༈ ་ PREFACE. THE character and scope of this treatise I have endeavoured to explain fully in the introductory chapter; it remains for me here to acknowledge my debts to the works that have chiefly aided me in composing it. After J. S. Mill's book, from which I first learned political economy, and on which the present work must be understood to be primarily founded, I believe that I owe most to Jevons' Theory of Political Economy, the leading ideas of which have been continually in my thoughts-though I have had occasion to dissent from many of Mr Jevons' particular opinions. I am also considerably indebted-in spite of still more fundamental disagreement-to Cairnes' Leading Principles of Political Economy: and also to the Economics of Industry, by Mr and Mrs Alfred Marshall, together with some papers by Mr Marshall on the theory of Value diagrammatically treated, which have been privately lent to me. I have also derived valuable suggestions from Mr Hearn's Plutology, and from Mr F. A. Walker's Wages; also from Mr Macleod, as S. E. b regards the theory of Money, and to some extent in treating of Wealth and Capital-though I do not agree with Mr Macleod's views about either of these fundamental terms, and am obliged to dissent most strongly from his general treatment of economic science. I must also express my obligations to the writer of an article on Industrial Monopolies' in the Quarterly Review of October, 1870. Among foreign writers, I have derived most assistance from the works of Professors A. Held and A. Wagner; especially from the latter's elaborate systematic treatise on the subject. Finally, I must acknowledge gratefully the aid that many friends have kindly given me, by supplying information or suggesting corrections required for various portions of the work while it was in progress ; among whom I must particularly mention Mr F. W. Maitland, of Lincoln's Inn, and Mr J. N. Keynes, of Pembroke College, Cambridge. To the latter I am especially indebted for his kindness in reading and criticising the proof-sheets of the greater part of the book which has enabled me to improve it in many respects. CONTENTS. 1. During the last thirty years Political Economy in England has risen from the state of controversy on fundamental principles and method into that of an apparently estab- 2. My special aim is to eliminate needless polemics by a guarded restatement of traditional doctrines, with due THE SCOPE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 1. Is Political Economy a Science, concerned with what is, or an Art, concerned with what ought to be? 2. Originally it was conceived as an Art, and is formally so defined by Adam Smith; but the substance of the latter's doctrine inevitably rendered his exposition mainly that 3. but not entirely, since the doctrine of laisser faire, cha- 5. In this treatise, all questions as to proper governmental interference in economic matters are treated separately 14-18 18-24 24-27 27-29 1. The ordinary treatment of the Theory of Production is mainly inductive and analytical-e.g. Mill's treatment 2. The traditional method of determining the Laws of Dis- tribution and Exchange is primarily deductive and 3. Both the general legitimacy of this method and its neces- 4. In using the method, quantitative precision should be 1. In this book industry is viewed primarily as a function 2. But in order to use the notion of wealth with quantitative THE DEFINITION AND MEASURE OF VALUE. 1. Search for a definition is often the best way of examining what has to be defined. The definition often cannot be both useful for scientific purposes and in strict conform- 2. In making the notion of Exchange Value precise, the main difficulty is to find a measure of variations of value- since Labour is not the measure we require, either in Ricardo's sense or Adam Smith's. |