[115] “Poverty is the fruit of Political Economy. . . . Political Economy requires death to come to its aid; . . . it is the theory of instability and theft.”—Proudhon, Contradictions Économiques, t. xi. p. 214. “If the people want bread, . . . it is the fault of Political Economy.”—Ibid.
XXV. RELATIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY WITH MORALS, WITH POLITICS, WITH LEGISLATION
[116] The author has unfortunately left nothing on the subject of the four chapters with which he appears (see ante, p. 30) to have intended to conclude the present work, except the following introduction to his projected chapter on the Relations of Political Economy with Religion.
The line which separates the field of Political Economy from the wider domains of Morals, Politics, and Legislation is perhaps by no writer more accurately marked than by Mr Senior in the admirable introduction to his article “Political Economy” in the Encyclop. Metropolitana.
“The questions, to what extent and under what circumstances the possession of wealth is, on the whole, beneficial or injurious to its possessor, or to the society of which he is a member? what distribution of wealth is most desirable in each different state of society? and what are the means by which any given country can facilitate such a distribution?—all these are questions of great interest and difficulty, but no more form part of the science of Political Economy, in the sense in which we use that term, than Navigation forms part of the science of Astronomy. The principles supplied by Political Economy are indeed necessary elements in their solution, but they are not the only or even the most important elements. The writer who pursues such investigations is, in fact, engaged on the great science of Legislation; a science which requires a knowledge of the general principles supplied by Political Economy, but differs from it essentially in its subject, its premises, and its conclusions. The subject of legislation is not wealth, but human welfare. Its premises are drawn from an infinite variety of phenomena, supported by evidence of every degree of strength, and authorizing conclusions deserving every degree of assent, from perfect confidence to bare suspicion. And its expounder is enabled, and even required, not merely to state certain general facts, but to urge the adoption or rejection of actual measures or trains of action.
“On the other hand, the subject treated by the Political Economist, using that term in the limited sense in which we apply it, is not happiness, but wealth; his premises consist of a very few general propositions, the result of observation or consciousness, and scarcely requiring proof or even formal statement, which almost every man, as soon as he hears them, admits as familiar to his thoughts, or at least as included in his previous knowledge; and his inferences are nearly as general, and, if he has reasoned correctly, as certain as his premises. Those which relate to the nature and the production of wealth are universally true; and though those which relate to the distribution of wealth are liable to be affected by the peculiar institutions of particular countries, in the cases, for instance, of slavery, legal monopolies, or poor laws, the natural state of things can be laid down as the general rule, and the anomalies produced by particular disturbing causes can be afterwards accounted for. But his conclusions, whatever be their generality and their truth, do not authorize him in adding a single syllable of advice. That privilege belongs to the writer or the statesman who has considered all the causes which may promote or impede the general welfare of those whom he addresses, not to the theorist who has considered only one, though among the most important, of those causes. The business of a Political Economist is neither to recommend nor to dissuade, but to state general principles which it is fatal to neglect, but neither advisable nor perhaps practicable to use as the sole, or even the principal, guides in the actual conduct of affairs. In the meantime, the duty of each individual writer is clear. Employed as he is upon a science in which error, or even ignorance, may be productive of such intense and such extensive mischief, he is bound, like a juryman, to give deliverance true according to the evidence, and to allow neither sympathy with indigence nor disgust at profusion or at avarice, neither reverence for existing institutions nor detestation of existing abuses—neither love of popularity nor of paradox, nor of system, to deter him from stating what he believes to be the facts, or from drawing from those facts what appear to him to be the legitimate conclusions. To decide in each case how far these conclusions are to be acted on belongs to the art of government, an art to which Political Economy is only one of many subservient sciences, which involves the consideration of motives, of which the desire for wealth is only one among many, and aims at objects to which the possession of wealth is only a subordinate means.”—Translator.
INDEX.
- A.
- Accumulation, a circumstance of no account in Political Economy, page [169], note.
- Air, Atmospheric, has utility without having value, [137];
- but if pumped into a diving-bell, the service has value, [138].
- Algeria, usual rate of interest in, said to be 10 per cent., [302].
- Aphorisms, the Two, “Each for all, all for each”—“Each for himself, each by himself,” [339]-[346].
- Opposed to each other if we regard the motive, not so if we look to results, [339].
- No incompatibility in this last view between individualism and association, [340].
- Men associate in obedience to self-interest, ib.
- Difficulties attending a state of isolation lead naturally to association, [341].
- As regards labour and exchanges, the principle “Each for himself” must be predominant, [342].
- By following the rule each for himself, individual efforts act in the direction of each for all, [343].
- Icarian expedition proceeded on the principle of all for each, [344], note.
- Principles of Socialism and Communism refuted, [343], [344].
- All desire monopolies and privileges, even the working classes, at their own expense, [345], [346].
- B.
- Barter, primitive form of exchange, direct or roundabout, [108].
- Bastiat, Frédéric, his birth, parentage, and education, p. [9].
- His early friendship with M. Calmètes, ib.
- Begins the study of Political Economy, [10].
- Gives up commerce as a profession, ib.
- His friendship with M. Coudroy, ib.
- They study Philosophy and Political Economy together, ib.
- Takes part in the Revolution of 1830, [11].
- Bastiat publishes his first brochure in 1834, ib.
- Becomes Juge de Paix, and a Member of the Council-General, ib.
- Visits Spain, Portugal, and England, [12].
- Writes Le Fisc et la Vigne, ib.
- Publishes two other brochures in 1843 and 1844, ib.
- Anecdote regarding unfounded Anglophobia, ib.
- Sends his first contribution to the Journal des Économistes, [13].
- Publishes Cobden et la Ligue in 1845, ib.
- Letter to Mr Cobden quoted, ib.
- Named a corresponding member of the Institute, [14].
- Letter to M. Calmètes quoted, ib.
- Visits Paris, and introduced to leading economists, [15].
