Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/319

 BOOK III POLITICAL ECONOMY Introduction At the close of the Middle Ages political economy had advanced in the same proportion as the other sciences, and this fact is very easily understood. The develop- ment of a people consists in the co-operation of the various branches of culture ; accordingly, we find economic progress going hand in hand with intellectual advancement. Economic progress exerts a powerful influence on mental culture, while the latter, in its turn, affects the condition of the former. History furnishes many proofs of the close relations between the two. Political economy is concerned with the three branches of industry — agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. Agriculture has for its aim the production of raw material, and includes farming and cattle-breeding. Manufacturing deals with the transforming and utilising of the natural productions, and embraces all the indus- trial interests. Commerce, finally, is the means of exchange between nations, and is the avenue of supply and demand. Thus the various branches of political economy, being dependent on each other, progress in the same proportion so long as the development of each x 2