806) ; Luder, Ueber Nationalindustrie und Staat- 

 swirthschaft (3 vols., Berlin, 1800) ; Say's Traite 

 d'Economie politique ; Ganilh's Des Systemes d* 

 Economic politique (2 vols., Paris, 1809 and 1822) ; 

 Storch, Cours d' 'Economic politique (6 vols., Peters- 

 burg, 1815) ; and his Betrachtungen uber die Natur 

 des Nationaleinkommens (Halle, J825) ; Sismondi's 

 Nouveaux Principes d'Economie politique (2 vols., 

 Paris, 1818); Ricardo,On the Principles of Political 

 Economy and Taxation (new edition, London, 1819) ; 

 Malthus's Principles of Political Economy (London, 

 1820) ; Jakob, Grundsatze der Nationalokonomie 

 (Halle, 1805 and 1825) ; Soden, Nationalokonomie 