- Visits England in 1845, and makes the acquaintance of Cobden, Bright, and the other Corn-Law Leaguers, ib.
- Letter to M. Coudroy quoted, [15], [16].
- Bastiat complains of the hatred to England then prevalent in France, [16].
- Settles in Paris, ib.
- His appearance, as described by M. de Molinari and M. Reybaud, [17].
- Letters to Cobden and Coudroy quoted, ib.
- Conducts the Libre-Échange newspaper, [18].
- His mode of life in Paris, ib.
- Publishes the Sophismes Économiques, great success of that work, and extract from it, [18], [19], [20], [21].
- Delivers a course of lectures on Political Economy, [21].
- Is returned as a member of the Legislative Assembly, ib.
- His daily occupations, [22].
- His pamphlets against the Socialists, Propriété et Loi; Propriété et Spoliation; Justice et Fraternité; Capital et Rente; Gratuité du Credit; Protectionisme et Communisme, etc., published in 1848-49, ib.
- Publishes Baccalauréat et Socialisme, and Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas, in 1850, [23].
- Extract from the latter, [24], [25].
- Projects Harmonies Économiques, and letter to Mr Cobden on that subject quoted, [25].
- Letter to M. Coudroy on the same subjects, ib.
- His health begins to give way, [26], [27].
- His account of the reception of the Harmonies, [27].
- Notice of that work, [27], [28], [29].
- List of chapters intended to complete the second volume of the Harmonies, [30], note.
- Goes to Italy on account of his health, [30].
- His letter to M. Coudroy from Rome, [31].
- His last illness and death, [31], [32].
- Bell, Sir Charles, his work on the Hand quoted, [29], note.
- Blanqui, his opinions on landed property quoted, [255].
- Bonald, M. de, quoted, [152].
- Brazil, usual rate of interest in, said to be 20 per cent., [302].
- Buchanan, D., his opinions on landed property quoted, [252].
- Buret, M., his false theory on the relations of capitalist and labourer, [384].
- Butler, Bishop, his Sermons on Human Nature quoted, [478], note.
- Byron, Lord, quoted, [32].
- C.
- Cairnes, Professor, quoted, [18].
- Caisses de Retraite, friendly accumulation societies to provide for old age, [372], note.
- Calmètes, M., the early friend of Bastiat, [9].
- Letter to, quoted, [14].
- Candlemakers’ Petition quoted, [19].
- Capital et Rente, pamphlet by Bastiat against the Socialists, [22].
- Capital, in the beginning formed very slowly, [197].
- Consists of tools, materials, and provisions, [198].
- The man who furnishes capital renders a service, and is paid for that service, [199], [200].
- The man who accords delay renders a service, and hence the legitimacy of interest, [203], [204].
- Principle which governs the returns for capital, [206]-[211].
- Progress of mankind coincides with rapid accumulation of capital, [210].
- Capital has in itself a power of progression, [211].
- Increase of capital is followed by increase of general prosperity, [212].
- By increase of capital, the capitalist’s absolute share of product increased, his relative share diminished, while labourer’s share is increased both absolutely and relatively, ib.
- Illustrations of this, [213]-[216].
- Progress of civilisation tends to lower rate of interest, [302].
- Rates in Brazil, Algeria, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, England, and Holland, ib.
- Relations of capitalist and labourer, [383].
- Erroneous notions on this subject most dangerous, [384].
- Falsest theories abroad, ib.
- Due to M. de Sismondi and M. Buret, ib.
- Labourer’s share of product has a tendency to increase as capital increases, [385].
- When exchange takes place between capital, or anterior labour, and present labour, it is not on the footing of their duration or intensity, but of their value, [387].
- Anterior labour has a general tendency to become depreciated, [388], [389].
- Presence of capital always beneficial to labourer, [390].
- Groundless outcry against tyranny of capital, [391], [392].
- Carey, Mr, his theory of rent referred to, [274], note by Translator.
- Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas, or Political Economy in one Lesson, pamphlet by Bastiat, quoted, [24].
- Referred to, [478], note.
- Châteaubriand, represents civilisation and corruption of morals as marching abreast, [511], [512].
- His Mémoires d’Outre Tombe quoted, [512].
- Civil law terms explained, [172], and note.
- Cobden, Mr, letter from, on the subject of Bastiat’s merits as an economist and writer, [4].
- Communists, their erroneous views of landed property controverted, [155].
- Competition, no organization or form of association can be substituted for, [288].
- Implies freedom from all constraint, [289].
- Levels all factitious inequalities, [290].
- Misunderstood by the Socialists, ib.
- Value diminishes through the co-operation of natural forces, not of its own accord, but by the pressure exerted by competition, [291], [292].
- In the absence of competition, society would be constituted on the principle of universal monopoly, ib.
- Competition enables one country to participate in the natural advantages of another, [293].
- Examples of this, [294], [299].
- Inventions and discoveries become, through competition, the common and gratuitous patrimony of all, [299].
- Mode in which this takes place, [300], [301].
- Competition among capitalists reduces the price of commodities, [301], [302].
- Progress of civilisation tends to lower the rate of interest, and this effected by competition, [302].
- If wages are sometimes reduced by competition, the labourers, as consumers, profit by it, [303]-[307].
- Competition tends to render services proportional to efforts, [306].
- Laws of modern society too often cramp competition, [309], [310].
- Competition essential to progress, and allied with human perfectibility, [313].
- It approximates ranks, fortunes, and intelligence, [316].
- Advantages from inventions, or from local situation, climate, etc., slip rapidly from hands of producers, and go to enlarge enjoyments of consumers, [333], [334].
- Same thing holds of disadvantages, [334].
- Condillac quoted, [114], [107].
- Considérant, M., his work on Socialism quoted, [62], note.
- Consumer, every man may in turn be both producer and consumer, [324], [325].
- The wishes and desires of consumers are those which are in harmony with the public interest, [325].
