Book 5 — CHAPTER III.
John J. (John Joseph) Lalor translation
POPULATION-POLICY.
SECTION CCLIII.
DENSE POPULATION.—OVER-POPULATION.
The nation's economy attains its full development wherever the greatest number of human beings simultaneously find the fullest satisfaction of their wants.
A dense population is not only a symptom of the existence of great productive forces carried to a high point of utilization;[253-1] but is itself a productive force,[253-2] and of the utmost importance as a spur and as an auxiliary to the utilization of all other forces. The new is always attractive, by reason of its newness; but at the same time, we hold to the old too precisely because of its age: and the force of inertia would always turn the scales in favor of the latter. This inertia, both physical and mental is so general, that perhaps the majority of mankind would continue forever satisfied with their traditional field of occupation and with their traditional circle of food, were it not that an impulse as powerful and universal as the sexual and that of the love of children compelled them to extend the limits of both. That man might subdue the whole earth it was necessary that the Creator should make the tendency of man to multiply his kind more powerful than the original production-tendency of his earliest[TN 103] home. The unknown far-away deters as much as it attracts.[253-3] It is easy to see how the division and combination of labor become uniformly easier as population increases in density. Think only of large cities as compared with the country.[253-4] "Under-populated"[253-5] countries, which might easily support a large number of human beings, and which, notwithstanding have for a long period of time had only few inhabitants, are on this account abodes of poverty, regions where education and progress are unknown. While, therefore, it cannot be questioned that a nation under otherwise equal circumstances is more powerful and flourishing in proportion as its population embraces a large number of vigorous, well-to-do, educated and happy human beings, the last mentioned attributes should not be left out of consideration.
The possibility of over-population is contested by a great many theorizers (§ 243); and, indeed, the complaints on this score are in most cases only a baseless pretext of the inertia which feels the pressure of the population without being helped and spurred thereby to an increase of the means of subsistence. This inertia itself, especially when it governs a whole nation, is a fact which cannot be ignored. Over-population, as I use the term, exists whenever the disproportion between the population and the means of subsistence operates in such away that the average portion of the latter which falls to the share of each is oppressively small, whether the effect produced thereby manifests[TN 104] itself in a surprisingly large mortality, or in the limitation of marriages and of the procreation of children carried to the point of hardship. Over-population of this kind is, as a rule, curable by extending the limits of the field of food, either as a result of the advance of civilization at home, or by emigration.
That the whole earth should be incurably over-peopled is an exceedingly remote contingency.[253-6] But where, within a smaller circle, by reason of the great stupidity or weakness of mankind, or by the too great power of circumstances, over-population cannot act as a spur to new activity, it is indeed one of the most serious and most dangerous political diseases.[253-7] The immoderate competition of workmen involves the majority of the nation in misery, not only materially but also morally; one of the most dangerous temptations, for the rich to a contempt for human kind, for the poor to envy, dishonesty and prostitution. In every suffocating crowd, the animal part of man is wont to obtain the victory over the intellectual. Precisely the simplest, most universal and most necessary relations are most radically and disastrously affected by the difficulty or impossibility of contracting marriage, and the sore solicitude for the future of one's children.[253-8]
In1700-1800. 1800-1825. 1824-1846.
by by by
France,1 4116 132
Naples,15 181 49|
Piedmont, 16 18 150
Lombardy,19 401 80|
England and Wales,16 42136
Scotland, 1316 134
Ireland,17 801 77|
Holland,13 141 95|
Belgium,15 44136
Prussia,1717 168
Hanover, 1612 132
Württemberg,17 12156
Bohemia,16 271 73|
In the seven most densely populated counties. In the seven counties of average population. In the five most sparsely populated counties.
Inhabitants per geographical sq. mile, 4,9042,229 1,061
One man with £60 income in every 034 inhabitants 037 477
One man with £200 income in every 193 inhabitants199 472
Aggregate of all incomes over £200 per square mile,£25,118£12,676 £2,441
In Rhenish Hessen,100 100.
In Starkenburg,65 64.
In Upper Hessen,64 59.
SECTION CCLIV.
THE IDEAL OF POPULATION.
