of Bimetallism and Protection especially, I have been obliged to tread on the ashes beneath which the lava glows. I have tried to walk on the straight line of justice, and to deal with entire fairness in discussing opinions which I do not share. In using the book teachers will deal with the Notes in small print according to their judgment. They contain matters which I thought the student should know of, but which it is not necessary for him to study. I would suggest that in no case should the words printed in Italics be passed, until it is known that the class has a clear sense of their meaning. PHILADELPHIA, June, 1895. POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR HIGH SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. CHAPTER I. What Political Economy is, and how it came to be. 1. ECONOMY means housekeeping. In early times housekeeping was much more of an affair than it now is. The people of each house built their own home, fashioned their tools, tanned their leather, got ready their wool and flax for spinning, spun and wove them, made their clothes, and in fact produced all or nearly all they needed, instead of buying them ready-made. Each houseful was a group much larger than a family, and it provided itself with whatever it needed. 2. It is that kind of housekeeping that we mean when we speak of Political Economy, which is the housekeeping of the nation or State. It is not merely keeping the house clean, home-like and wholesome, seeing that the food is wholesome, and that the outlay on what is bought is no greater than the income. It is, as in the early household, seeing that all who can work are busy at work which needs to be done, and that there is plenty of material on which they may work, and a proper distribution of what is made according to the needs of each person. There is indeed some buying and selling with other national households. We send them what they cannot so well provide themselves and we take in exchange what they have that we do not produce. And in managing this we have to take care that our outlay is no greater than we can afford. But in the main each national household provides for its own wants, and is not unlike the big "halls," of a single room, in which our forefathers lived, with the fire burning in the centre and the house-father sitting opposite it on the high-seat. There on the long winter evenings, on one side of the hall the women carded wool or flax, spun it with their distaff, and wove it on the loom. On the other side the men repaired their weapons, made their rude tools for farming, fashioned hides and leather into shoes, saddles and jackets, and did other rough work. Macaulay in his ballad, "How Horatius kept the Bridge," gives us a glimpse of such a household in old Rome: When young and old in circle around the firebrands close; When the girls are weaving baskets, and the lads are shaping bows; When the goodman mends his armor, and trims his helmet's plume; When the goodwife's shuttle merrily goes flashing through the loom. 3. Political Economy, as an art or business, began with the beginning of nations. Even before people had any theory about how to do it, they hit upon ways of doing it, just as people learned to play musical instruments and to sing, before they had any theory about music. In the ancient world a few men gave some attention to the reasons of these methods, but not very much. They were too much occupied with the comparison of different forms of government, and other matters of politics, to have time for Political Economy. 4. It was the discovery of America which first called attention to the subject. That discovery caused a great |