- Consumers and producers should be left free to take care of their own interests, [326].
- The effect of inventions and discoveries on the interests of consumers and producers represented by diagrams, [331], [332].
- Advantages from inventions, or from local situation, climate, etc., slip rapidly from the hands of producers, and go to enlarge the enjoyments of consumers, [333], [334].
- Same thing holds of disadvantages, [334].
- All great economic effects must be regarded from the consumer’s point of view, ib.
- Subordination of producer’s interests to those of consumer confirmed when viewed in connexion with morals, [335].
- Consumer is alone responsible for morality or utility of production, [338].
- Producer looks only to value, ib.
- Consumer represents society, ib.
- Consumption, a term employed to designate the enjoyment to which utility gives rise, [323].
- Coudroy, Felix, studies Philosophy and Political Economy along with Bastiat, [10].
- D.
- Defoe, D., his Robinson Crusoe referred to, [101].
- Illustration drawn from, [197].
- Demand determines all in connexion with production, [335].
- Diamond, has great value without appreciable utility, [139].
- Disturbing Causes. Political Economy sets out by assuming transactions to be free and voluntary, [446].
- Division of Labour admits of being viewed in a more general light than hitherto, [105].
- Dunoyer, M., his work Sur la Liberté du Travail referred to and commended, [92].
- E.
- Economists differ from the Socialists at the starting-point, [35], 36.
- Efforts. Wants, efforts, and satisfactions, [63]-[74].
- England, population of, doubles in 43 years, [404].
- L’État, pamphlet by Bastiat defining the proper province of Government, [23].
- Euler, his calculation of the period in which population doubles itself, [407].
- Applying this calculation to the facts stated by Moses, Hebrews who entered Egypt must have doubled in 14 years, ib.
- Evil, Existence of. Science has been retarded by being called on to deny the existence of evil, [504].
- Exchange, impossible to conceive society as existing without, [97].
- A phenomenon peculiar to man, [101].
- Has two manifestations, union of forces, and separation of occupations, [104].
- Consists in exchange of services, ib.
- Its influence on labour, [105].
- Upon the co-operation of natural agents, [105].
- Upon human powers and faculties, [107].
- Upon capital, ib.
- Progress of exchange, [108]-[111].
- Primitive form of, barter, [108].
- Barter direct and roundabout, [109].
- Limits of exchange, [111].
- An element in the problem of population which Malthus has neglected, [113].
- Moral force of exchange, [116].
- In consequence of exchange, our powers exceed our wants, ib.;
- and the gain of each is the gain of all, [117].
- Illusions to which exchange gives rise, [128]-[130].
- Exchange imparts the idea of value, [135].
- F.
- Fénélon quoted, [77].
- Final Causes, faith in, not unattended with danger to the mind of an inquirer, [397].
- Fisc, le, et la Vigne, pamphlet written by Bastiat in 1840, [12].
- Florez Estrada, his opinions on landed property quoted, [254].
- Florian’s Fables quoted, [135].
- Force, Public, should be confined to ensuring justice, liberty, and security, [121], [122].
- France, youth of, address to, [33].
- Friendly Societies, have conferred immense benefits on the working classes, [368].
- Admirable means of providing against sickness and old age, ib.
- Liberty and non-interference of Government essential to ensure their success, [369].
- This secures reciprocal surveillance, [369]-[373].
- Marked success of these societies in England, [370]-[373].
- This due to the non-interference of Government, [371].
- G.
- Garnier, M. Joseph, his opinions on landed property quoted, [256].
- Germany, usual rate of interest in said to be 5 per cent., [302].
- Population of, doubles in 76 years, [404].
- Girardin, M. Saint-Marc, quoted as to the influence of employments on the condition of nations, [455].
- Gratuité du Credit, pamphlet by Bastiat against Proudhon’s doctrine, in 1850, [22].
- H.
- Habit, force of, as changing man’s wants, an essential element to be taken into account, [84].
- Transforms desire into want, [85].
- Harmonies Économiques projected, and letters to Mr Cobden and M. Coudroy on that subject quoted, [25].
- Holland, usual rate of interest in, said to be under 3 per cent., [302].
- Population of, doubles in 100 years, [404].
- I.
- Icarie, voyage en, Socialist work referred to, [205].
- Institute, Bastiat named a member of, [14].
- Interest of Capital, Proudhon’s error regarding, [158].
- All the power of the Church unable to enforce prohibition of, [480].
- Isolation, in the state of, our wants exceed our powers, [98];
- and the gain of one may be the loss of another, [117].
- Italy, usual rate of interest in, said to be 6 per cent., [302].
- J.
- Johnson, Dr, his opinions on free will and necessity quoted, [473], note.
- Journal des Économistes, Bastiat’s first contribution to, [13].
- Justice et Fraternité, pamphlet by Bastiat against the Socialists, [22].
- K.
- Kepler referred to, [68].
- L.
- Labour, the assertion that all wealth comes from labour combated, [88].
- Utility communicated by nature, by labour, and oftener by a combination of both, ib.
- To produce utility, action of labour in an inverse ratio to that of nature, ib.
- As used by Economists, a vague term, and more extended meaning given to it in this work, [92].
- Distinction between productive and unproductive, has led to error, ib.
- Distinction between productive and unproductive labour rejected, [156], [157].
- Effort a better term than labour, [158].
- Labour cannot serve as a measure of value, [171].
- Unskilled labour the best for making a comparison, ib.
- In exchanging present for anterior labour, the advantage is on the side of present labour, [178].
- The opposite phenomenon sometimes manifests itself, [179].
- Laissez-faire, doctrine of, explained, [48], [448], [449].
- Lamennais, M. de, his opinions on the principle of population combated, [408], [409].
- Landed Property. The idea of value gives rise to that of property, [249].
- Confusion caused by Economists mistaking utility for value, [250].
- Property represented as monopoly, [250], [251].