Hence it was not an erroneous policy that most governments have sought to promote the increase of population in undeveloped nations. So far as the influence of the acts of government can reach, such a course must tend to the earlier maturity of a people's economy. Much more questionable are positive provisions by government intended to hinder the further increase of population in a country already supposed to be fully peopled; if for no other reason, because even the deepest, most varied and extensive knowledge can scarcely ever predict with certainty that no further extension of the field of food is possible under the spur of momentary over-population; and also because questions of population reach so far into the life and tenderest feelings of the individual that a government which has regard for the personal freedom of its subjects, instead of promoting or hindering marriage, emigration etc. by police regulations, cannot but limit itself to a statistical knowledge and legislative regulation of these relations.[254-1] [254-2]
Whether the population of a country increase in a well-to-do or proletarian manner; whether, therefore, the state should rejoice or lament over such increase, may generally be inferred with some certainty from the other conditions of the country's economy, especially from the height of the rate of wages and from the consumption of the nation (§ 230). Thus, for instance, the population of England, between 1815 and 1847, increased 47 per cent.; but during the same period the value of its exports increased 63 per cent.; the tonnage of its merchant marine, 55 per cent.; the amount yielded by the tax on legacies, and therefore moveable property, by 93 per cent.; the value of immoveable property by 78 per cent. Wherever in agriculture the ancient system of triennial rotation (Dreifelder-system = three-field system) has been exchanged for the so-called English system, not only is a greater number of men supported, but, as a rule, each is more abundantly provided for.[254-3] The construction of new houses is an especially good symptom, because a habitation is a want which governs many others, and which, at the same time, may be much curtailed in case of need. Only, there should be no thoughtless building speculations, the existence or absence of which may readily be inferred from the ratio between the rent of houses and the rate of interest usual in the country. In England and Wales there was, in 1801, one house to every 5.7 inhabitants; in 1821, to every 5.8; in 1841, to every 5.4; in 1861, to every 5.39; in 1871, to every 5.35.[254-4]
The taking of the census at regular intervals in accordance with the principles of modern science, and with the apparatus of modern art, is one of the chief means to enable us to form a correct judgment of the health of the national life and of the goodness of the state.[254-5]
SECTION CCLV.
MEANS OF PROMOTING POPULATION.
The following are the principal means which have been used to artificially promote the increase of population:
A. Making marriage and the procreation of children obligatory by direct command. Among almost all medieval nations so strong is the family feeling, that it seems to men to be a sacred duty to keep their family from becoming extinct. Where a person is not in a condition physically to fulfill this duty, the law supplies a means of accomplishing it by juridical substitution[255-1] at least. Most national religions[255-2] operate in the same direction, as well as the influence of political law-givers, who fully share in the contempt for willful old bachelors and sterile women, which runs through the national feeling of all medieval times.[255-3] In addition to this, there are the positive rewards offered for large families of children.[255-4] Even Colbert, in 1666, decreed that whoever married before his 20th year should be exempt from taxation until his 25th; that anyone who had 10 legitimate children living, not priests, should be exempt from taxation for all time;[255-5] that a nobleman having 10 children living should receive a pension of 1,000 livres, and one having 12, 2,000 livres. Persons not belonging to the nobility were to receive one-half of this, and to be released from all municipal burthens.[255-6] Such premiums are, indeed, entirely superfluous. No nobleman would desire 12 children simply to obtain a pension of 2,000 livres! Colbert himself abandoned this system of premiums shortly before his death.[255-7] [255-8]
In the case of morally degenerated nations, in which an aversion to the married state had gained ground, efforts have sometimes been made to work against it by means of new premiums. Thus, especially in Rome, since the times of Cæsar and Augustus, although with poor success. It little becomes one who is himself a great adulterer to preach the sixth commandment.[255-9]
SECTION CCLVI.
IMMIGRATION.
