PART I. Of the Motives for establishing new Colonies PART II. Causes of the Prosperity of new Colonies. PART III. Of the Advantages which Europe has derived Of the Sources of the General or Public Revenue of the Society Taxes upon the Profit of particular Employments APPENDIX TO ARTICLES I and II. Taxes upon ARTICLE IV. Taxes which it is intended should fall in- POLIT BOOK IV. OF SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION. OLITICAL ECONOMY, considered as a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator, proposes two distinct objects: first, to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, or more properly to enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves; and secondly, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue sufficient for the public services. It proposes to enrich both the people and the sovereign.1 The different progress of opulence in different ages and nations, has given occasion to two different systems of political economy, with regard to enriching the people. The one may be called the system of commerce, the other that of agriculture. I shall endeavour to explain both as fully and distinctly as I can, and shall begin with the system of commerce. It is the modern system, and is best understood in our own country and in our own times. CHAPTER I. OF THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMERCIAL OR MERCANTILE SYSTEM. THA of HAT wealth consists in money, or in gold and silver, is a popular notion which naturally arises from the double function. money, as the instrument of commerce, and as the measure of The meaning which Adam Smith assigned to Political Economy has passed away. The terms are now understood to mean-the science which discovers the laws which determine the production, consumption, and distribution of wealth. Unfortunately, nearly all these words are ambiguous. It has been suggested that a better definition is found in the following:-The science of those forces which set labour in motion, in so far as that labour is employed on objects which thereby acquire a value in exchange. Adam Smith's definition is nearly coVOL. 11. B extensive with the modern theory of politics, from the Benthamite point of view, which seeks to establish the greatest possible good for the greatest possible number. Such a theory of political economy tends to make the science coextensive with that of morals, by accounting for all the causes which affect the well-being of a community, while modern economists limit their inquiries to the causes which increase or waste wealth. The distinction was seen by Aristotle, Nicom. Eth. Book vi. caps. 6-8. އ value. In consequence of its being the instrument of commerce, when we have money we can more readily obtain whatever else we have occasion for, than by means of any other commodity. The great affair, we always find, is to get money. When that is obtained, there is no difficulty in making any subsequent purchase. In consequence of its being the measure of value, we estimate that of all other commodities by the quantity of money which they will exchange for. We say of a rich man that he is worth a great deal, and of a poor man that he is worth very little money. A frugal man, or a man eager to be rich, is said to love money; and a careless, a generous, or a profuse man, is said to be indifferent about it. To grow rich is to get money; and wealth and money, in short, are in common language considered as in every respect synonymous. A rich country, in the same manner as a rich man, is supposed to be a country abounding in money; and to heap up gold and silver in any country is supposed to be the readiest way to enrich it. For some time after the discovery of America, the first inquiry of the Spaniards, when they arrived upon any unknown coast, used to be, if there was any gold or silver to be found in the neighbourhood? By the information which they received, they judged whether it was worth while to make a settlement there, or if the country was worth the conquering. Plano Carpino, a monk sent ambassador from the king of France to one of the sons of the famous Gengis Khan, says that the Tartars used frequently to ask him if there were plenty of sheep and oxen in the kingdom of France? Their inquiry had the same object with that of the Spaniards. They wanted to know if the country was rich enough to be worth the conquering. Among the Tartars, as among all other nations of shepherds, who are generally ignorant of the use of money, cattle are the instruments of commerce and the measures of value. Wealth, therefore, according to them, consisted in cattle, as according to the Spaniards it consisted in gold and silver. Of the two, the Tartar notion perhaps was nearest to the truth. Mr. Locke remarks a distinction between money and other moveable goods. All other moveable goods, he says, are of so consumable a nature that the wealth which consists in them cannot The story is told by Rubruquis, whose journey to Tartary is contained in the same volume with that of Carpino. See Voyage de Rubruquis en Tartarie, p. 142. 2 This appears to be a general reference to Locke's three essays on Money and Interest. I can find no passage in them which contains the words of the text. |