men, either on the one hand admire, or on the other deplore. For the people of either country, so long content with using such political machinery as they found themselves provided with to promote their material interests, may at any moment find a lull in their activities, in which to overhaul and seek even to mend their political machinery. Ancestor-worship forms but a small part of the intellectual equipment of the people of either country if they come to believe that they can improve the political mechanism in its actual workings. It has been deemed fitting, therefore, to make clear the unity between the national mechanism, which is after all only the embodied people, and the same people when viewed in their industrial aspects as producers and consumers. It is not merely that the Political State and Industrial State are companions on the same road, but the Political State is shown to be the apparel of which the Industrial Life of the people is the wearer. To some it may seem that certain policies, pursued by the governing powers both in Great Britain and America, are treated with an acerbity that throws the book out of tune with the statesmanship of both countries. In America, the drifting away from the intent of the framers of the Constitution, in respect to the mode of selecting the President, and the increasingly autocratic tendencies of the Presidential office, may be deemed to have been so treated. In discussing economic features of the British Empire, the chief points of criticism are the very unequal degree in which the various populations composing it have found it possible to secure the friendly regard of Parliament, and the consequent voluntary abandonment of the farmers to unequal competition with those of other countries, after certain classes of the manufacturers, through four centuries of protection, had ceased to need its further continuance. The judicious reader will discover, and the adverse concede, that among the truer and higher statesmen of the country whose legislative or administrative action may be thus criticised, some, of note, have preceded me in the utterance substantially of the views here enunciated. It is believed that the fullness of the indexes and the simplicity of the order and arrangement adopted, combined with its ample presentation, in the text, of the facts essential to guide a judgment on most economic issues, and in the notes, of the views of nearly all economists, may make it convenient as a book of reference to that very large number of persons who, if amply supplied with facts, find it not difficult to arrive at their own conclusions. Political Economy, so far from being a dismal science, is fascinating in all its parts to all who master in any degree the clues to its right apprehension. It is even entertaining in the hands of some, every blow of whose fingers upon its strings evolves only discord and misapprehension. In its fairer spirit and fuller apprehension it will become the mediator between all of society's extremes of condition, race, and culture-between the poor and the rich, the virtuous and the criminal, the wise and the unlearned, the governors and the governed, and, among nations, between the monarchical and the republican, the debtor and the creditor, the Christian and the heathen. It reconciles man to himself by acquainting him with himself in others. The proper study of society is society. No other study can be so broad or so enlightening. I do not with Jevons think it can be greatly helped by measuring gains and losses of pleasurable emotion against each other with algebraic signs and symbols. Nor with Mill can I attach profound value to tenuous speculations pervaded by metaphysical subtlety. Nor, with Senior, am I prepared to dispose of conditions of society, past, present, or future, wherein wealth arises, of kinds that are not exchangeable, and in modes that are not due to competition, nor measurable in coin values, which it becomes perhaps impossible or even criminal to buy or sell, by saying that they are not economic conditions, and that the society in which they arise would not be an economic world. It is sufficient for me that they are, have been, and may long continue to be, a part of actual society, government, and industry, and that they have economic effects. The family, the church, the state, the college, the literary, artistic, and social world are full of priceless values that do not arise by competition, but exclude it; society is in part organized and held in place by means of these unpurchasable values which it is proud to know are not exchangeable. They create coöperation. They inspire trust. They promote united action. Honor, Law, Patriotism, Fidelity are as much parts of the existing social wealth of the world as profits, money, and exchange. Hence, to limit economic discussion to the consideration of things that can be bought and sold may be to emasculate, disinspire, and destroy it. Finally Economic Science is a continuing inspiration. It can only be petrified into fixity, after it has lost its living principle. As an inspiration it leads, but it can not halt. Its future can not be dwarfed by recognizing its present state as final. It must migrate to new fields of instruction as the old lose their interest, by the same law by which its chief factors, profits, and wages avoid the declining rate of compensation in old investments, by themselves passing on to new efforts, new processes, and new places. So Political Economy will find its new rate of profit and higher wage in advancing to new forms of thought, new expositions, new fields and themes. Its spirit must keep pace with the march of the industries and the governments. In its present stage of development it is not unlike the early systems of placer mining for gold. The one rule which governed finding it was "where you find it, there it is." In judging of its value the placer system further enriches our language with the proper test. It is "worth what it pans out." The ore in this book is now ready to be submitted to the sieve. The reader will shake the sieve and hold the pan. Interested vitriol throwers will stand around and express a doubt whether the glistening grains are not pyrites. If so, let the acid thrower have free fire at every grain. So many as remain will be the fine gold of commerce and of nations. POTTER BUILDING, New York, May 1, 1888. PERSONAL INDEX. [Many facts of economic importance stand associated with the names of actors in prominent events rather than with those of economic teachers or critics. Such is the connection of Colbert with French manufactures or of Cortez with the increased supply of silver. As the purpose of an index is to give the reader the clews most likely to enab e him to find what he is searching for, it is believed that such an index will prove more valuable than the tabulated list of authors cited, which is also conveniently included in it. It shades outward toward names whose connection with the current of economic history is slight or trivial. But an index of authors cited picks up in like manner many whose contribution to the course of discussion has been slight. The present Index is designed simply to aid the reader in his special search for facts.] Adams, Prof. H. C., on debts, 353, 448--451; on special interests, 603, 653, 654 Agricultural Report, 96, 106, 252; of Ohio, 254; of the United States, 256 Albert, Prince, 215 Alexander of Macedon, 276, 279, Alison, Sir Archibald, 359 American Encyclopædia, 255 American Iron and Steel Association, Bulletin of, 555; on prices of English and American iron and steel goods, 590 American Wool Growers' Associa- Annales de Chimie, 503 Archangel Michael, 340 Arkwright, 189, 681, 684 Asiatic Museum in St. Petersburg, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Atkinson, Edward, on profit Atlantic Monthly," 553 Ailesbury, Marquis of,-land of, 270 Augustus, 668 B. Bacon, Lord, on balance of trade, Baird, H. C., on price, 117 Baring, Sir Evelyn, on India, 66 Battersley's "Repealer's Manual," 493 |