Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/697

 POLITICAL ECONOMY 677 to perfect combination and association. Real freedom of trade consists in the power to main- tain direct commerce with the outside world. To reach it there must be a diversity of em- ployments, enabling the exporting country to send its commodities abroad in a finished shape. Centralization, such as is established by the British system, is opposed to this, and therefore it is that that system is resisted by all the advancing communities of the world, they being enabled to advance in the precise ratio with their power to resist it. Protection being the form assumed by that resistance, its object may be properly defined as being that of establishing perfect freedom of commerce among the nations of the world. Societary organization furnishes additional evidence of the universality of nature's laws, for through- out her realms dissimilarity of parts furnishes conclusive evidence of the perfection of the whole the highest organization presenting the most numerous differences. The higher the organization the more complete the subordina- tion of parts, and the more harmonious and beautiful their interdependence ; and the more complete that interdependence the greater the individuality of the whole, and the more per- fect the power of self-direction. In 1873 Mr. Carey published " The Unity of Law as exhib- ited in the Relations of Physical, Social, Men- tal, and Moral Science." The writers who have adopted in whole or in part the doctrines of Carey, and have published books or papers on the subject, are : in the United States, E. Peshine Smith, " A Manual of Political Econo- my "(1853); Dr. William Elder, "Questions of the Day, Economic and Social " (1870) ; Robert Ellis Thompson, " Social Science and Nation- al Economy" (1875); in Germany, Prof. Eu- gene Duhring of Berlin, Carey's Umwahung der Volkswirthschaftslehre und Socialwissemchaft (1865), Capital und Arbeit, neue Antworten avf alte Fragen (1865), Die VerUeinerer Ca- rey's und die Krisis der NationaUkonomie (1867), KritiscJie Gesehichte der Nationaloko- nomie und des Socialismus (1871), and Cursus der National- und Socialokonomie (1873) ; in France, M. de Fontenay, M. Raspail, and M. Clapier; in Italy, Signor Ferrara, late min- ister of finance and editor of Biblioteca delV economista. American writers other than those already named are Prof. Francis Bowen, Con- dy Raguet, Prof. Wayland, Prof. H. Vethake, George Opdyke, Prof. Amasa Walker, Prof. A. L. Perry, and David A. Wells. Prof. Bowen published in 1856 " Principles of Po- litical Economy," which was revised and re- published in 1870 under the title "American Political Economy, including Strictures on the Management of the Currency and Finances since 1866." He says with much truth : " The entire science of English political economy may be said to be built upon three leading theories, that of Adam Smith concerning free trade, that of Malthus in regard to population, and that of Ricardo in regard to rent." In none of these does he agree with the English school, although he recognizes that they con- tain a mixture of truth and falsehood. Condy Raguet was a decided follower of the English school, especially in regard to free trade and the theory of money. Profs. Wayland and Vethake mainly followed the English writers. Mr. Opdyke believes that "free trade, abso- lute, unconditional free trade, and direct tax- ation, is the true policy of all nations, and of each nation regardless of the course pursued by all others." He holds that bank deposits payable on demand are money, and is opposed to paper money made convertible with coin, but thinks that the government of the United States should issue inconvertible paper money to the amount of $10 a head of the population, which should circulate in common with coin, each being equally a legal tender. These views were promulgated in 1851 in "A Treatise on Political Economy." In 1866 Dr. Amasa Walk- er published " The Science of Wealth, a Man- ual of Political Economy, embracing the Laws of Trade, Currency, and Finance," which has been repeatedly revised and republished. Dr. Walker is a decided adherent of the views of Montesquieu and Hume on money, holds to Ricardo's theory of rent, but not to Malthus's law of population, and is strongly in favor of free trade. Prof. Perry published his " Ele- ments of Political Economy" in 1865, and it has passed through several editions. He re- gards the "word wealth" as "the bane of political economy," "the bog whence most of the mists have arisen which have beclouded the whole subject." He adds that the defini- tion given by Archbishop Whately, "the sci- ence of exchange," or " its precise equivalent, the science of value, gives a perfectly definite field to political economy." Value, he holds, "is always and everywhere the relation be- tween two services exchanged," while utility he regards as the " capacity which anything or any service has to gratify any human desire what- In regard to Malthus's law of popula- ever. tion, he holds " that the alleged laws of nature in respect to the increase of population and food, which are said to be antagonistic, have never yet been proved." In regard to distri- bution he says : " I wish at this point to bear testimony to his (Carey's) great merit as the original discoverer of the beautiful law of dis- tribution, in the light of which the future con- dition of the laboring classes of all countries, if they are only true to themselves, seems hopeful and bright." In regard to the occupa- tion of the earth and to rent, he takes a middle ground between Ricardo and Carey. On the subject of money he is a decided follower of Locke, Montesquieu, and Hume, and upon this and foreign trade is utterly opposed to the doctrines of the mercantile school of former days and the protectionists or the national school of the present. Mr. Wells has princi- pally devoted his attention to the subject of foreign trade, tariffs, and taxation generally,