sss 



Logic of tsij moral sciences. 



mer. A department of science may 

 thus be constructed, which has re- 

 ceived the name of Political Economy. 



The motive which suggests the 

 separation of this portion of the social 

 phenomena from the rest, and the 

 creation of a distinct branch of science 

 relating to them, is, that they do 

 mainly depend, at least in the first 

 resort, on one class of circumstances 

 only ; and that even when other cir- 

 cumstances interfere, the ascertain- 

 ment of the effect due to the one class 

 of circumstances alone is a sufficiently 

 intricate and difficult business to make 

 it expedient to perform it once for all, 

 and then allow for the effect of the 

 modifying circumstances ; especially 

 as certain fixed combinations of the 

 former are apt to recur often, in con- 

 junction with ever-varying circum- 

 stances of the latter class. 



Political Economy, as I have said 

 on another occasion, concerns itself 

 only with " such of the phenomena of 

 the social state as take place in con- 

 sequence of the pursuit of wealth. 

 It makes entire abstraction of every 

 other human passion or motive, ex- 

 cept those which may be regarded as 

 perpetually antagonising principles to 

 the desire of wealth, namely, aversion 

 to labour, and desire of the present en- 

 joyment of costly indulgences. These 

 it takes, to a certain extent, into its 

 calculations, because these do not 

 merely, like our other desires, occa- 

 sionally conflict with the pursuit of 

 wealth, but accompany it always as a 

 drag or impediment, and are therefore 

 inseparably mixed up in the considera- 

 tion of it. Political Economy con- 

 siders mankind as occupied solely in 

 acquiring and consuming wealth, and 

 aims at showing what is the course of 

 action into which mankind, living in 

 a state of society, would be impelled 

 if that motive, except in the degree 

 in which it is checked by the two 

 perpetual counter- motives above ad- 

 verted to, were absolute ruler of all 

 their actions. Under the influence of 

 this desire, it shows mankind accu- 

 mulating wealth, and employing that 



wealth in the production of other 

 wealth ; sanctioning by mutual agree- 

 ment the institution of property; esta- 

 blishing laws to prevent individuals 

 from encroaching upon the property 

 of others by force or fraud ; adopting 

 various contrivances for increasing 

 the productiveness of their labour ; 

 settling the division of the produce 

 by agreement, under the influence of 

 competition, (competition itself being 

 governed by certain laws, which laws 

 are therefore the ultimate regulators 

 of the division of the produce ;) and em- 

 ploying certain expedients (as money, 

 credit, &c.) to facilitate the distri- 

 bution. All these operations, though 

 many of them are really the result of 

 a plurality of motives, are considered 

 by political economy as flowing solely 

 from the desire of wealth. The science 

 then proceeds to investigate the laws 

 which govern these several operations, 

 under the supposition that man is a 

 being who is determined, by the neces- 

 sity of his nature, to prefer a greater 

 portion of wealth to a smaller in all 

 cases, without any other exception 

 than that constituted by the two 

 counter-motives already specified ; not 

 that any political economist was ever 

 so absurd as to suppose that mankind 

 are really thus constituted, but be- 

 cause this is the mode in which science 

 must necessarily proceed. When an 

 effect depends on a concurrence of 

 causes, these causes must be studied 

 one at a time, and their laws separately 

 investigated, if we wish, through the 

 causes, to obtain the power of either 

 predicting or controlling the effect ; 

 since the law of the effect is com- 

 pounded of the laws of all the causes 

 which determine it. The law of the 

 centripetal and that of the projectile 

 force must have been known before 

 the motions of the earth and planets 

 could be explained or many of them 

 predicted. The same is the case with 

 the conduct of man in society. In 

 order to judge how he will act under 

 the variety of desires and aversions 

 which are concurrently operating upon 

 him, we must know how he would act 



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