B. Calling for immigrants. This is a means all the more in favor, inasmuch as it provides the country not only with new-born children, but with mature men, who frequently, when they come from thickly peopled and highly civilized countries, promote the industries of the country of their adoption, and become the teachers of a higher civilization. I need only mention the inhabitants of the Low Countries, who in the twelfth century settled as agriculturists in Northern Germany,[256-1] and in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries in England, as artisans; the German miners and inhabitants of cities, who, during the middle ages, colonized Hungary, Transylvania[256-2] and Poland,[256-3] and the French Huguenots, who fled to the Independent Protestant countries. Nearly all the remarkable Russian princes since Ivan III. have endeavored in this way to induce Germans to settle in Russia, and, for the same reason, Peter the Great refused to give up his Swedish prisoners of war.[256-4] The great Prussian rulers have cultivated the policy of immigration on an extensive scale, and thus maintained the original character of their parent provinces as the colonial land of the German people.[256-5] [256-6]
Such immigrants have been generally accorded a release from taxation and from military duty for a number of years; a proper measure since the state thereby only surrendered an advantage temporarily which it otherwise would not have possessed at all. Where the land of the state receiving the immigrants was still almost valueless, it has frequently been made over in parcels to well-to-do colonists without consideration.[256-7] Assistance exceeding these limits is a very questionable boon. It should not be forgotten that the influx of men who bring no capital whatever with them, and who are not good workmen, is of no advantage. Nor are they always the best elements of a people who emigrate. They are very frequently men who, through their own fault, did not prosper at home, and who come to the new country, with all their old faults.[256-8] This is, of course not true of those who emigrate from their attachment to some great principle; for instance, it is not true of those who emigrate in search of freedom of conscience. These may become, provided they are in harmony with their new environment, a support and ornament to their adopted country.[256-9] But there is always danger that they may not be able to adapt themselves to their new economic relations, and that thus they may in consequence succumb to the pressure of circumstances.[256-10]
Oriental despotisms have frequently endeavored to assure themselves the possession of newly conquered countries by transporting its most vigorous inhabitants in whole masses to a distant part of their old empire. Thus, the Jews were carried into Assyria and Babylon; the Eretrians into Persia; the inhabitants of Caffa by Mohammed II.; the Armenians by Abbas the Great. The Russians, too, undertook a similar transportation of people under the Ivans.[256-11]
C. The prohibition of emigration, which, in the case of serfs, vassals and state-villeins, it seems natural enough, was very usual in periods of absolute monarchical power. Thus, for instance, Frederick William I. forbade the emigration of Prussian peasants under penalty of death. Whoever captured an emigrant received a reward of two hundred thalers.[256-12] The public opinion of modern times is very decidedly opposed to this compulsion, which would make the state a prison.[256-13] "A really excessive population would still find an exit to escape, namely, through the gates of death." (J. B. Say.) The statesman, on the other hand, who opposes the withdrawal of political or ecclesiastical malcontents should take care, lest he act like the physician who prevents the discharge of diseased matter from the sick body, and causes it to take its seat in some vital organ.[256-14] Hence, even where emigration is considered detrimental to the country, no governmental condition should be attached to it, except that the person desiring to emigrate should give timely notice of his intention, and receive his passport only after it has been shown that he has discharged all his military duties, paid his taxes and his debts.[256-15] [256-16]
The severe penalties imposed in Athens on emigration, after the defeat at Chæronea, when general discouragement threatened the state with total dissolution, belong to an entirely different mode of thought. [256-17]
SECTION CCLVII.
SANITARY POLICE.
D. Hygienic measures and the improvement of the sanitary police of a country are of the utmost importance, not only to increase the number of inhabitants, but also to produce the conditions of population described in § 246.[257-1]
E. It is the indispensable condition precedent of all the measures which we have examined, if they would attain their end, that the means of subsistence of the people should be increased or at least more equally divided among them. Where this has been done the increase of population will, as a rule, take care of itself; where it has not, the artificially increased procreation of children can only produce new victims for the angel of death. A merely more equable distribution can, however, improve the condition of the people only in exceedingly rare cases. (§ 204). As a rule, the diseases which it is attempted to thus cure grow worse, or they at least increase in extent. (§ 80, ff., 250.) It is quite different, of course, when the more equable distribution coincides with an absolute growth of the nation's economy. We shall see, later, that, for instance, the freedom of land alienation and of industrial pursuits, when not accompanied by an important advance in the corresponding branches of economy may do more harm than good; but that under favorable circumstances a multitude of dormant forces are thereby awakened, and that then the national-economical dividend may be increased much more than the divisor. (§ 239. Roscher, Nationalökonomik des Ackerbaues, § 99, 139 ff.)
SECTION CCLVIII.
