Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/372

Rh 356 POLITICAL ECONOMY publicist Mengotti gave to that system the name of Colberlismo ; but it would be au error to consider the French minister as having absolutely accepted its dogmas. He regarded his measures as temporary only, and spoke of protective duties as crutches by the help of which manu facturers might learn to walk and then throw them away. The policy of exclusions had been previously pursued by Sully, partly with a view to the accumulation of a royal treasure, but chiefly from his special enthusiasm for agriculture, and his dislike of the introduction of foreign luxuries as detrimental to the national character. Colbert s tariff of 1664 not merely simplified but considerably reduced the existing duties; the tariff of 1667 indeed increased them, but that was really a political measure directed against the Dutch. It seems certain that France owed in a large measure to his policy the vast development of trade and manufactures which so much impressed the imagination of contemporary Europe, and of which we hear so much from English writers of the time of Petty. But this policy had also undeniably its dark side. Industry was forced by such systematic regulation to follow invariable courses, instead of adapting itself to changing tastes and popular demand. Nor was it free to simplify the processes of production, or to introduce increased division of labour and improved appliances. Spontaneity, initiation, and invention were repressed or discouraged, and thus ulterior sacrificed in a great measure to immediate results. The more enlightened statesmen, and Colbert in particular, endeavoured, it is true, to mini mize these disadvantages by procuring, often at great expense, and communicating to the trades through inspec tors nominated by the Government, information respecting improved processes employed elsewhere in the several arts ; but this, though in some degree a real, was certainly on the whole, and in the long run, an insufficient com pensation. We must not expect from the writers of this stage any exposition of political economy as a whole ; the publica tions which appeared were for the most part evoked by special exigencies, and related to particular questions, usually of a practical kind, which arose out of the great movements of the time. They were in fact of the nature of counsels to the Governments of states, pointing out how best they might develop the productive powers at their disposal and increase the resources of their respective countries. They are conceived (as List claims for them) strictly in the spirit of national economy, and cosmopoli tanism is essentially foreign to them. On these mono graphs the mercantile theory sometimes had little influ ence, the problems discussed not involving its tenets. But it must in most cases be taken to be the scheme of funda mental doctrine (so far as it was ever entitled to such a description) vhijh in the last resort underlies the writer s conclusions. The rise of prices following on the discovery of the American mines was one of the subjects which first attracted the attention of theorists. This rise brought about a great and gradually increasing disturbance of existing economic relations, and so produced much perplexity and anxiety, which were all the more felt because the cause of the change was not understood. To this was added the loss and inconvenience arising from the debasement of the currency often resorted to by sovereigns as well as by republican states. Italy suffered most from this latter abuse, which was multiplied by her political divisions. It was this evil which called forth the Scaruffi. work of Count Gasparo Scaruffi (Discorso sopra le moncte e della vera proporzionc fra I oro e Vargento, 1582). In this he put forward the bold idea of a universal money, everywhere identical in size, shape, composition, and designation. The project was, of course, premature, and was not adopted even by the Italian princes to whom the author specially appealed ; but the reform is one which, doubtless, the future will see realized. Gian Donato Turbolo, master of the Neapolitan mint, in his Discorsi e JRelazioni, 1629, protested against any tampering with the currency. Another treatise relating to the subject of money was that of the Florentine j Bernardo Davanzati, otherwise known as the able translator of I Tacitus, Lezioni dcllc Monde, 1588. It is a slight and somewhat superficial production, only remarkable as written with conciseness and elegance of style. A French writer who dealt with the question of money, but from Bodi: a different point of view, was Jean Bodin. In his litponsc aux paradoxes dc M, Malcstroit touchant I encherissemcnt dc toulcs Ics choscs et des monnaics, 15C8, and in his Discours sur le rchausscmcnt ct diminution dcs monnaics, 1578, he showed a more rational appreciation than many of his contemporaries of the causes of the revolution in prices, and the relation of the variations in money to the. market values of wares in general as well as to the wages of labour. He saw that the amount of money in circulation did not constitute the wealth of the community, and that the prohibition of the export of the precious metals was useless, because rendered inoperative by the necessities of trade. Bodin is no inconsiderable figure in the literary history of the epoch, and did not confine his [ attention to economic problems ; in his Six litres dc la Ripullique, about 1576, he studies the general conditions of the prosperity and I stability of states. In harmony with the conditions of his age, he approves of absolute Governments as the most competent to ensure the security and wellbeing of their subjects. He enters into au elaborate defence of individual property against Plato and More, rather perhaps because the scheme of his work required the treat ment of that theme than because it was practically urgent in his day, when the excesses of the Anabaptists had produced a strong feeling against communistic doctrines. He is under the general influence of the mercantilist views, and approves of energetic Governmental interference in industrial matters, of high taxes on foreign manufactures and low duties on raw materials and articles of food, and attaches great importance to a dense population. But he is not a blind follower of the system ; he wishes for un limited freedom of trade in many cases ; and he is in advance of his more eminent contemporary Montaigne 111 perceiving that the gain of one nation is not necessarily the loss of another. To the public finances, which he calls the sinews of the state, he devotes much attention, and insists on the duties of the Government in respect to the right adjustment of taxation. In general he deserves the praise of steadily keeping in view the higher aims and interests of society j in connexion with the regulation and development of its material life. Correct views as to the cause of the general rise of prices are also Staff&amp;lt; put forward by the English writer, W. S. (AVilliam Stafford), in his Brief e, Conceipte of English Policy, published in 1581, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. It is in the form of a dialogue, and is written with liveliness and spirit. The author seems to have been acquainted with the writings of Bodin. He has just ideas as to the nature of money, and fully understands the evils arising from a debased coinage. He describes in detail the way in which the several interests in the country had been affected by such debase ment in previous reigns, as well as by the change in the value of the precious metals. The great popular grievance of his day, the conversion of arable land into pasture, he attributes chiefly to the restrictions on the export of corn, which he desires to see abolished. But in regard to manufactures he is at the same point of view with the later mercantilists, and proposes the exclusion of all foreign wares which might as well be provided at home, and the prohibition of the export of raw materials intended to be worked up abroad. Out of the question of money, too, arose the first remarkable Albe German production on political economy which had an original pamj national character and addressed the public in the native tongue, lets. Duke George of the Ernestine Saxon line was inclined (1530) to introduce a debasement of the currency. A pamphlet, Gcmcine Stymmen von der Miintze, was published in opposition to this pro ceeding, under the auspices of the Albertine branch, whose policy was sounder in the economic sphere no less than in that of ecclesiastical affairs. A reply appeared justifying the Ernestine project. This was followed by a rejoinder from the Albertine side. The Ernestine pamphlet is described by Roscher as ill-written, obscure, inflated, and, as might be expected from the thesis it maintained, sophistical. But it is interesting as containing a statement of the fundamental principles of the mercantile system more than one hundred years before the publication of Mun s book, and forty-six before that of Bodin s Six limes dc la Repullique. The Albertine tracts, accord ing to Roscher, exhibit such sound views of the conditions and evidences of national wealth, of the nature of money and trade, and of the rights and duties of Governments in relation to economic action, that he regards the unknown author as entitled^ to a place beside Raleigh and the other English &quot;colonial-theorists&quot; of the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century. In connexion with the same subject of money we meet the great Cop&amp;lt; posed to reform the currency of the Prussian provinces of Poland. It advocates unity of the monetary system throughout the entire