Principles of Political Economy

CHAPTER XI. Of Credit, as a Substitute for Money.

6. Deposits and cheques

CHAPTER XII. Influence of Credit on Prices.

§ 1. The influence of bank notes, bills, and cheques, on price, a part of

the influence of Credit

316

2. Credit a purchasing power similar to money

317

3. Effects of great extensions and contractions of credit. Phenomena

of a commercial crisis analysed

318

4. Bills a more powerful instrument for acting on prices than book

credits, and bank notes than bills.

320

-

5. the distinction of little practical importance

322

6. Cheques an instrument for acting on prices, equally powerful with

bank notes

324

7. Are bank notes money?.

326

8. No generic distinction between bank notes and other forms of credit 327

CHAPTER XIII. Of an Inconvertible Paper Currency.

§ 1. The value of an inconvertible paper, depending on its quantity, is
a matter of arbitrary regulation

2. If regulated by the price of bullion, an inconvertible currency
might be safe, but not expedient

328

330

3. Examination of the doctrine that an inconvertible currency is safe
if representing actual property

4. of the doctrine that an increase of the currency promotes

5. Depreciation of currency a tax on the community, and a fraud on

creditors.

1. Can there be an oversupply of commodities generally?

2. The supply of commodities in general, cannot exceed the power of

purchase

3.

never does exceed the inclination to consume

4 Origin and explanation of the notion of general oversupply

CHAPTER XV. Of a Measure of Value.

§ 1. A Measure of Exchange Value, in what sense possible

2. A Measure of Cost of Production.

CHAPTER XVI. Of some Peculiar Cases of Value.

1. Values of commodities which have a joint cost of production

2. Values of the different kinds of agricultural produce

CHAPTER XVII. Of International Trade.

§1. Cost of production not the regulator of international values.

2. Interchange of commodities between distant places, determined by

differences not in their absolute, but in their comparative, cost

of production

PAGE

347

3. The direct benefits of commerce consist in increased efficiency of

the productive powers of the world

4.

-

not in a vent for exports, nor in the gains of merchants

5. Indirect benefits of commerce, economical and moral; still greater

than the direct .

CHAPTER XVIII. Of International Values.

1. The values of imported commodities depend on the terms of inter-

national interchange

2.

-

which depend on the Equation of International Demand.

3. Influence of cost of carriage on international values

4. The law of values which holds between two countries, and two

commodities, holds of any greater number.

5. Effect of improvements in production, on international values

6. The preceding theory not complete

7. International values depend not solely on the quantities demanded,

but also on the means of production available in each country

for the supply of foreign markets.

8. The practical result little affected by this additional element

9. The cost to a country of its imports, on what circumstances

dependent

CHAPTER XIX. Of Money, considered as an Imported

Commodity.

§ 1. Money imported in two modes; as a commodity, and as a medium

of exchange

2. As a commodity, it obeys the same laws of value as other imported

351

356

360

363

8. Its value does not depend exclusively on its cost of production at

the mines.

369

CHAPTER XX. Of the Foreign Exchanges.

31. Purposes for which money passes from country to country as a

medium of exchange.

370

2. Mode of adjusting international payments through the exchanges. 370

3. Distinction between variations in the exchanges which are self-

adjusting, and those which can only be rectified through prices. 373

CHAPTER XXI.

Of the Distribution of the Precious Metals

through the Commercial World.

$1. The substitution of money for barter makes no difference in exports

and imports, nor in the law of international values.

2. The preceding theorem further illustrated.

374

376

§3. The precious metals, as money, are of the same value, and dis
tribute themselves according to the same law, with the precious
metals as a commodity

4. International payments of a non-commercial character

PAGB

379

CHAPTER XXII. Influence of Currency on the Exchanges and
on Foreign Trade.

§ 1. Variations in the exchange, which originate in the currency

2. Effect of a sudden increase of a metallic currency, or of the sudden

creation of bank notes or other substitutes for money

3. Effect of the increase of an inconvertible paper currency. Real

CHAPTER XXIII. Of the Rate of Interest.