MEANS OF LIMITING THE INCREASE OF POPULATION.
A. The means which consists in rendering marriage less easy by legislation is surrounded with peculiar difficulties in densely populated countries, which are always highly civilized. The state would have here to swim against the stream, and it would be generally a much less difficult task to enlarge the field of food. If there remained from a former period any inducements held out to promote marriage, it is self evident that they should now be discontinued. A voluntary bachelor must now no longer be considered as a man who permits one more woman to become an old maid, but as one who facilitates marriage to another couple.[258-1] On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that, for men, generally, marriage is not only an occasion of increased outlay, but also an incentive to increased activity and greater economy.[258-2] Many states have endeavored to condition the founding of a family by requiring evidence that the father has a prospect of being able to support one.[258-3] Distinguished theorizers accede to this condition, inasmuch as they deny the right of over-population.[258-4] But, unfortunately, it is impossible, except in a few extreme cases, to assert or deny a prospect of being able to support a family.[258-5] How easily is the most remunerative power of labor destroyed by physical or mental disease. Scarcely less subject to change is the so-called certain opportunity of acquisition afforded by a profession or a trade, when it is not guarantied by the possession of considerable capital or of landed property, or by some legal privilege. The amount of property required by many laws is so small that it alone would suffice to support the family only for a few years.[258-6] And yet it has been generally provided that the proof of such a property gave one an unconditional right to establish a domicile and to marry. It is only where this is wanting that special consent is required. But who shall exercise this right of consent? The parish, perhaps, because on it the impoverished family would fall as a burthen. But it is to be feared that the course of procedure here would be too severe. Local narrow-heartedness might refuse the right of domicile to skillful and industrious candidates, who are in the best situation to maintain a family, but whose competition the older members of the parish might dread.[258-7] Hence, in most countries, the parish is treated as a party, on whose protest against the marriage the state itself decides[258-8] If the state authorities were to give the immediate decisions in such cases, we might expect, in ordinary times, a liberality which would frustrate the object of the law; but sometimes, also, considerable chicanery on grounds of so-called higher police.
Where there still exist classes and corporations with real independence, the members of which still attach a real value to the body, the matter takes care of itself. The journeyman, for instance, voluntarily retards his marriage until he has become a master workman, and once he has attained that degree, he "works the golden mine of his trade."[258-9] But wherever a numerous proletariat exists, the individuals of which have no better future to expect, whatever their present sacrifices and self-denial, and who know nothing of class-wants or class-honor, prohibitions of marriage are severely felt, and are far from being well enforced.[258-10] The rule which excites least opposition is the fixing of a normal age for marriage, under which males should not be allowed to undertake its engagements.[258-11] Of all privileges those attaching to age are viewed with least aversion. Something similar is effected in most countries to-day by military conscription, which, on this account, in young countries, has a very restrictive effect on the increase of population.[258-12] The best means against thoughtless marriages certainly consists in increasing the measure of individual wants (§ 163); assuming, of course, that the added wants are proper and worthy.[258-13] There is always the consideration that all limitation of marriage, even voluntary self-limitation, by decreasing or postponing marriage, may prove disastrous to morals. It should, however, not be forgotten that there are other sins besides impurity, and that complete poverty constitutes one of the worst of temptations. Especially is it not the angel guardian of chastity.[258-14]
In England [258-15] and France, all governmental hinderances to marriage have long since ceased, and in Prussia, at least all general police hinderances; and we can by no means say that the consequences have been evil. On the other hand, no favorable results as to their influence on pauperism can be shown statistically from the restrictive laws of Württemberg. Rather do statistics point here to the unfavorable probable result of an increase of illegitimate births.[258-16] According to the law of the North German Confederation of 1868, the contract of marriage, except in the case of soldiers, officials, clergymen and teachers, is so free, so far as police influence is concerned, that even actual poverty is no impediment.[258-17] [258-18] [258-19]
SECTION CCLIX.
EFFECTS OF EMIGRATION.