- Is not a monopoly, [251].
- Opinions of English Economists on this subject—Adam Smith quoted, [252];
- French Economists—M. Say quoted, ib.;
- Opinions of Socialists and Communists—M. Considérant quoted, [257];
- Proudhon quoted, [260].
- These opinions controverted, [260]-[273].
- Recapitulation, [273].
- Bastiat has adopted the theory of Mr Carey on this subject, which should be taken with some modification, [274], note by Translator.
- Land which has not been subjected to human action, destitute of value, [274].
- Value resolves itself into the remuneration of anterior labour or capital, ib.
- M. Considérant’s views reverted to, [278]-[280].
- Productive powers of the soil have no independent value, [285].
- Case of the South Australian Association referred to, ib.
- Ameliorations which increase the value of land generally diminish the price of its produce, [347].
- Explanation of this, [348], [349].
- Theory of the progressive dearness of means of subsistence erroneous, [351], note.
- Lauderdale, Lord, his Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth quoted, [187], note.
- Legislation, relations of Political Economy with, [513], note.
- Liberty, solution of social problem to be found in, [34].
- Libre-Échange, newspaper, conducted by Bastiat, [18].
- M.
- M’Culloch, his opinion on landed property quoted, [253].
- Machiavel quoted, [56].
- Malthus on population, referred to, [113].
- Vindicated from violent attacks made on him, [397].
- Authors of those attacks writers of no reputation and grossly ignorant, ib.
- Malthus feared that, with so great a power of reproduction, mankind would come to exceed what the earth could maintain but for prudence and foresight, [398].
- An expression which occurred in the first edition of his Essay on Population, to the effect that population increases in a geometrical, and food in an arithmetical progression, gave rise to misrepresentation, ib.
- Made a handle of by Godwin and Sismondi, and was suppressed in all subsequent editions, [399].
- Attacks continued notwithstanding, the fiercest proceeding from men who confessed they had not read Malthus’s work, ib.
- The laws of population cannot be comprised in a brief aphorism or formula, [400].
- Were known before Malthus wrote, [402].
- Objections to his theory illogical, [405].
- Arguments against his geometrical progression not conclusive, ib.
- Wrong in adopting the limit of twenty-five years, although that holds good in America, [406], [407].
- Malthus attributes more force to repressive than preventive check, [410].
- His true formula is, not that population tends to keep on a level with, but to go beyond, the means of subsistence, [416].
- Maudit Argent! pamphlet by Bastiat exposing popular errors arising from confounding capital with money, and money with inconvertible paper, [23].
- Measure of Value, the quadrature of Political Economy, [170].
- Absolute measure a chimera, ib.
- Labour cannot serve as a measure, [171].
- Mémoire sur la question Vinicole, pamphlet published by Bastiat in 1843, [12].
- Mémoire sur la répartition de l’impôt foncier, pamphlet by Bastiat, written in 1844, [12].
- Metals, Precious, not a perfect standard of value, their own value fluctuating, [151], [152].
- Métayage, system of, explained, [61], note.
- Molière, his Malade Imaginaire quoted, [104].
- Molinari, M. de, his description of Bastiat’s appearance quoted, [17].
- Money, an intermediate commodity which facilitates the exchange of services, but does not change the principle of value, [142].
- Montaigne quoted, [97].
- Moral qualities must be taken into account with reference to production of wealth, [93], [94].
- Morality of Wealth, considerations on, [193], [194].
- Morals, relations of Political Economy with, [513], note.
- Moreau de Jonnès, his calculations of the period of doubling the population in various countries, [403].
- Moses, his account of the multiplication of Hebrews who entered Egypt, [407].
- N.
- Newton, Sir Isaac, referred to, [62].
- O.
- Organization, natural and artificial, [47].
- P.
- Paix et Liberté, pamphlet by Bastiat against excessive taxation and overgrown military and naval armaments, [22].
- Pamphlets by Bastiat, Réflexions concernant les Douanes, and Le Fisc et la Vigne, published 1840, [11], [12].
- Mémoire sur la question Vinicole appeared in 1843, and Mémoire sur la répartition de l’impôt foncier in 1844, ib.
- Pamphlets against the Socialists, Propriété et Loi, Propriété et Spoliation, Justice et Fraternité, Capital et Rente, Gratuité du Credit, Protectionisme et Communisme, etc., published in 1848-9, [22].
- Maudit Argent! extract from, [23].
- Baccalauréat et Socialisme, and Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas, published in 1850, ib.;
- Peel, Sir R., triumph of Free Trade due not so much to him as to Mr Cobden, [374].
- Perfectibility, means of realizing, to be found in law of Responsibility, [509].
- Petty, Sir W., cited, [186].
- Phalanstère, a Socialist work, referred to, [64], [205], note.
- Physiocrates, French Economists of the school of Quesnay, [153], note.
- Represented all labour not worked up in a material commodity as sterile, ib.
- Political Economy, limits of the science marked out, [70], [71].
- May be defined the theory of exchange, [73];
- or the theory of value, ib.
- Takes for granted the existence of evil and suffering, [76].
- Many errors in, arise from regarding human wants as a fixed quantity, [79].
- Not one of the exact sciences, [82], [83].
- First principles of, involved in difficulties by erroneous definitions of value, [136].
- A science of observation and exposition, [502].
- Contrast between Political Economy and Socialism, ib.
- Relations of Political Economy with Morals, Politics, and Legislation, [513], note.
- May be defined the theory of exchange, [73];
- Population, laws of, cannot be comprised in a brief formula, [400].
- Vindication of Malthus, and of the general doctrine of his Essay on Population, [397], [400].
- If, as wealth increases, the number among whom it is to be divided increases more rapidly, absolute wealth may be greater, but individual wealth will be less, [401].
- Malthus has reduced the principle to the formula that population tends to keep on a level with the means of subsistence, [402].
