OF SOCIETY. 459 



And, lastly, Adam Smith did not confine the idea of 

 property so exclusively to that of landed property as did 

 the agriculturists, still less did he go back to the super- 

 ficial and mistaken conception prevalent in the earlier 

 commercial system, which made money i.e., the precious 

 metals the main object of its interest, but he introduced 

 a truer conception of capital or stock which, next to land 

 and labour, formed the third important factor in his 

 economic system. 



So far as free trade is concerned, of which Adam Smith 

 is frequently represented to be the first and greatest 

 exponent, he was not original in attacking the mistakes 

 of the protectionist and prohibitive systems which then 

 prevailed all over Europe, though he probably did more 

 than any other writer on the subject to influence 

 practical reform and legislation in that direction. 



Although the great work of Adam Smith laid stress 

 upon certain philosophical principles, it was not system- 

 atic nor methodical, still less strictly deductive ; it was 

 full of illustrations and valuable reflections, and, in con- 

 sequence, gave rise to an enormous literature which 

 branched out in various directions, investigating special 

 points of his doctrine, combating some of his theories, 

 or attempting to bring more system and logical con- 

 sistency into the exposition of the whole or special 

 departments of the subject. In the latter respect David 32. 

 Eicardo (1772-1823) attained for a time great celebrity ; Maithus. 

 but though he is fond of logical dialectic and deductive 

 reasoning, it is now generally admitted that he did not 

 introduce any very novel point of view, and, least of all, 

 any philosophical principle which would be helpful in 



