Generalization and Economic Standards 5 



the same method, which, in a large, rough way has accom- 

 panied mankind into the light of civilization, may, under the 

 refined concept of a solidarity of social interests, still help us 

 to exactor truth. 



Social science does not only find its subject matter in the 

 people, but it adopts their methods of thought. The latter are 

 subjected to the same refining and defining as the former. 

 The syllogism is no invention of science; the modern concep- 

 tion of relative truth is but the thought of the modern me- 

 chanic and inventor; and the concept of social prosperity as a 

 unit was not discovered in closet studies. 



When economic theory detached itself from political, the 

 Physiocrats gave to the idea of social unity a further definite- 

 ness, by confining it within the economic category. They 

 boldly formulated the source of national wealth, and declared 

 it to be in the land. The laud paid the cost of the whole so- 

 cio-economic effort, and the land returned the surplus enjoyed 

 by succeeding generations. Thus, cost, surplus, and society 

 were regarded as concepts of equal breadth and validity. 



The central thought of Adam Smith was the harmony be- 

 tween individual interests and those of society, considered as 

 a separate and independent entity. The social surplus was 

 shown to arise as much from manufacture, transportation, and 

 exchanofe as from aofriculture. Agci'iculture was still admitted 



o o o 



to a large share: the surplus was greater in a newly settled 

 country than in an older one; but still, division of labor was a 

 social institution which combated nature and produced a prod- 

 uct for distribution among the whole community. 



Eicardo formulated a still more definite social concept. He 

 showed that the scheme of what we may be permitted to call 

 calculated or voluntary economics was carried out upon a mar- 

 gin of production imposed by nature; upon this margin aloi^^ 

 could be determined the social cost. Cost was measured in 

 the general rate of wages, which followed the ascending re- 



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