- This principle not new; every writer on such subjects since Aristotle has proclaimed it, ib.
- Enunciated by Sir James Steuart thirty years before the appearance of the Essay on Population, ib., note.
- Nature has taken greater care of species than of individuals, in order to insure the perpetuity of races, [402].
- Instances of this in the vegetable kingdom, ib.;
- Advancing in scale of social life, means of reproduction bestowed with greater parsimony, ib.
- In the human species, reproductive faculty less powerful than in any other, ib.
- But, physically, man does not escape the law of a tendency to multiplication beyond the limits of space and nourishment, ib.
- Difference between the physiological power of multiplying and actual multiplication, ib.
- Malthus inquired in what period of time mankind would double, if space and food were unlimited, [404].
- But as this hypothesis is never realized, theoretical must be shorter than actual period, ib.
- Different rates of increase in different countries according to estimate of M. Moreau de Jonnès, [403].
- Such differences not the result of physiological causes, but of external obstacles, [404].
- New sources of local wealth lead invariably to increase of population, ib.
- Objections made to the theory of Malthus very illogical, ib.
- Nor are the arguments against his geometrical progression more conclusive, ib.
- Fixed on twenty-five years as the minimum period in which population may double itself, because this actually takes place in America, [405].
- Malthus merely asserts that it has a tendency to increase in a geometrical progression, ib.
- That this virtual power of multiplication will be restrained is just what Malthus contends for, ib.
- Restrained by preventive and repressive checks, [406].
- He was wrong in adopting the limit of twenty-five years, although it holds good in America, [406], [407].
- This mixing up of the virtual and the real has exposed him to be misunderstood and misrepresented, [406].
- Calculation by Euler of period of doubling, [407].
- Applying Euler’s calculation to the facts stated by Moses, Hebrews who entered Egypt must have doubled in 14 years, ib.
- Absolute power of multiplication limited by obstacles, [408].
- Vegetable life limited by want of space and territorial fertility—animals destitute of foresight, by want of food, [409].
- Opinions of M. de Lamennais on this subject combated, ib.
- Law of limitation as regards man manifests itself by the double action of foresight and destruction, [410].
- The term moral restraint, used by Malthus, does not give us a just idea of the domain of foresight, ib.
- Other obstacles besides fear of poverty aid the action of the law of limitation in its preventive shape, [410], [411].
- Marriages on an average are probably later than they otherwise would be by eight years in consequence of these preventive obstacles, [411].
- Supposed advice of an old clergyman regarding too early marriages, [411], [412].
- Man’s perfectibility an important element in resolving the problem of population, [413].
- Malthus, by neglecting this, has attributed less force to the preventive than to the repressive check, ib.
- For the expression, “means of subsistence,” Say has substituted one more exact, namely, “means of existence,” ib.
- Man’s constant effort to better his condition exercises control over increase of numbers, [414].
- Better circumstances induce greater foresight, ib.
- In countries like China or Ireland, when rice and potatoes fail, there is nothing to fall back on, and repressive check comes into operation, [416].
- The true formula of Malthus is, not that population tends to keep on a level with, but to go beyond, the means of subsistence, ib.
- Foresight prevents this in the human race, ib.
- Recapitulation, [416], [417].
- Population tends to redundancy most among unskilled labourers, [420].
- Marriages are less improvident among the higher classes, [421].
- Fermage less efficacious in interposing a preventive obstacle to increase of population than Métayage, [421], [422].
- These terms explained, [421]. note.
- Almsgiving tends to destroy foresight, ib.
- Improvement in labourers’ cottages in England, [422].
- Rate, of wages in one country influences the rate in others, [423].
- Population is in itself a force, for increase of productive power results from density of population, [424], note.
- Producer, every member of society may in turn be both producer and consumer, [324], [325].
- Producers and consumers should be left free to take care of their own interests, [327].
- The effect of inventions and discoveries on the interest of producers and consumers illustrated by diagrams, [331], [332].
- Advantages, from inventions, or from local situation, climate, etc., slip rapidly from the hands of producers, and go to enlarge enjoyments of consumers, [333], [334].
- Same thing holds of disadvantages, [334].
- Producer has nothing to do with the utility of what is produced, only with its value, [336].
- The utility concerns the demander, ib.
- It is in the intention of the consumer that moral or immoral enjoyment is to be discovered, [338].
- Production is to modify and combine substances, not to create, them, [100].
- Production and consumption not the best terms to designate services rendered and received, [323].
- Production is employed to designate whatever confers utility, ib.
- Progress annihilates value by substituting gratuitous for onerous utility, [73].
- Prolétaire, definition of the term as used by Bastiat, [35], note.
- Property and Community, two ideas correlative to ideas of onerosity and gratuitousness, [223].
- Gifts of nature, the domain of community—human efforts, domain of property, ib.
- Principle of property, [226]-[229].
- Illustrations of this, [229]-[232].
- As society advances, property tends to recede, and community to advance, [232].
- Illustrations of this, [233]-[236].
- Vindication of property, [238]-[240].
- Distinction between community and communism, [245]-[248].
- Property. See Landed Property.
- Propriété et Loi, pamphlet by Bastiat against the Socialists, [22].
- Propriété et Spoliation, pamphlet by Bastiat, [22].
- Protection, a phase of communism, [323].
- This demonstrated by Bastiat in pamphlet entitled Protectionisme et Communisme, [22].
- Proudhon, his erroneous view of landed property, [155], [233], [260].
- Providence, laws of, harmonious, [43].
- Q.
- Quesnay, French Economists of his school known as the Physiocrates, [153], note.
- Represented all labour not worked up in a material commodity as sterile, ib.
- R.
- Réflexions concernant les Douanes, pamphlet written by Bastiat in 1840, [11].
- Religion derived from religare, to bind, [468].
- False religions may be known from their obstructing progress, [480].
- No form of religion ought to be repressed by law, [481], [482].
