ON THE COMTIST CRITICISM OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE. 467 



was taken to market, or during the sixteenth century, when the compe- 

 tition value of land was determined by its capability for rearing sheep and 

 supplying wool. It was not til! the eighteenth century that English 

 agriculture took the form which Ricardo's law assumes, and his theory 

 of rent could not have been recognised and stated till the facts which 

 he explains became patent. In criticising Adam Smith's doctrine of 

 rent ' we ought to consider more than we do how far it applied to the 

 facts he had before him. 



Primitive industry and commerce are very simple : there is very little 

 division of employment and very little specialisation of function, and 

 therefore very little can bo known or accurately stated about the increase 

 of wealth. The villan of ' Domesday Book,' who had a holding and owned 

 a yoke of oxen, and was bound to work two days a week on the domain, 

 could not distinguish between his wages and the reward of his capital, or 

 specify the rent for which his farm would let. The merchants of Venice 

 had shares in ships and would buy or sell such propertj', but they knew 

 little of contango or backwardation. It is only in modern society that 

 these diflPerent things exist in clearly marked forms so that it is possible 

 to distinguish them accurately and have a definite terminology. And 

 hence it follows that the economic phenomena of modern society repay 

 study far more than those of any earlier condition. Not only is the 

 modern economic organism most effective, and therefore best worth 

 attention, but it is most complicated and gives us the best opportunity of 

 discriminating different functions, and even by means of statistics of 

 measuring our results with some degree of precision. Till the working 

 of the economic organism was fairly understood it was impossible to 

 collect or tabulate statistics that should show the rate at which changes 

 of real importance were progressing ; accurate measurement only be- 

 comes of interest when we know what it is worth while to measure. 

 Hence a great part of the figures in the ' British Merchant,' or in Play- 

 fair's ' Commercial Atlas,' which exhibit changes in the balance of trade 

 between England and various countries, are of little use to modern 

 economists. It is only in modern times that sound analysis anri accurate 

 measurement of economic phenomena have become possible. 



1. The view which has just been stated as to the possibility of con- 

 tinued growth in the accuracy of economic knowledge is obviously opposed 

 to the Comtist criticism of the followers of Adam Smith. He complains 

 of the barrenness of their discussions and the idle logomachies in which 

 they indulged ; but time is not wasted that is spent in clearing our con- 

 ceptions and securing a good definition of terms we commonly use. 

 Especially is this the case when, as in economic science, disputes about 



k definitions are really disputes, not about words, but about things.- As Di-. 

 Whewell said,3 in language which was quoted with approval by Mill, 

 •There is a tacit assumption of some proposition which is to be expressed by 

 meansof the definition, and which gives it its importance. . . .Definition 

 piay be the best mode of explaining our conception, but that which alone 

 biakes it worth while to explain it in any mode is the opportunity of 

 Using it in the expression of truth. When a definition is propounded to 

 ' Wealth of Nations, Bk I., xi. Dr. Anderson was able, however, to observe the 

 phenomena in Scot land, and to formulate this principle in his L'n/iuiri/ into the yd are 

 of the Corn Lan-s (1777). 

 - Mill, Logic, IV. 4. 

 " yoi-itm Ortjannm Jlcnovatum, 35-40. 



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