B. By the extension of the field of view, so that not only the direct but also the indirect and more remote effects of international trade were taken into consideration.[A2-1-12]
A certain over-estimation of the circulation of goods continued to characterize even the latest adherents of the mercantile system.[A2-1-13] Yet the caricature drawn by the tradition of more recent text-books, of the mercantilists, is true only of the inferior ones among them.[A2-1-14] The most distinguished of them, Botero,[A2-1-15] for instance, approximate more closely to the science of the present day than is usually supposed.
[A2-1-1] Compare Roscher, Geschichte der Nationalökonomik in Deutschland, I, 228 ff.
[A2-1-2] Even the remarkable Florentine pamphlet of 1454 (Jablonowski's prize essay of 1878, app. Beilage, 4) complains of the decrease of industry principally on account of the diminution of money caused thereby. "Wealth is money," says Ernestine, essay of 1530, on the coin, and explains the smaller wealth of the silver-country, Saxony, as compared with England, France, Burgundy and Lombardy, by the greater exportation of commodities of these countries, by means of which they draw the silver of Saxony to themselves. (Roscher, Geschichte, I, 103.) Bornitz, Theorie wie sich der Staat diesen nervus rerum in grösster Menge verschafft: De Nummis (1608), II, 4, 6, 8. A. Serra, Sulle Cause, che possono far abbondare un Regno di Monete (1613), places excess of gold and silver and poverty as diametrical opposites, at the head of his work. Hörnigk, Oesterreich über Alles, wann es nur will (1684), says that it is "better to give two dollars which remain in the country for a commodity, than only one dollar which goes out of the country" (ch. 9). According to Schröder, Fürstliche Schatz- und Rentkammer (1686), the export of commodities is a blessing only "when we can turn them into silver through our neighbors." (LXX, 12.) Even Locke held similar views (Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, 1691. Further Considerations concerning Raising the Value of Money, 1698). On Davenant's inconsistency in this respect, compare Roscher, Geschichte der Englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre, 110 ff. The quantity of money remaining the same, a country grows neither richer nor poorer (Christ. Wolff, Vernünftige Gedanken vom gesellschaftlichen Leben, 1721, § 476). J. Gee, Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered (1730), bewails the folly of those to whom "money is a commodity like other things, and also think themselves never the poorer for what the nation daily exports," (p. 11). Justi, von Manufacturen und Fabriken (1759 seq.), considers it the principal object of industry simply to prevent the outflow of money. Similarly, Pfeifer, Polizeiwissenschaft (1779), II, 286. Even Frederick the Great considered it "true and obvious" that "a purse out of which money is taken every day, and into which nothing is put in turn, must soon become empty." (Œuvres, VI, 77).
[A2-1-3] The thirst for gold which, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, drove so many emigrants to the western Eldorado, reminds one, by reason of its enthusiasm, of the crusades to the Holy Land. The striving after the making of gold which the emperors Rudolph II., Ferdinand III., Leopold I., Frederick I. of Prussia, Christian IV. of Denmark, Christian II. and Augustus the Strong of Saxony, Heinrich Julius of Braunschweig, Frederick of Würtemberg, harbored, and also the Silesian and Brandenburg princes even during the Hussite war (Riedel, Cod. Dipl. Brandenb., II, 4, 151), was, to a great extent, misplaced philosophy; men went in search of the materia universalissima,[TN 123] the spiritus universalis, from which all that is receives its esse et fieri, the universal elixir, at once the life-power of man, the universal medicine and maturing principle of natural bodies. (Roscher's Gesch., I, 230.)
[A2-1-4] Schröder justifies the little estimation in which he holds internal commerce by saying that "a country may indeed grow and become powerful by its means, but cannot gain in wealth;" just as a dress embroidered with pearls is not made more costly by taking the pearls from the cuffs and putting them upon the cape. (F. Schatz- und Rentkammer, XXIX, 3.) According to the Fredrickian theorizer, Philippi, "internal trade scarcely deserves the name of commerce." (Vergröss. Staat, 1759, ch. 6.) Sir J. Steuart still teaches that an isolated state may, indeed, be happy, but that it can grow rich only through foreign trade and mining. (Principles, II, ch, 13.) The same fundamental thought finds expression in the title of Th. Mun's celebrated book: England's Treasure by Forraign Trade, or the Balance of our Forraign Trade is the Rule of our Treasure (1664).
[A2-1-5] Il est claire qu'un pays ne peut gagner, sans qu'un autre perde, et qu'il ne peut vaincre sans faire des malheureux (Voltaire, Dict. phil., art. Patrie). Even Verri was, in his earlier period, of the opinion: ogni vantaggio di una nazione net commercio[TN 124] porta un danno ad un altra nazione; lo studio del commercio è una vera guerra (Opuscoli, 335).
[A2-1-6] Even in 1761, the learned Mably could say: la défense de transporter les espèces d'or et d'argent est générale dans tous les états de l'Europe ... il n'y a point de voie moins sensée (Droit public, II, 365).
[A2-1-7] The obstacles placed in the way of importation by governments originated, in great part, from views entertained on sumptuary legislation; in that of exportation, from a desire to prevent a scarcity of certain articles, as may be clearly seen in Patricius (De Inst. Reipublic., V, 10, I, 8), and even in Sully (Mémoires, XI, XII, XIII, but especially XII), Bornitz, Besold, Klock and v. Seckendorf. (Compare Roscher, Gesch., I, 191, 202, 215, 247.) But the mercantilistic germs show themselves even in Hutten and Luther. (Roscher, I, 44, 63.) The advance made between the police ordinance of the empire of 1530 and that of 1548, is very remarkable in this respect. The mercantile theory of duties appears very systematically elaborated even in J. Bodinus, De Republica, 1577, VI, 2; in Germany in Hörnigk, Oesterreich über Alles, ch. 9.
[A2-1-8] The English jealousy of Holland is represented especially by Sir W. Raleigh (?), Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollander and other nations, 1603, Works, III, 31 ff.; Sir J. Child, A new Discourse of Trade (1690), and Sir W. Temple, Observations upon the U. Provinces (1672). Compare Roscher, Z. Gesch. der englischen V. W. Lehre, p. 31 ff., 125 ff. The English jealousy of France: Sam. Fortrey, England's Interest and Improvement (1663). R. Coke, A Treatise, wherein is demonstrated that the Church and State of England are in equal Danger with its Trade (1671), and the anonymous, Britannia languens (1680). Per contra, especially the work: England's Greatest Happiness, wherein it is demonstrated that a great Part of our Complaints is causeless (1677). Here we find chapters with the title: To export Money our great Advantage; the French Trade a profitable Trade; Multitudes of Traders a great Advantage. Petty gave the best solution to the question in dispute, in his posthumous Political Arithmetic concerning the Value of Lands, etc. Hörnigk would enlist his service in the cause of the jealousy against France, immediately after the disgraceful defeats which Germany in 1680 ff. suffered in the midst of peace, by Louis XIV. Concerning smaller works of the same period and in the same direction, see Roscher's Gesch., I, 299 seq.