- Human mind generally begins by discovery of final causes, [514].
- Habit blinds us to final causes, ib.
- When we discover efficient, we are too apt to deny final causes, [515]-[517].
- Rent. See Landed Property.
- Ameliorations which increase the value of land generally diminish the price of its produce, [347].
- Explanation of this, [348], [349].
- Author intended to adopt the theory of Mr Carey in opposition to that of Ricardo, [347], note.
- Theory of the progressive dearness of means of subsistence erroneous, [351], note.
- Responsibility, belief in God the leading idea of this work, [465].
- Differs from the writings of Socialists, ib.
- The author’s proposed introduction continued by editor, [465], [466], note.
- Laws of Responsibility and Solidarity act together, [466];
- and should be viewed in their ensemble, but for the method required by science, ib.
- Evil and suffering exist everywhere, in the individual and in society, [467], [468].
- The social body not subject to inevitable decline, [468].
- De Custine’s remarks on this subject quoted, ib., note.
- Society, like the human body, has a vis medicatrix, [469].
- Men approximate to a common level which is constantly rising, ib.
- Liberty implies possible error, and error possible evil, ib.
- Socialists’ errors on this subject combated, [470], [471].
- Political Economy is not concerned to explain origin of evil, [471].
- Sufficient that evil and suffering exist, and have their mission, [472].
- Existence of free will proved by our consciousness of possessing it, [472], [473].
- Dr Johnson’s opinion on this subject quoted, [473], note.
- Every action gives rise to consequences, of which some fall back on the agent, and others on his family or on society, hence responsibility and solidarity, [474].
- Responsibility applies to the person who acts, ib.
- We cannot even conceive of man as exempt from suffering, [474], [475].
- Our notions of sensibility and existence are inseparable, [475].
- Faith the necessary complement of our destinies, ib.
- Without sensibility we should be constantly exposed to death, ib.
- If, of the consequences following on action, the majority are bad and hurtful, such action tends to limit and restrain itself, [476].
- Ignorance gives rise to bad habits and bad laws, knowledge and experience to the reverse, ib.
- Mission of evil is to destroy its own cause and stimulate progress, [477].
- Responsibility has three sanctions,—natural, religious, and legal, [478].
- The first of these is fundamental, ib.
- Is an act vicious because revelation declares it so, or does revelation declare it so because its consequences are bad? ib.
- Bishop Butler’s Sermons on Human Nature quoted, [478], note.
- If we had a religion which forbade acts proved to be useful, it could not be maintained, [479].
- All the power of the Church insufficient to enforce prohibition of interest, [480].
- False religions known from their obstructing advancement and progress, ib.
- Legal sanction should only give force and efficacy to natural sanction, ib.
- Where natural repression sufficient, legal repression should be avoided, [481].
- Law acts by means of force, and should not be applied to repress any particular form of religion, [481], [482].
- Other instances of the hurtful interposition of law, [482]-[485].
- Evils to which foundling hospitals have given rise, [485]-[487].
- Sense of responsibility capable of improvement, [487].
- Its development may be aided by female intervention, ib.
- Revolution of February, remarks on its consequences, [123]-[128].
- Revue des Deux Mondes quoted, [16].
- Reybaud, M. Louis, his notice of Bastiat referred to, [16].
- His description of Bastiat’s appearance quoted, [17].
- Ricardo, his theory referred to, [38].
- Robinson Crusoe, illustrations drawn from, [101], [197], [198].
- Rousseau, J. J., quoted, [48].
- His Contrat Social commented on, [56];
- Recognises the elasticity of human wants, [81].
- Admits existence of evil, [85], note;
- referred to, [94].
- His doctrine controverted, [97].
- To exalt the state of nature, makes happiness to consist in privation, [102].
- Represents solidarity as of legislative creation, [488], [489].
- Russia, population of, doubles in 43 years, [404].
- De Custine’s work on Russia quoted, [468], note.
- S.
- Saint-Chamans, M. de, referred to and quoted, [184].
- Sale and Purchase is barter by means of an intermediate commodity, [109].
- Both resolve themselves into an exchange of services, [110].
- Satisfaction of Consumers, the sole end of production, [94], [95], [96].
- The term satisfaction preferred to the word consumption, as more general, ib.
- Saving is not to accumulate commodities, but to interpose an interval between time of rendering and receiving services, [393].
- The demand for labour and the rise of wages depend on augmentation of capital, ib.
- Difficulties on the subject of saving removed by reference to the principle of value, [391].
- To interpose delay between services rendered and received is itself to render a service; it has value, and hence the origin of interest, [395].
- To give credit is to render a service, which also has value, [396].
- Saving not necessarily injurious to industry, ib.
- It does not imply actual hoarding, ib.
- Say, J. B., quoted, [90].
- Referred to, [100].
- Judicious observation on barter—troc à deux facteurs, [110].
- Wrong in representing value as residing in utility, [136].
- Quoted, [142].
- Erroneous view of landed property, [154].
- Is wrong in representing value as founded on utility, [161]-[164].
- Discards Smith’s distinction between productive and unproductive labour, [173].
- Gave to the word Wealth the sense of Value; Ricardo that of Utility, [181].
- His definition of natural wealth quoted, [190].
- His opinions on landed property quoted, [255].
- Has substituted the more exact expression “means of existence” for the expression “means of subsistence,” used by Malthus in his Essay on Population, [413].
- Wrong in representing taxation as in all cases an evil, [426], notes.
- Scialoja, his opinions on landed property quoted, [254].
- Scrope, his erroneous view of landed property, [253].
- Senior, his erroneous view of rent, [154].
- Services, human transactions, when free, resolve themselves into exchange of, [43].
- Value consists in comparative appreciation of, [73].
- Service is effort in one man, while the want and satisfaction are in another, [74].
- Exchange of, forms the subject of Political Economy, [133].
- Effort saved to the person who receives a service imparts value to the service rendered, [140]-[142].