B. It is sufficiently evident that emigration from an over-populated country[259-1] may be attended with good consequences, especially when it takes place in organized bodies.[259-2] There is little danger that one who knows how to work and pray will go to the bad in a young agricultural colony. In a wilderness which has not yet been cleared, the greater number of proletarian vices spontaneously disappear. There is here no opportunity for jealousy or theft; little for intemperance, the gaming table, licentiousness or quarrelsomeness. Here labor is a necessity, and the rewards of industry and saving soon take a palpable shape. As the emigrant, in such a situation, can scarcely help marrying, children far from being a burthen, soon become companions to their parents in their solitude and, later, helpmates in business. The colonist belonging to the lower middle class is most certain of improving his condition. It may, indeed, require many and toilsome years before he can feel comfortable himself; but his children who would probably have led a proletarian life in the mother country may calculate with certainty on future well-being. The father's small capital which the outlay for education alone would have exhausted at home, here becomes the seed of a number of prosperous households.[259-3] It is otherwise with the mass of the people who remain at home. (Compare § 241.)[259-4] It is a matter of much more difficulty than is generally supposed by those who have not made a study of the matter, that the yearly emigration from countries like Germany should counterbalance the excess of births over deaths.[259-5] It is not to be supposed that men who are really useless at home should be of any service in the colonies. How violently have not English colonies opposed the advent of settlers from the poorhouses of the mother country. The classes which are readiest to emigrate: idlers, fickle characters, fathers of families with altogether too many children, artisans who by a revolution in industry have lost the means of making a livelihood, are precisely those who find it most difficult to obtain employment on the other side of the water.[259-6] Most colonies refuse to receive persons over forty years of age at their own expense. But a young man intellectually and physically able to work, can always make his way even in the old world; only the weaker succumb under the pressure of over-population. Lastly, it should be considered what an amount of capital is required for purposes of emigration and settlement. If emigrants, on the average, take more capital with them than is estimated to be the per capita amount of capital possessed by those remaining at home,[259-7] the consequence would be that, as a result of this very successful emigration, the ratio of consumers to the amount of capital in the country would become more and more unfavorable. The emigrating portion of the country might experience the advantage of this, but the great mass of the population remaining at home would become poorer in capital and in vigorous men,[259-8] and richer in the comparatively needy. The comfortless contrast between colossal wealth and beggarly want could only be thereby increased, since it is almost exclusively the lower middle class who emigrate to agricultural colonies. The over-rich, as a rule, will not, and proletarians can not, go thither.[259-9] [259-10]
18inPersons.
1847,258,000
1848,248,000
1849,299,000
1850,280,000
1852, (maxim.)368,000
1853,329,000
1855,176,000
1857,212,000
1858-60, (average)96,000
1862,121,000
1863,223,000
1865,181,000
1867,105,161
1870,202,511
1871,174,930
18in At least.
1844,43,000
1845,67,000
1846,94,000
1847,109,000
1848,81,000
1849,89,000
1850,82,000
1851,112,000
1852,162,000
1853,156,000
1854, (maxim.)250,000
1855.81,000
1856.98,000
1857,115,000
1858-61, (average)4,620
1866137,000
1867,151,000
By Hamburg and Bremen alone—
1867-71, (average)33,355 & 48,296
1872,57,621 & 66,919
1873,51,432 & 48,608
1874,24,093 & 17,913
SECTION CCLX.
COLONIST EMIGRATION.
All these dangers disappear when the portion of the nation which has emigrated continues economically connected with the body of the nation remaining at home. (Colonizing emigration.) Here emigration not only provides "elbow room" in the mother country, but there arises at the same time an increased demand for manufactured articles, an increased supply of raw material, by means of which an absolute growth of population is made possible.[260-1] England has hitherto enjoyed these advantages to the fullest extent, Germany scarcely at all. German emigrants to Russia, America, Australia, or Algiers, were, together with all they have and are, for the most part lost to their fatherland. They become the customers and suppliers of foreign countries, and frequently enough the competitors and even enemies of Germany.[260-2] [260-3]
It might be very different if the stream of German emigration was directed towards German colonies for instance, as happened in later medieval times, towards the fertile but thinly populated parts of Hungary, towards the provinces of Austria and Prussia; perhaps, as List wished, towards those parts of Turkey which, God willing, shall yet constitute the inheritance of the German people. Thus, through the instrumentality of emigration, might a new Germany arise, which would directly or indirectly and necessarily ally itself to the old, politically, and at the same time constitute the surest bulwark against the danger from Slavic power.
