NOTES ON ECONOMICAL SCIENCE. ^"J 



I rest with confidence on the fundamental principle that political 

 economy is a real science, not consisting of the mere fancies and 

 visionary theories of certain writers, but of knowledge concerning 

 laws of nature which being unchangeable and universal in their oper- 

 ation, must be known that we may avoid the evils that must arise 

 from their neglect, and that we may by acting in harmony with them 

 make them promote our ends. If there were no natural laws in 

 relation to wealth, its acquisition and distribution, there could be no 

 science. If we misunderstand any existing laws, so far our principles 

 are wrong and must be set right by further inquiry, but if, as we 

 think, the knowledge of laws has been obtained, to go in opposition 

 to them would be mere madness and folly. The first rude generali- 

 sations suggested by imperfect views of the facts can no longer be 

 safely admitted as guides for practical measures. We must endeavour 

 to follow the reasonings of those who have carried forward the science 

 to its present advanced state, and unless we can prove them fallacious 

 we ought to adopt the results as practical rules. My proposed part 

 is to point out some instances in which popular prejudice is opposed 

 to scientific reasoning, and to endeavour to make it plain that the 

 latter is sound and good and ought to be our practical guide. 



The first subject which it occurs to me to notice is the old — it 

 might have been thought the exploded — fallacy of it being a great 

 evil for money to go out of the country, or as the same thing is differ- 

 ently expressed, for the imports of a country to exceed its exports. 

 This notion must depend either on the belief that money itself con- 

 stitutes wealth, instead of being as it is now well known to be only 

 one among the commodities valued, and being wanted only in a 

 certain limited proportion ; or on the fancy that importation injures 

 home production, whereas it is manifest that there could be no 

 importation excepting for the supply of wants, the means of payment 

 for which supply must be procured by home industry ; or from the 

 assumption that it belongs to a certain clique to decide how the 

 people shall employ their industry, and to demand from government 

 means of preventing the public from seeking things abroad which 

 they think should be prepared at home, whereas it is one of the most 

 certain dictates of experience that individual self-interest is the safest 

 and best guide, to what each man shall do, and it necessarily follows 

 that the country flourishes most where every man produces what he 

 can best produce and buys with his produce whatever he most desires 



Vol. XI. G 



