THE PENN MONTHLY MAGAZINE. VOLUME I. JANUARY TO DECEMBER, 1870. PHILADELPHIA: 9812 THE PENN MONTHLY. JANUARY, 1870. POLITICAL ECONOMY. WHAT is Political Economy? What are the sphere, scope, and limits of the science? Is it defined and described by its kind and difference from all other departments of knowledge, with all that belongs to it included, and all that does not belong to it excluded? The received authorities differ widely in their definitions; and in their differences there is something more important than merely verbal disagreements: they have results in the conduct of affairs that follow the conflicts of theory. For our present purpose these theorists may be roughly divided into two grand classes. One set, or sect, holds (with formal variations, but in substantial agreement) that material wealthtangible subjects of property-are the only things that fall within the province of their studies. To this idea the titles of the works. of the founder of the school, of its standard expositor, and of its latest classic writer, conform. Adam Smith entitled his work "An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of Nations." J. B. Say, in the treatise with which we are most familiar, limits the scope of the science to "the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth;" and John Stuart Mill, intending only an extension and emendation of the system of Smith, announces that "the laws of Production and Distribution, (of wealth,) and some of the practical consequences deducible from them, are the subjects of his treatise." Several of the distinguished disciples of this school sum up the practical bearings of its teachings by defining it in substance as a "Science of Values." Archbishop Whately, who was not only well-read, but an author also, calls it a science of exchanges. All these authorities intend differences speculative and dialectical, but the current and drift and |