§ 1. The rate of interest depends on the demand and supply of loans

2. Circumstances which determine the permanent demand and supply

of loans

3. Circumstances which determine the fluctuations

4. The rate of interest, how far, and in what sense, connected with

the value of money

5. The rate of interest determines the price of land and of securities.

CHAPTER XXIV. Of the Regulation of a Convertible
Paper Currency.

81. Two contrary theories respecting the influence of bank issues

2. Examination of each.

3. Reasons for thinking that the Currency Act of 1844 produces a

part of the beneficial effect intended by it

393

5. Should the issue of bank notes be confined to a single esta-

blishment?

408

6. Should the holders of notes be protected in any peculiar manner

against failure of payment?.

409

CHAPTER XXV. Of the Competition of different Countries

in the same Market.

§ 1. Causes which enable one country to undersell another

2. Low wages one of those causes

CHAPTER XXVI. Of Distribution, as affected by Exchange.

2.

§1. Exchange and Money make no difference in the law of wages

in the law of rent.

BOOK IV.

INFLUENCE OF THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY ON
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION.

CHAPTER General Characteristics of a Progressive State

of Wealth.

§ 1. Introductory Remarks

2. Tendency of the progress of society towards increased command

over the powers of nature; increased security; and increased

capacity of co-operation.

CHAPTER II Influence of the Progress of Industry and

Population on Values and Prices.

1. Tendency to a decline of the value and cost of production of all

commodities

2.

--

except the products of agriculture and mining, which have a

tendency to rise

that tendency from time to time counteracted by improvements

4. Effect of the progress of society in moderating fluctuations of value 427

5. Examination of the influence of speculators, and in particular of

corn dealers.

CHAPTER II. Influence of the Progress of Industry and

Population on Rents, Profits, and Wages.

428

1. First case; population increasing, capital stationary

2. Second case; capital increasing, population stationary

430

432

3. Third case; population and capital increasing equally, the arts of
production stationary.

433

4. Fourth case; the arts of production progressive, capital and popu-
lation stationary

433

5. Fifth case; all the three elements progressive

437

CHAPTER IV. Of the Tendency of Profits to a Minimum.

1. Doctrine of Adam Smith on the competition of capital

2. Doctrine of Mr. Wakefield respecting the field of employment

3. What determines the minimum rate of profit

4. In opulent countries, profits habitually near to the minimum

5.- prevented from reaching it by commercial revulsions

6.

7.

-

by improvements in production

- by the importation of cheap necessaries and instruments

8. by the emigration of capital

CHAPTER V. Consequences of the Tendency of Profits to

a Minimum.

1. Abstraction of capital not necessarily a national loss

2. In opulent countries, the extension of machinery not detrimental

but beneficial to labourers

CHAPTER VI. Of the Stationary State.

§ 1. Stationary state of wealth and population, dreaded and deprecated

by writers

-

2. but not in itself undesirable

CHAPTER VII. On the Probable Futurity of the Labouring

Classes.

§ 1. The theory of dependence and protection no longer applicable to

the condition of modern society

2. The future well-being of the labouring classes principally dependent

on their own mental cultivation

3. Probable effects of improved intelligence in causing a better

adjustment of population-Would be promoted by the social

independence of women

459

4. Tendency of society towards the disuse of the relation of hiring

5. Examples of the association of labourers with capitalists .

6. of the association of labourers among themselves

-

7. Competition not pernicious, but useful and indispensable.

BOOK V.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I. Of the Functions of Government in general.

§ 1. Necessary and optional functions of government distinguished.

2. Multifarious character of the necessary functions of government

3. Division of the subject

CHAPTER II. Of the General Principles of Taxation.

§ 1. Four fundamental rules of taxation

2. Grounds of the principle of Equality of Taxation

484

3. Should the same percentage be levied on all amounts of income?

4. Should the same percentage be levied on perpetual and on termi-

nable incomes? .

485

7. Taxes falling on capital, not necessarily objectionable

6. A land tax, in some cases, not taxation, but a rent-charge in favour

of the public.

5 The increase of the rent of land from natural causes a fit subject of

peculiar taxation

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Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social ...