Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/684

 664 POLITICAL ECONOMY it as a combination of the two. Mr. Senior considers it " the science which treats of the nature, the production, and the distribution of wealth." Archbishop Whately would give it the name of u catallactics, or the science of ex- changes." J. R. McCulloch considers it " the science of the laws which regulate the produc- tion of those material products which have exchangeable value, and which are either ne- cessary, useful, or agreeable to man." Storch says it "is the science of the natural laws which determine the prosperity of nations, that is to say, their wealth and civilization." Sismondi considers "the physical welfare of man, so far as it can be the work of govern- ment or society as the object of political econ- omy." Say defines it as " the economy of so- ciety; a science combining the results of our observations on the nature and functions of the different parts of the social body." John Stuart Mill considers it "the science which treats of the production and distribution of wealth, so far as they depend upon the laws of human nature," or "the science relating to the moral or psychological laws of the production and distribution of wealth." The progress thus far made in political economy has been slow and uncertain, and in its entire range there is hardly a doctrine or even the definition of an important word which is accepted beyond dis- pute. In 1844 De Quincey acknowledged that it did not advance, and that from the year 1817 it had "on the whole been station- ary;" and he adds: "Nothing can be postula- ted, nothing can be demonstrated, for anarchy even as to the earliest principles is predomi- nant." Amid all their discords and disagree- ments, it is possible to divide political econo- mists under two general heads : those who treat the subject as a deductive science, "in which all the general propositions are in the strictest sense of the word hypothetical;" and those who treat it by the inductive method. They may also be divided into those who fol- low Ricardo with his fundamental doctrine of the theory of rent, and those who have given in their adhesion to Carey's law of the occu- pation of the earth. The adverse views as to the practical effects of the application of pro- tection and free trade are quite inadequate to serve the purpose of division, since many of the believers in one or the other of these doctrines quite disagree in regard to other and important questions. The discordant state of this so- called science therefore renders it necessary in this place to trace out the history of economic ideas, and to give an account of the views and opinions at present held by the adverse schools and their various teachers. A science under- lying the art of political economy was quite unknown to the ancients, although they had brought under observation many facts which gave rise to true and valuable economic doc- trines. These doctrines or rules were how- ever quite empirical, isolated, and not elabo- rated into broad and far-reaching principles, and had in view far more the advancement of the state, its treasury, and its military power, than the prosperity, the happiness, and the freedom of the people. Nevertheless it is im- portant to recognize the fact of the origin of political economy in these early and imper- fectly stated doctrines. The ancient code of India, the Institutes of Manu, contains provi- sions as to the revenues, usury, &c. ; but these provisions are merely designed to establish and fix the respective rights and duties of the sov- ereign and his subjects, and of the subjects among themselves. In Attica agriculture was commended and encouraged, and the price of agricultural produce was generally low ; while the products of various branches of diversified industry were important, but the prices were generally high. Foreign trade was carried on extensively with the various countries on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black seas. Duties were levied upon foreign imports, but almost if not quite wholly with a view to the revenue of the state. Interest was high, and money was scarce and hard to procure. " In every Greek state," says Bockh, " the finances were in the hands of the sovereign power ; and at Athens the legislation on financial matters belonged to the people, the administration of them to the supreme council. Then, as well as now, the administration of the finances was considered one of the most important branch- es of the public affairs, and the statesman who, like Aristides or Lycurgus, succeeded in pla- cing them in a flourishing condition, gained the good will of the people and the admira^ tion of posterity." The laws of Lycurgus deal with many economic questions, such as money, usury, taxes, lands, and the employment of the people ; but almost the sole idea through- out these laws is the establishment of the mil- itary power of Sparta. " Lycurgus, or the in- dividual to whom this system is owing, who- ever he was," says Grote, "is the lawgiver of a political community ; his brethren live to- gether like bees in a hive, with all their feelings implicated in the commonwealth, and divorced from house and home." The earliest treatise on an economic subject is believed to be " The Eryxias, or About Wealth," erroneously at- tributed to ^Eschines Socraticus, a disciple of Socrates. Plato ("The Republic," book ii.) calls attention to the necessity for separate employments, and in the opinion of Blanqui "he has pointed out the advantages of a di- vision of labor with perfect clearness, and appears to us to take from Adam Smith the merit of this discovery." He also regards the passage in which Plato conducts his reader to- ward a definition of money by tracing up the necessity, in a community of diversified em- ployments and wants, of "an established coin- age as a symbol for the purposes of exchange," as most remarkable, partaking of the nature of most ingenious art. On the other hand, in tin opinion of Say, Plato "has with tolerable fidel- ity sketched the effects of the separation