Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/226

 wisdom did not consist in closing the ports or in prohibiting exports; to have been willing to welcome the arrival of foreign wealth, even if money had in the first instance to go abroad to fetch it; and, finally, to go as far as to allow that it was far better to consent even to the importation of perishable goods than to prohibit trade altogether—even though what is said on all these subjects may occasionally appear slightly inconsistent with something that has gone before, or may occasionally be a little uncertain in sound, or not be pushed to the full logical consequence of the premises, or be accompanied by too many apparent concessions to adversaries.

With reference to these concessions, a special set of considerations have to be borne in mind. The early authors on political economy, not only in France, but in England also, wrote with a constant fear before their eyes of the dangerous consequences of speaking too freely. Their publications were frequently anonymous, and even posthumous: the safest course of all. The liberty of unlicensed printing was not yet secured; and the ill-will of those in authority was easily incurred by the expression of views in advance of the times. The only thoroughly free trade pamphlet of the century, 'The Discourses,' published in 1691 by Sir Dudley North, is believed to have been suppressed. It certainly entirely disappeared from circulation. Parliament had just before proclaimed trade with France 'a nuisance,' and North's pamphlet was like a winter rose. The author of the 'Détail de la France,' Boisguillebert, was not saved by his high position from ending his days in exile and poverty; and death alone preserved Marshal Vauban from a similar punishment for publishing the strong condemnation of existing abuses and the sweeping proposals of reform contained in the 'Dîme Royale.' This class of considerations should be present to the mind of the reader of Sir William Petty's economic works, when he finds arguments adduced in favour of some of the restrictions of the mercantile system, and observations almost immediately afterwards interpolated—and with curious frequency—absolutely fatal to the whole system, thus proving either that the acute mind of the author was doubtful of the