- Service a better term than Labour, [158].
- Every product which has value implies a service, but every service does not imply a product; value, therefore, is in service, [174].
- When value passes from service to product, it undergoes, in product, all the risks and chances to which the service itself is subject, [176].
- Service is rendered by the man who furnishes capital, [199], [200].
- Private and Public service, [425].
- Where want so general as to be a public want, may be provided for by the community at large, [426].
- This does not alter essential principles of exchange, ib.;
- but modifies them, [429].
- Process explained, ib.
- Sophism that money paid to public functionaries comes back like rain on the citizens exposed, [430].
- Public services always extinguish private services of the same kind, ib.
- Public services leave no discretion to individuals, [432].
- Example of this, ib., note.
- Take away control over services both rendered and received, [433].
- Extinguish sense of responsibility, [434].
- Give rise to public discontent, [434], [435].
- Exclude competition, [435], [436].
- Question is, what services should remain in the domain of private exertion, what in that of public? [436].
- Government action is legitimate only where intervention of force legitimate, [437];
- When the State goes beyond this, it destroys liberty and property, which are placed under its safeguard, ib.
- Province of Government confined to what involves public security, taking care of common property, and levying contributions for public service, [440].
- Circumscribing the province of Government does not enfeeble, but strengthen it, [441].
- Example of the United States, [442].
- Slavery and protection in America active causes of revolution, ib.
- Revolution of February, remarks on, [444].
- Sismondi, M. de, referred to, [184].
- Smith, Adam, wrong in representing value as residing only in material substances, [91].
- His distinction between roductive and unproductive labour has led to errors, ib.
- His account of the influence of exchange on labour commended, [105].
- Wrong in representing the principle of value as residing in materiality and durability, [136].
- Quoted and controverted on the subject of value, [156].
- Opinions on landed property quoted, [252].
- Social Motive Force described and explained, [495]-[503].
- Personal interest is the social motive force which leads us to shun evil and seek after good, [495].
- Attraction towards happiness and repulsion from pain, the mainspring of the social mechanism, [496].
- This impulsive force is under direction of our intelligence, and intelligence may err, ib.
- The laws of responsibility and solidarity lend assistance to repress error and injustice, [497].
- Attempts of the Socialists to substitute devotion and self-sacrifice for personal interest, as the social motive force, combated, [498], [499].
- Socialist works and writers referred to, [500]-[503].
- Social Problem, demands solution, [33], [34].
- Socialists differ from Economists in regarding man’s interests as antagonistic, [35].
- Socialist works referred to, [64], and note.
- Society, mechanism of, [48].
- Solidarity is collective responsibility, [488].
- Not of legislative creation, as represented by Rousseau, [488], [489].
- The philosophers of the last century did not believe in it, [489].
- Instances in which individuals suffer from the errors or faults of others—this is the law of solidarity, [489], [490].
- Responsibility is not exclusively personal, but is shared and divided, [490].
- Society, in turn, suffers from the errors or faults of individuals, and the law of solidarity comes to check such actions, [491].
- Solidarity, like responsibility, is a progressive force, and resolves itself into repercussive or reflected responsibility, ib.
- To enable those who suffer from another’s acts to react against them, connexion between cause and effect should be known, [492].
- Not always known, from the circumstance that the first effect may seem good, though all the subsequent consequences are bad, ib.
- Example of this in case of war, ib.
- In the case of slavery, of religious errors, and of prohibition, ib.
- Human law should coincide with the natural law, and organize reaction, [493].
- Example of this in case of violence, which provokes vengeance, law steps in to repress it with regularity and certainty, [493], [494].
- Economic view of the law of solidarity not indicated by the author in this chapter, [494], note.
- Sophismes Économiques, great success of that work, and extract from it, [18];
- Spain, usual rate of interest in, said to be 8 per cent., [302].
- Population of, doubles in 106 years, [404].
- Spoliation and oppression, the sources of all social dissonances, [318]-[322].
- Statistics, Experimental, what meant by, [353]-[360].
- Stewart, Sir James, took the same view of the principle of population which Malthus more formally enunciated, thirty years before the appearance of the Essay on Population, [402], note.
- Storch, his erroneous view of the principle of value, [136].
- Supply often virtually precedes demand, [335].
- This arises from foresight of producer, ib.
- Intensity of demand pre-existent, [335].
- Switzerland, population of, doubles in 227 years, [404].
- T.
- Taxation, not necessarily a loss, as represented by Say, [426], [427], note.
- Tracy, M. de, quoted, [106], [107].
- Turkey, population of, doubles in 555 years, [403].
- U.
- Utility, onerous and gratuitous, [69].
- By substituting gratuitous for onerous utility, progress annihilates value, ib.
- Gratuitous, tends to take the place of onerous utility, [90], [91].
- Mode in which this is effected, [91], [92].
- Attributing value to utility has led to many errors, [164]-[167].
- The term Production employed to designate whatever confers utility, and Consumption to designate the enjoyment to which that utility gives rise, [323].
- What renders service to the masses is utility alone, and value is not the measure of it, [325];
- General utility and onerous utility represented by lines of unequal length; gratuitous utility, by indefinite lines, [328].
- Utility formerly onerous, now become gratuitous, also represented by lines, [330].
- V.
- Value consists in the comparative appreciation of reciprocal services, [73].
- Does not reside in material substances, as represented by Smith, [91].
- Vague definition of, [108].
- Value represents effort, [109].
- Theory of value, [131].
- As essential to Political Economy as numeration is to arithmetic, ib.
- Value has a tendency to diminish in relation to utility, [132].
- Does not extend to the co-operation of nature, but is restricted exclusively to human efforts, [134].
- A state of isolation excludes the idea of value, ib.
- Exchange imparts the notion of value, [135].
- Value is the relation of two services exchanged, ib.
- Not necessarily proportionate to intensity of efforts, [138].