Politico-economically, this country might be utilized by Germany as the United States uses the Mississippi valley and the Far West, especially as concerns the exclusiveness of the use. It is true, that emigrants could be invited to these quarters in good conscience only when the soil had been prepared for them. They should find there, on their arrival, complete legal security, especially for the landed property to be acquired by them; likewise, at least, full personal, religious, and also commercial freedom.[260-4]
It may be asked, whether there are places in the other quarters of the world adapted to German colonization in the higher sense of the word. These should of course be countries adapted to agriculture as practiced by the Germans,[260-5] with an easily accessible coast and provided in the interior with navigable streams. Here the Germans should be able not only to live together in large numbers, but the rest of the population should be inferior to them in political training and in national feeling. Otherwise, there would in time be danger of their losing the German character and feeling.[260-6] The difficulty of establishing German colonies in the southern temperate parts of Chili and Brazil would be aggravated by the very same causes which prevented the creation of a German navy for centuries; and they would almost certainly have to calculate on the jealousy of all other colonial powers and of the United States.[260-7] We should not forget that from Raleigh's time to the present, almost every speculation having for its object the founding of a colony, whether originating with individual capitalists or with joint-stock companies, has been, considered from a mercantile point of view, a failure. The fruits of new colonization are generally reaped in the succeeding generation; and such delay is scarcely in harmony with the ideas of our own times. Almost every settlement has had its critical period when the settlers almost despaired. This produced less harm in the 17th century; for they were for the most part compelled to persevere. In our day, they would probably disband and go in search of an easier life in colonies already existing. And yet, Germany must make haste if it would not soon see the last appropriate locality occupied by other and more resolute nations.[260-8] [260-9]
The British Empire. France.Germany without Austria.
1840-41,$51,000,000 $24,000,000$2,450,000
1849-50,85,000,000 27,600,0008,780,000
1859-60,138,600,000 43,200,00018,500,000
SECTION CCLXI.
STATE AID TO EMIGRANTS.
The inquiry, What can the state reasonably do for emigration, must, of course, receive a very different answer according as there is question of merely negative (§ 259) or colonizing emigration (§ 262). To give the latter a proper impulse requires so great an outlay of capital and labor that it can be made only by the state; and in Germany, on a large scale, only by a union of several states. We must not here deceive ourselves. Emigrants will go uniformly where they have the nearest prospect of a comfortable future. Whether in emigrating they shall continue their connection with their old home, or whether their children shall be completely denationalized is a matter with which very few emigrants concern themselves; and considering the amount of education they generally possess, this need excite no surprise. Hence, if Germany would unite its departing children in a colony permanently German, and therefore new,[261-1] it would be necessary for it to offer them, at its own expense, at least the same advantages which they would find in older and fully established colonies. He who would reap should not endeavor to evade the sacrifice incident to the sowing.[261-2] Even great sacrifices in this direction would certainly be richly rewarded if properly made. Probably the outlay would never be directly returned to the national treasury; but there is all the more reason, on this account, that there should be an indirect return by the increase of duties and other indirect taxes.
On the other hand, the costly assistance of the state in the case of merely negative emigration would, as a rule, be folly. Who would compel the children of the great national family, who necessarily or voluntarily remain faithful to the paternal roof, to pay tribute to those who turn their backs on the old home for ever? The wealthy especially who remain in the country have to put up with the disadvantage of paying higher wages for labor.
Simple humanity requires that the state should not be blind to the movement of emigration, nor abandon it to all the risks of improvident liberty. Hence it should endeavor to remove the ignorance prevailing on questions of emigration. It should require personal and other guaranties that emigration agents are not simply dealers in men, and that the contracts made with ship-owners by emigrants are really performed. It should exercise a strict superintendence over the mode of transportation of emigrants, and see to it that its consuls accredited to America, etc. assist them by word and deed.[261-3] The legislation of Bremen is a model in this respect, and has contributed largely to make that port a principal outlet for German emigration.[261-4] The provisions of the laws of October 1, 1832, of July 14, 1854, of July 9, 1866, etc., embrace among others the following: Only a citizen of Bremen, of good repute, and who has given security to the amount of five thousand thalers, shall be entitled to receive and contract with emigrants for passage; to each passenger shall be allotted a space of at least twelve square feet of surface and six feet high; provision shall be made for the longest possible time of passage; for instance, for thirteen weeks for a voyage northerly from the equator. At the same time, the ship-owner is required to give security that in case of accident to the vessel, disabling it in such a way as to unfit it to continue the journey, he shall return the fare of all passengers saved, and pay them an additional sum of from twenty to forty thalers, according to the length of the passage, to cover the cost of salvage, to support themselves for the time being, and enable them to continue their journey. The entire matter is controlled by a rigid system of ship-investigation, and is under the superintendence of a board of officers, made up of senators and members of the chamber of commerce.[261-5] Among English provisions[261-6] particularly worthy of imitation is that which requires the government agents in Canada, etc. to furnish information gratis to emigrants. But to keep their clients from the practice of idling about, so ruinous to themselves, the agents refuse aid to all emigrants who, without sufficient reason, remain over eight days in the harbor.
In 1854. In 1867.
number of emigrants.
Through Bremen,76,875 73,971
Through Hamburg,50,819 42,845
(Of these directly only32,310) (38,170)
Through Havre,95,849 22,753
Through Antwerp,25,843 12,086
Through other ports,2,500
SECTION CCLXII.
EMIGRATION AND PAUPERISM.
As a very rare exception, an emigration suddenly undertaken, well directed and on a very large scale, may be made to constitute the efficient means preparatory to the abolition of pauperism. Where, for instance, by reason of the subdivision of the land into extremely small parcels, farming on a diminutive scale has come to preponderate; where the popular home-industries have been reduced to a miserable condition by the immoderate competition of great foreign manufacturers and machinery, the hopelessness of the situation consists principally in this: that every improvement made must be preceded by a concentration of the forces of labor, and their combination with the powers of capital; which for the moment renders a great number of those who have been laborers hitherto entirely superfluous. That is, to raise the level of the whole public economy and provide a decent livelihood for 10,000 men, it would be necessary to condemn another 10,000 to death from starvation! Most political doctors recoil at the thought of this transition-crisis. They content themselves with palliatives which, in the end, cost much and afford no help. The simplest remedy here would evidently be to cause those workmen who have become superfluous to emigrate at the expense of the state. Next, the necessary economic reforms should be carried out at home and the return of the evil prevented by rigid legislation. The more sudden this emigration is, the nearer it comes to taking place, so to speak, all at once, the less possible it is that the increase of population should keep even pace with it. The condition of the proletarians who remained at home could not fail to have a favorable influence in this respect; for nothing leads men so much into contracting reckless marriages as the total absence of any prospect of amelioration of their condition in the future.[262-1] [262-2]
SECTION CCLXII (a).
TEMPORARY EMIGRATION.
Besides definitive emigration, temporary emigration deserves special consideration. If the wages of labor are much lower in one locality than in another which is easily accessible,[262a-1] the workmen of the former place resolve much more readily on periodical migrations thither than on permanent settlements in the place. It is especially the difficult work of harvesting, where farmers are pressed for time,[262a-2] and that of house-building,[262a-3] which are undertaken by these birds of passage; and mountainous regions, with their limited agriculture, their late crops and their longing look into the far-off which is found united with a deep-rooted attachment to home, are the places whence they come.[262a-4] When their home is distinguished in certain branches of labor, they are wont to carry these with them abroad, and in such case their sojourn away from home is generally longer.[262a-5] The shorter and the more vagabond-like their migration, the less apt is it to be an economic blessing to the wanderers themselves.[262a-6] There must necessarily result, as a consequence, a species of equalization between the rates of wages in the country receiving and the country furnishing them.[262a-7] This may be a great national misfortune for the latter, inasmuch as its working class may thus be forced to a lower standard of life, and all their providence and self-control in the founding of a family be made fruitless by the arrival of less capable foreigners.[262a-8] The hatred existing among the members of a higher class for parvenus from a lower corresponds in this respect to the mutual hatred of two countries for the natives of the other, (v. Mangoldt.) Considered from the point of view of the country furnishing these migratory classes, temporary emigration has this advantage over definitive emigration, that the persons leaving the country always maintain their economic connection with their home.[262a-9] The most striking example of this is afforded by those merchants, ship-owners, etc. who are, so to speak, pioneers in foreign markets for Switzerland and Bremen. Only there is always danger of a crisis when the usual flow is suddenly checked.[262a-10]
SECTION CCLXIII.
