In seeking truth in any branch of political economy, whether it be the relations of labour and capital, land tenure, or free trade, etc., examination must be made of this foundation of knowledge. Artificial arrangements which do not recognise the primitive needs of human nature can only lead at last to misery.
Reason shows us that physical needs are imperative in a material world where mind works through matter. They come first in order of growth as the primary condition of life, through which and out of which the higher moral and intellectual forces grow. They are like the first gasping inspiration of the infant, which sets in motion the astonishing mechanism of conscious human life. Trade and commerce are a necessary first outcome of a nation’s physical needs; the nature of its trade and commerce and the methods by which they are carried on are inextricably woven in with social life, and stamp the character of a nation.
Trade and commerce being the direct result of human needs in relation to the material world will be governed by fixed laws respecting the production and distribution of wealth.
The term ‘law,’ however, is often erroneously applied to temporary phases in the arrangements of human industry, which vary with age and country. But a fixed law in political economy can only become such when, and because, it expresses the necessary relation between human growth or nature, and the conditions which promote it. It is only the result of this necessary relation that can claim the name of Law.
Political economy must, therefore, necessarily be a progressive study, because, although human desires are unlimited, human power or ability to discover law is much more limited. This power grows with intelligence, and intelligence is of slower development than the motive-spring of human life, which is desire, emotion, will.
The methods of producing and distributing wealth must, therefore, necessarily vary. The interval of growth between the Esquimaux bartering his skins, and the Englishman exporting machinery is great. Even the objects and definition of wealth change with race and epoch. There can be no such thing as finality in the applications of human knowledge, because the law of progress—progress of individuals and of races—is stamped on our nature. Political economy, as every other subject of knowledge, must be revised, extended, and re-adapted from age to age.
Although the methods of producing and distributing wealth may vary, the creative Divine laws which determine the welfare of the human race cannot vary. Below the changing phenomenon of epoch, country, and race are fixed principles on which trade (which may be designated human) must be based. The search for these necessary or fixed laws, and their discrimination from temporary arrangements or adaptations, is not only a legitimate but an indispensable subject of inquiry. It affects not only the foundation, but also the whole edifice of life, which is built upon it in every stage of its construction, helping or injuring each individual of the community, as well as that collective mass of individuals which we vaguely style the nation.
No religious teacher, any more than the (technically styled) social reformer, can afford to ignore this great subject of political economy. A knowledge of its objects, and of the laws which must govern industry, in its march to the promised land of human welfare, constitute a Divine revelation. It is a revelation gradually made through the honest use of our intellectual faculties, and constantly grows from imperfect beginnings, to clearer guidance under an earnest search for truth.
A distinct recognition of the different kinds of wealth must precede any wise or efficient regulation of trade and commerce; for the same method of production and distribution cannot be applied to all. We can neither produce air nor sunshine, nor legitimately attempt to make them the subject of trade, as, being essential to life, they are necessarily supplied free to all. Neither can we produce earth, which (as far as it is essential to life) cannot be made a subject of trade on exactly the same methods, as products which can be indefinitely multiplied. Neither can strength, energy, or character, which constitute a valuable part of a nation’s wealth, be grown in a similar way to corn, or thrown off by machinery like calico. Education is a different process from printing, and if reduced to the mechanism of manufacture, or converted into a system of money-getting, is self-destructive, frustrating the object of education—viz., the drawing out of the infinitely varied human faculties.
The growth of reason and conscience in the leading nations of the world, is more and more differentiating the various kinds of wealth; data are thus being collected from which the progressive laws of political economy can be deduced. By the leading nations, of course is here meant those communities where a large number of unselfish and thoughtful men, inspired by truth, find their teaching accepted by the uncorrupted though crude intelligence of a patient multitude. Unfortunately, the so-called ruling classes in these nations, are now too often the creators or the creatures of the barbarous and savage hordes which false methods of political economy have produced in our midst. But the possession of a band of honest truth-seekers with earnest listeners eager to be guided, marks the really progressive nation.