- Arises in some cases, not from the effort of the person who renders the service, but from the effort saved to the person who receives it, [140], [141].
- This is a new principle not to be found in any other work on Political Economy, [141].
- Intervention of money does not change the principle, [142], [143].
- Value does not reside in commodities, but in services, [143].
- Examples of various kinds of services, all possessed of value, [147].
- Limits within which value oscillates, ib.;
- The precious metals not a perfect standard of value, as their own value fluctuates, [151], [152].
- Value not an attribute of matter, [153].
- This an error of the Physiocrates and of Adam Smith, and has given rise to the distinction between productive and unproductive labour, [153], [154].
- Value not a thing having independent existence, but a relation, [158].
- Value and Labour are not proportional, [159], [160], note.
- Measure of value the quadrature of Political Economy, [170].
- Fixity cannot be found in a mean term composed of variable elements, ib.
- Absolute measure of, a chimera, ib.
- Value being supposed to be in the material product, and not in the service, has led to Smith’s error as to unproductive labour, [172].
- When value passes from service to product, it undergoes, in product, all the risks and chances to which the service itself is subject, [176].
- Prevailing tendency of value incorporated with a commodity is to fall, [178].
- Value is the measure of the utility of services rendered to the individual, not of those rendered to the masses, [325], [326].
- W.
- Wages. Men are always in search of something fixed, [352].
- Hence the great desire for government offices, [353].
- Fixity favoured by two circumstances, [354].
- Illustrations drawn from the principle of fire insurance, [354]-[357].
- Remuneration by wages has the principle of fixity, so much sought after, [357].
- Opinions of the Socialists on this subject controverted, [357], [358].
- Wages, their origin, form, and effects, [358].
- Labour may be remunerated either by share of its product or by fixed wages, [359].
- Dependence not caused by form of remuneration, but by precarious situation of labourer, ib.
- No men worse off than fishermen and vine-dressers, though they have the benefits of association, [359], [360].
- Results of labour applied to the chase, fishing, or agriculture very uncertain, ib.
- To obviate this, a fixed unconditional bargain preferred, [360].
- This is not to destroy, but improve, the principle of association, ib.
- Risks appreciated by means of experimental statistics, ib.
- Remuneration by share of produce characteristic of times of barbarism, [361].
- Fixity of remuneration a step of progress, ib.
- Association not thereby dissolved, ib.
- Capital and labour both take a share of risk till it can be estimated by experience, ib.
- This state of things gives place to a bargain which ensure unity of direction and fixity of situation, [362].
- The capitalist may take risk, paying fixed wages, or labourer may take risk, paying a fixed interest—still there is association, [362], [363].
- Wages have nothing degrading in them any more than interest, [363].
- The one is the remuneration of present, the other of anterior labour, ib.
- Such stipulations are the cause and the manifestation of progress, ib.
- Socialist errors on this subject confuted, [364], [365].
- Friendly Societies admirable means of providing against sickness and old age, [368].
- Have conferred immense benefits on the working classes, ib.
- Caisses de Retraite, Friendly Accumulation Societies, [371]-[378].
- Anterior labour, or capital, must necessarily have more security than present labour, [377]-[379].
- Future of the working classes—tendency to become capitalists, [379]-[383].
- Progress of the working classes between 1750 and 1850, [381].
- Relations of the capitalist and labourer, [383].
- Erroneous notions on this subject most dangerous, [384].
- Falsest theories abroad, ib.
- Due to M. de Sismondi and M. Buret, ib.
- Labourer’s share of product has a tendency to increase as capital increases, [385].
- When exchange takes place between capital, or anterior labour, and present labour, it is not on the footing of their duration or intensity, but of their value, [387].
- Anterior labour has a general tendency to become depreciated, [388], [389].
- Presence of capital always beneficial to labourer, [390].
- Groundless outcry against tyranny of capital, [391], [392].
- Wants, efforts, and satisfactions, constitute the domain of Political Economy, [69]-[74].
- Wants of man, enumeration of, [75]-[77].
- Moral and material, [77].
- Not a fixed quantity, but progressive and expansive, [79], [80].
- Rousseau recognises their elasticity, [81].
- In isolation, wants exceed powers; in the social state, powers exceed wants, [98].
- Man has more wants than any other living being, [99].
- War. Principal thing which imparts to nations their distinctive character is the manner in which they provide for their subsistence, [454].
- Labour, although little noticed by historians, held as important a place among the ancients as it does with us, [457].
- War, spoliation, marked difference in the character of a nation which lives by, [458].
- It presupposes production, ib.
- Spoliation in the shape of war has its root in selfishness, [459].
- Personal interest gives rise to harmony, but there are disturbing causes, [460].
- Labour is in itself a good, independent of its results, but we do not desire it for its own sake, ib.
- Man, being placed between two evils, want and labour, seeks to get rid of both, [461].
- Spoliation then presents itself as a solution of the problem, ib.
- War a waste of human power, ib.
- And the spoliator does not get quit of labour, ib.
- Checks production by the insecurity it creates, [462].
- Contrasts between the producer and spoliator, ib.
- War has been a widespread evil, [462], [463].
- Interrupts human progress, [463].
- How the warlike spirit is propagated, ib.
- How war ends, [464].
- Water has utility without possessing value, [138];
- Wealth, natural and social, [73];
- actual or relative, [180].
- Relative wealth is measured by value, not utility, [181].
- Ricardo gave to the word Wealth the sense of utility; Say, that of value, ib.
- Effective wealth, the aggregate utilities which labour, aided by natural agents, places within our reach, [192].
- Relative wealth, proportional share of each in the general riches, determined by value, ib.
- Morality of, [193], [194].
- Motive which leads to acquisition of, natural, and consequently moral, [193].
- Desire to better our circumstances also moral, ib.;
- but if we seek to become rich by injustice, this immoral, ib.
- Y.
- Youth of France, address to, [33].
EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD.