ADAM SMITH. 89 



including, as one of its main branches, political economy. 

 When, therefore, ethical speculations had made so great 

 progress, it was natural that this important subject should 

 also engage the attention of scientific men ; and we iind, 

 accordingly, that in the early part of the eighteenth 

 century the attention of the learned and, in some but in a 

 moderate degree, of statesmen also, was directed to these 

 inquiries. Some able works had touched in the pre- 

 ceding century upon the subjects of money and trade. 

 Sound and useful ideas upon these were to be found 

 scattered through the writings of Mr. Locke. But at a 

 much earlier period, Mr. Min, both in 1621 and 1664, 

 had cornbatted successfully, as far as reasoning went, 

 without any success in making converts, the old and 

 mischievous, but natural fallacy, that the precious metals 

 are the constituents of wealth. Soon after Min's second 

 work, ' The Increase of Foreign Trade/ Sir Win. Petty 

 still further illustrated the error of those who are afraid 

 of an unfavourable balance of trade, and exposed the 

 evil policy of regulating the rate of interest by law. A 

 few years before Sir Wm. Petty's most celebrated work, 

 his ' Anatomy of Ireland/ appeared Sir Josiah Child's 

 'Discourse of Trade/ 1668, in which, with some errors 

 on the subject of interest, he laid down many sound views 

 of trade, the principle of population, and the absurdity 

 of laws against forestalling and regrating. In 1681 he 

 published his ' Philopatris/ which shews the injurious 

 effects of monopolies of every kind, and explains clearly 

 the nature of money. But Sir Dudley North's ' Discourse/ 

 published in 1691, took as clear and even as full a view 

 of the true doctrines of commerce and exchange as any 

 modern treatise ; building its deductions upon the fun- 



