science.

§ 4. The part which systematic scientific reasoning plays in the production of knowledge resembles that Uses of the which machinery plays in the production of machinery of goods. For when the same operation has to be performed over and over again in the same way, it generally pays to make a machine to do the work; and where there is so much changing variety of detail that it is unprofitable to use machines the goods must be made by hand. Similarly in knowledge, when there are any processes of investigation or reasoning in which the same kind of work has to be done over and over again in the same kind of way, then it is worth while to reduce the processes to system, to organize methods of reasoning and to formulate general Laws.

It is true that there is so much variety in economic problems, economic causes are intermingled with others in so many different ways, that exact scientific reasoning will seldom bring us very far on the way to the conclusion for which we are seeking. But it would be foolish to refuse to avail ourselves of its aid, so far as it will reach :-just as foolish as would be the opposite extreme of supposing that science alone can do all the work, and that nothing will remain to be done by practical instinct and trained common sense1.

§ 5. A scientific Law is a general proposition or statement of uniformity, more or less certain, more or The nature of less definite. The laws of gravitation, of conser- scientific laws.

strategy than the tactics of past naval warfare is adapted to the teachings of economic history.

1 Natural instinct will select rapidly and combine justly considerations which are relevant to the issue in hand; but it will select chiefly from those which are familiar; it will seldom lead a man far below the surface, or far beyond the limits of his personal experience. And we shall find that in economics, neither those effects of known causes, nor those causes of known effects which are most patent, are generally the most important. "That which is not seen" is often better worth studying than that "which is seen." Especially is this the case when we are trying to go behind the immediate causes of events and trying to discover their causes (causæ causantes).

vation of energy, &c. in physics are universal, certain and exact. Economics has of course no laws of this class: but it has many which may rank with the secondary laws of biology and medical science, and even the science of the tides. For these laws also are concerned with the action of many different kinds of causes, and vary much in definiteness, in certainty and in range of application'.

A Law of social science, or a SOCIAL LAW, is a statement that a certain course of action may be expected under certain conditions from the members of a

Social law.

Economic law.

ECONOMIC LAWS are those Social Laws which relate to branches of conduct in which the strength of the motives chiefly concerned can be measured by a They are statements in the indicative mood of relations between causes and effects, and not precepts in the imperative mood2.

money price.

Following our definition of an economic law, we may say that the course of action which may be expected under certain conditions from the members of an industrial group is the NORMAL action of the members of that group3.

1 The number of general statements that are made in the course of every science is very great: but it is not customary to give to all of them a formal character and name them as Laws. The selection is directed less by purely scientific considerations than by practical convenience. If there is any general statement which one wants to bring to bear so often, that the trouble of quoting it at length, when needed, is greater than that of burdening the discussion with an additional formal statement and an additional technical name, then it receives a special name, otherwise not.

2 Of course an economist retains the liberty, common to all the world, of expressing his opinion that a certain course of action is the right one under given circumstances; and if the difficulties of the problem are chiefly economic he may speak with a certain authority. But so may a chemist with regard to other problems, such for instance as some of those connected with sanitation and with dyeing; and yet the laws of chemistry are not precepts.

3 Corresponding to the substantive "law" is the adjective "legal." But this term is used only in connection with "law" in the sense of an ordinance of government; not in the sense of a scientific statement of connection between cause and effect. The adjective used for this purpose is derived from

Normal.

Normal action is not always morally right; very often it is action which we should use our utmost efforts to stop. For instance, the normal condition of many of the very poorest inhabitants of a large town is to be devoid of enterprise, and unwilling to avail themselves of the opportunities that may offer for a healthier and less squalid life elsewhere; they have not the strength, physical, mental and moral, required for working their way out of their miserable surroundings. The existence of a considerable supply of labour ready to make match-boxes at a very low rate is normal in the same way that a contortion of the limbs is a normal result of taking strychnine. It is one result, a deplorable result, of the action of those laws which we have to study.

[The phrase just used-the action of a law-is convenient on account of its brevity. But a law itself does The action of not take action, it merely records action. When a law. we speak of the action of a law, what we mean is the action of those causes, the results of which are described by the law.] § 6. Further, the laws of economics as of other sciences are statements as to the effects which will be produced by certain causes, not absolutely, but assumed in all subject to the condition that other things are equal, and that the causes are able to work out their effects undisturbed'.

Conditions are

reasonings.

"norma," a term which is nearly equivalent to "law," and might perhaps with advantage be substituted for it in scientific discussions.

1 There is, however, no reason for regarding economics as a hypothetical science in any sense, in which the physical sciences are not also hypothetical. Almost every scientific doctrine, when carefully and formally stated, will be found to contain some proviso to the effect that other things are equal: the action of the causes in question is supposed to be isolated; certain effects are attributed to them, but only on the hypothesis that no cause is permitted to enter except those distinctly allowed for. These conditioning clauses must be often repeated in economics, because its doctrines are apt to be quoted by persons who have had no scientific training, and who perhaps have heard them only at second hand and without their context. See Principles I. vi. 6 (Ed. III.).

It is sometimes said that physical laws are more universally true and less changeable than economic laws. It would be better to say that an economic law is often applicable only to a very narrow range of circumstances which may exist together at one particular place and time, but quickly pass away. When they are gone, the law, though still true as an abstract proposition, has no longer any practical bearing; because the particular set of causes with which it deals are nowhere to be found acting together without important disturbance from other causes. Though economic reasoning is of wide application, we cannot insist too urgently that every age and every country has its own problems; and that every change in social conditions is likely to require a new development of economic doctrines.

It is true also that human effort may alter the conditions under which people live, and their characters, and thus may affect the economic laws that will be valid in the next generation. It may for instance destroy the conditions under which the most helpless of our match-box makers have been formed; in the same way as it has substituted sheep whose law of life it is to mature early, for the older breeds which did not attain nearly to their full weight till their third year. The "normal" conditions with which economics deals are

The term
"normal" is
relative to

place and time.

vour.

constantly being changed, partly through the unconscious influence of general social progress, partly through conscious and deliberate endeaAnd while with advancing knowledge we are constantly finding that economic analysis and general reasoning have wider and wider applications, and are learning in unexpected ways to see the One in the Many and the Many in the One; we are also getting to understand more fully how every age and every country has its own problems, and how every change in social conditions is likely to require a new development of economic doctrines.

CHAPTER VII.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.

economic
science to

§ 1. ECONOMICS has then as its purpose firstly to acquire knowledge for its own sake, and secondly to Relation of throw light on practical issues. But though we are right before entering on any study to con- practice. sider carefully what are its uses, we should not plan out our work with direct reference to them. For by so doing we are tempted to break off each line of thought as soon as it ceases to have immediate bearing on that particular aim which we have in view at the time: the direct pursuit of practical aims leads us to group together bits of all sorts of knowledge, which have no connection with one another except for the immediate purposes of the moment; and which throw but little light on one another. Our mental energy is spent in going from one to another; nothing is thoroughly thought out; no real progress is made.

The grouping, therefore, which is best for the purposes of science is that which collects together all those facts and reasonings which are similar to one another in nature: so that the study of each may throw light on its neighbour. By working thus for a long time at one set of considerations, we get gradually nearer to those fundamental unities which are called nature's laws: we trace their action first singly, and then in combination; and thus make progress slowly but surely. The practical uses of economic studies should never be out of the mind of the economist, but his special business is to study and interpret facts and to find out what are the effects of different causes acting singly and in combination.