Political Economy, applicable not only to America, but to France, England, and Germany, -to all nations under the There must be such a science, for the habits and dispositions of men, as manifested in the pursuit of wealth, may be reduced to general principles, and thus become subjects of legitimate scientific classification and inquiry, just as much as those other habits and dispositions which appear in the constitution and history of organized society, and which, when generalized and classified, become the science of Politics. There is a general science of Human Nature, of which the special sciences of Ethics, Psychology, Politics, and Political Economy are so many distinct and co-ordinate departments. It is the science as taken in this broad sense which such writers as Ricardo, Malthus, McCulloch, and J. S. Mill have endeavored to develop and to teach; though, as it seems to me, with very limited success. They have even assumed to treat it deductively, deriving its principles from their knowledge of human nature, and tracing these down to the outward conduct of men and to the social phenomena which these general motives produce or influence. But it must be admitted, I think, that these universal principles are comparatively few and unimportant, and if the science were limited to them, it would be of narrow compass and limited utility. It can be fully and profitably set forth only in the inductive method, by observing and analyzing the phenomena in a particular case, and tracing these up to their sources, the circumstances of the people and the principles of human nature in which they originated. Because Adam Smith, in the main, adopted this method, his great work is a mine of information respecting the economical condition of Great Britain in the middle of the last century, and the institutions and laws by which this condition was affected. Even the writings of Ricardo, J. S. Mill, and their followers, though professing to treat the subject deductively and in the abstract, so that their conclusions shall be universally applicable, are pervaded with a tacit reference to the pireumstances and institutions of the particular people for whom they wrote. The system which they have expounded is really the Political Economy of England alone, and is even more characteristic and peculiar than her social organization and civil polity. Here in America, as it seems to me, we need an American Political Economy, the principles of the science being adapted to what is special in our physical condition, social institutions, and industrial pursuits. The facts need to be fully presented, before they can be analyzed and referred to their scientific principles. Political Economy is eminently a practical science, and a treatise on it may profitably include much valuable information respecting the habits of business, the course of domestic and foreign trade, and the methods which have been suggested by experience for applying Labor and Capital to the best advantage. I have endeavored to incorporate into this work such particulars respecting the operations of banking, the disposal of the public lands, the office of bills of exchange, the functions of the currency, the supply of the precious metals, the various modes of taxation, and the financial history of this country for the last ten years, as might be useful, not only to young men in College, but to those who are about to enter the mercantile profession. CAMBRIDGE, February 24, 1870. WEALTH AND ITS TRANSMUTATIONS: THE AIMS, THE LIMITATIONS, HOW WEALTH IS CREATED, AND WHAT CONSTITUTES EXCHANGEABLE THE NATURE OF CAPITAL AND THE MEANS OF ITS INCREASE: CIR- THE INCREASE OF CAPITAL AS AFFECTED BY THE ADVANTAGES HELD STRIFE BETWEEN LABORERS AND CAPITALISTS: STRIKES AND TRADE- |