A MANUAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE INSTITUTIONS, RESOURCES, AND CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES. BY WILLARD PHILLIPS. BOSTON, HILLIARD, GRAY, LITTLE, AND WILKINS. 1828. Jog P.E.1350 Econ 426,2 1888 Aug. 20 Trosferred from TRANSFERRED TO WARVARD COLLEGE LIBRART DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: District Clerk's Office. BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the eleventh day of January, A. D. 1828, in the fifty-second year of the Independence of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Willard Phillips, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author and proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "A MANUAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE INSTITUTIONS, RESOURCES, AND CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES. By Willard Phillips." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Press of Isaac R. Butts and Co. 2106 4712 PREFACE. In no country in the world is a knowledge of the principles of political economy more important than in the United States, since there is no other country in which a greater portion of the population is called to act upon and practically apply those principles. If we adopt M. Necker's notions of this science, the embarking in it is almost a hopeless enterprise, for he says "the subjects it involves are so run into one another, that people pass and repass them over and over, without ever distinguishing their beginning or end." This is not, however, a perfectly accurate representation, though it is not totally erroneous and unfounded; it is only an exaggeration, or rather a caricature, of some of the forbidding features of the science, which certainly does involve perplexities and difficulties. But this is a reason for cultivating the study with greater assiduity, not for neglecting it, since some economical principles, true or false, salutary or pernicious, must be adopted and applied in every community, and, in the right selection of these, the general welfare is deeply concerned. It is the object of this treatise to present, as far as the author could do it, a concise, practical view of the most important principles of this science, with an adaptation, more particularly, to the circumstances and condition of the United States. By saying the system is proposed to be thus adapted, no intimation. is intended that the true economical principles of one country, are wholly different from those of another, but that many of them are of great importance in one and small importance in another, and that others again have a practical application in some places, and are totally inapplicable elsewhere. The work is not proposed as embracing a system of doctrines all of which are already ratified in the general opinion; it would be very difficult, or, rather, quite impossible, to form such a system, since some doctrines are in dispute, and of those generally admitted, the relative importance is very differently estimated; what one considers a leading cause of national growth or decline, will be thought by another to be of little weight and influence. A theory which is supposed for a time to throw a flood of light upon the phenomena of production and accumulation, by and by passes, itself, into obscurity. To undertake to construct a system out of materials so discordant, by mere compilation, would be like an attempt to make a statue out of the fragments of others of all sizes and forms. The difficulty of forming clear conceptions and just opinions upon a subject so perplexed and obscure, and the no less difficulty of avoiding a tiresome recurrence of similar thoughts and expressions, will, I promise myself, be some apology for such errors in doctrine and defects in execution, as may be found in the work. BOSTON, JAN. 8th, 1828, |