Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/22

 434 Economists closed opposition to the Ricardian law of rent, but whose book culminated in a defence of free trade. The only other contri- bution of the decade was the Outline of Political Economy (1828) by William Jennison. The next decade showed more activity. Beginning with the fugitive writings of William Beach Lawrence, Two Lectures on Political Economy (1832), W. H. Hale's Useful Knowledge for the Producers of Wealth (1833), and An Essay on the Principles of Political Economy Designed as a Manual for Practical Men by an American (1837), we come to more formal works: S. P. Newman's Elements of Political Economy (1835); President Francis Wayland's Elements of Political Economy (1837); and Theodore Sedgwick's Public and Private Economy, in three parts (1836-39). Professor H. Vethake, of the University of Pennsylvania, who had published several Introductory Lectures on Political Economy in 1831 and 1833, no'w^ issued his Princi- ples of Political Economy (1838), containing the substance of the courses given since 1822. Professor George Tucker, of the University of Virginia, published in 1837 The Laws of Wages, Profits, and Rent Investigated and followed this by The Theory of Money and Banks Investigated ( 1 839). Worthy of notice also is the work by the engineer Charles EUet, ]t., An Essay on the Laws of Trade in Reference to the Works of Internal Improvement (1839)- The only book of this period which manifested any origi- nality was John Rae's Statement of New Principles on the Sub- ject of Political Economy (Boston, 1 834). Rae, a Canadian, took issue with the prevalent English school in two points. He made a distinct contribution to the theory of capital and he laid a more solid foundation for the defence of the protective system. Rae is the only American writer of this* period who attracted the notice of John Stuart Mill and whose contributions have received much attention in recent times. During the forties the interest in political economy seemed to slacken. Only four books are to be recorded. Professor A. Potter's Political Economy, Its Objects, Uses and Principles (1840), which was largely an adaptation of Poulett Scrope; the Notes on Political Economy (1844) by "a Southern planter" (N. A. Ware) ; E. C. Seaman's Essays on the Progress of Nations in Productive Industry, Civilization, and Wealth (1846); and