apparently insensible of the connexion of their own prosper. ity with that of the community, or of its being in any degree attributable to the policy of the government under which they live. They do not seem to be aware that to promote the public welfare is the grand object of civil government. §744. There are those, however, who admit the utility of the science of political economy to persons charged with the administration of public affairs, who do not regard it as a very essential branch of a common education. In a monarchy, where the great body of the people have no agency or influence in the administration, a knowledge of this science is doubtless of less importance to them, than in a free government, where all men, whose interests are affected by the operation of the laws, possess, primarily, equal power in the government. Young men, who are now pursuing their studies in schools, will in a few years be elevated to high public stations; and in a country where the road to public office is open to all classes, an intimate acquaintance with the principles of political economy, must be of the highest importance.

745. In a free government, the people have in their own hands the right of correcting the evils which result from unwise laws. But if they do not understand the cause of their distress, or if they do not agree in tracing the public suffering to its true cause, relief cannot be administered Moreover, without a knowledge of political economy, a people might ignorantly oppose measures best adapted to promote the public prosperity.

§ 746. The inattention to this science which has so long prevailed, may be attributed, in part, to the common opinion that its principles are too abstruse to be brought within the comprehension of the great mass of the people, especially of the young. The fact, however, is otherwise. Few sci. ences are more simple. The youth of fifteen, though he may not be an adept in the science, nor possess the knowl edge of an experienced legislator, is nevertheless capable of

science received? § 744, 745. Why is a knowledge of political econ omy more useful in a free, than in an arbitrary government? What would ultimately be the consequence of general ignorance among the people of this country? § 746. What is one of the probable causes of

understanding the general laws and principles which regulate the production and distribution of the wealth of society. These principles, when duly explained, are as readily comprehended as those of mathematics, or of chemistry and natural philosophy.

747. Writers on political economy have treated of the subject under these four general heads: production of wealth, exchange of wealth, distribution of wealth, and consumption of wealth. This order will be observed in the following treatise as nearly as the nature of the several subjects discussed will admit. Under the first head it will be shown how the industry of a nation may be rendered most productive of wealth; under the second, will appear the necessity of an exchange of the products of labor, and the principles by which this exchange is conducted; under the third it will be seen how the profits of industry are distributed among the various classes of producers; and under the fourth, how property is consumed; in other words, how the value of objects created in production is destroyed.

CHAPTER II.

Production.-Definition of Terms.

§748. WEALTH comprehends those objects which are capable of gratifying the desires of man, and of being exchanged for other things which are necessary to satisfy his wants. These objects are numerous, consisting of land, buildings, grain, metal, cloth, fuel, money, household goods, domestic animals, and all commodities which are essential to the life and comfort of man, and for which other articles of value may be procured in exchange.

Inattention to this science? § 747. How is this subject usually divi ded? and what does each of these divisions treat of?

§748. What is the definition of wealth? § 749. What is value?

§ 749. Value is defined to be that quality in objects which renders them useful to man. A man's wealth is said to be in proportion to the amount of the value of the things which he possesses. But there are things of the highest degree of utility to man, which, however, constitute no portion of his wealth. Such are air, daylight, and water. These have great intrinsic value, or value in use, being indispen sable to the existence of mankind; but, being possessed alike by all, no man can procure for them anything in exchange. It is therefore the value in exchange, or exchange. able value of a thing which makes it an item of wealth. Hence it is said, that to create value is to create wealth.

§ 750. As any object is considered valuable on account of its useful properties, a writer on economy (Say) gives to this fitness or capabilty of a thing to satisfy the wants of mankind, the name of utility. And he says, that to create objects which have any kind of utility, is to create wealth, for the utility of things is the ground work of their value, and their value constitutes wealth; and, hence, to create utility is to produce wealth. This latter definition, however, does not essentially differ from that given in the preceding section. According to either, wealth consists in the value of things.

§731. The questions then naturally arise, whence is wealth derived? and how is value created? The opinion formerly prevailed among economists, that the soil was the source of all wealth. But the more rational doctrine now prevails, which regards LABOR as the agent which produces wealth. The materials of wealth may be said to originate from the bosom of the earth; but it is by the aid of labor that they are made to constitute wealth. And in proportion to the amount of labor bestowed upon any material, is its value augmented, and the wealth of an individual increased.

752. Iron is an article of comparatively small exchangeable value. What value it possesses has been created almost wholly by the labor of changing its form from its rude state in the earth. By the labor of converting it into axes,

What is meant by the terms, intrinsic value and exchangeable value? § 750. How is wealth produced? In what does it consist? § 751. What is the grand agent which produces wealth? § 752. Show, by

its value is farther increased, perhaps ten fold. If manufactured into knives, the value may have been increased to an amount more than one hundred times greater than it possessed in the state in which the cutler received it. A pound of silver is worth more than a pound of iron, because more labor is required to get silver than to get iron. So also the value of land is augmented by the labor of clearing it of the forest, and preparing it for cultivation.

§ 753. The exchangeable value or price of a thing, therefore, is generally as the toil and labor of acquiring it. It is not the less bought with labor when paid for in money or other goods; for labor was the first price of the money or goods with which the article was procured. Whether a man labor a day to procure a bushel of wheat, or pay for it a dollar in money for which he had previously given a day's labor, the cost of the wheat is to him the same in either case. And if one man acquire any thing for one, two or ten day's labor, he will exchange it for another thing which he wants that has cost the same quantity of labor.

§754. The exchangeable value of an object is, however, liable to sudden and temporary variations; that is, the current price of a commodity may, by extraordinary circumstances, be made to vary from the cost or natural price. Should double the usual quantity of wheat be sent to any market for the use of the inhabitants, the supply being greater than the want or demand, the owners might be obliged to sell the article below the cost, or suffer a still greater loss by not selling it at all. If, on the other hand, a scarcity should by some means be produced in the market, the current price, or exchangeable value, of a commodity would be raised above the cost, because the demand would be greater than the supply. But the causes of these fluctu. ations are usually of short continuance, as the exchangeable value of things ever tends to a proper level.

§ 755. A product is that which is formed or brought forth

an example, how labor increases the value of things. §753. By what is the value of a thing generally determined? § 754. Is this rule invariable? What is the difference between the current and the natural prices of things? How is this variation caused? § 755. What is a product?

by nature, or by human labor; and the act or process of making or furnishing such object, is called production: consequently, the creation of any valuable product, or the investing of any matter or substance with utility, is properly termed the production of wealth.

The Different Kinds of Industry, and their Concurrence in

§ 756. As the grand agent in the production of wealth is labor or industry, and as wealth is increased in proportion to the increase of value produced by industry; it is the province of political economy to show how industry may be most successfully employed in the creation of value. Without industry, few of the wants of mankind would be sup plied. The earth in a state of nature would not only furnish to man a scanty subsistence, but it could furnish such subsistence to a very limited population.

§757. There are three kinds of industry by which value is created agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial industry; and the concurrence of these is necessary in production. Industry, in the production of wealth, does not, however, create matter; it merely changes the form of it. It may properly be said to be the human employment of natural agents in creating value, by changing the form and place of existing substances.

§758. "The husbandman," says Say, "who sows a grain of wheat that yields twenty fold, does not gain this product from nothing he avails himself of a powerful agent; that is to say, of Nature, and merely directs an operation, whereby different substances previously scattered throughout the

756. By what are the wants of mankind principally supplied? 757. What three kinds of industry concur in producing wealth? Does industry create matter? § 758. Explain the process of chang.