CONCLUSION.
That the economy of no nation can continue to grow ad infinitum is, in general, as easy to believe[263-1] as it is difficult to point out with a specification of particulars what are the limits which cannot be exceeded. This would be possible first in the case of agriculture. Here there are points beyond which every man practically versed in the art can see, that an increase of the gross product must be attended by an absolute decrease in the net product.[263-2] But even supposing that a people had reached this point in their entire agriculture, they might still carry on industries, commerce, perform personal services for other nations, and obtain remuneration therefor in the means of subsistence and manufactured articles. If our nation has once entered on this path, it is evident that every improvement of its industry, every advance made by foreign countries in the production of raw material, manufactures and the consumption of services must result in a growth of our economy. David Hume was of opinion that industrial preponderance was in a necessary and continual state of transition from one country to another. A very highly developed state of industry made a country rich in money but enhanced the price of the means of subsistence, and the rate of wages; until finally it became impossible for it to compete in the markets of the world with cheaper countries, and industry, in consequence, emigrated to these.[263-3] But it is easy to see how all such limits are extended by the modern improvements in transportation, and the consequent facilitation of importation; and how much the remedy mentioned in § 198 has gained in importance by the modern advances made in machinery and the preponderance in so many respects of machine over hand labor.[263-4]
But here it is necessary to distinguish between the "applied" and only practical political economy, and "pure political economy." (§ 217.) A development thus continued would be attended with great difficulty even if the whole world constituted one great empire. We need only mention Austria, where some provinces have remained in a very backward, almost medieval condition, while others have for a long time manifested the symptoms of over-population. How much more in different states. An uncivilized nation will frequently not care to increase its consumption of our manufactures, if to do so it becomes necessary to carry on its agriculture more industriously. Another nation that has already tasted of the fruit of the tree of economic knowledge may not be satisfied with the mere production of raw material forever. In time it may want to carry on commerce and industry itself, and hence consider the breaking of its commercial course with us as a species of emancipation from us. And, further, how if other highly cultivated nations should compete with us in the markets of countries which produce merely raw material? if such rivals should wage war in which each party should harm his adversary for the mere love of doing harm, and not unfrequently in opposition to its own economic interests? I know of no period the development of which has not been attended by such disturbances, and hence they cannot be said to be entirely unnatural.[263-5]
And even at home and among highly civilized nations, there are wont to be many obstacles to advancement on this road of progress. Every great economic change is connected as cause and effect, with a variety of political, social and other reformations which are never accomplished without great hardship and hesitation.[263-6] Where the division of labor has been developed to any extent, the formerly existing circumstances which must be surrendered for the sake of progress are generally synonymous with the interests of some class. This class opposes the improvement, and a struggle becomes necessary to carry it out. But under certain circumstances, a long delay in effecting a necessary reform may paralyse or poison the minds of the people to such an extent that they may afterwards have neither the will nor the power to successfully advance. This is the most important exception to the rule laid down in § 24. The happier the ethnographic and social composition of a people, the better the national spirit, the more skillful the form of its constitution, the less frequently will it happen.[263-7] All this is true especially of over-population and the plethora[263-8] of capital which so easily injure the morality of a people. New inventions also, by means of which the limits of the possibility of production may be incalculably extended can be expected only from nations where there is no intellectual decline.[263-9]
SECTION CCLXIV.
THE DECLINE OF NATIONS.
That, after a whole nation has reached the zenith of its prosperity, it is subject to old age and to decline, and cannot avoid them, is in general, a proposition susceptible neither of proof nor refutation.[264-1] This uncertainty is practically very useful, for were it otherwise, mediocre statesmen might become either discouraged or indifferent. However, we should not assume, as so many do,[264-2] without proof, the earthly immortality of nations, provided only they observe a proper diet; nor call the science of the physiology or medicine of nations a chimera, simply because it confesses that it knows of no preventive against such old age. It has doubtless been the fate of many nations to die, that is, not precisely to be destroyed—just as in the physical world, not a particle of matter is lost—but to see their former national personality disappear, and themselves continue to exist only as component parts of some other nation.[264-3] This phenomenon, indeed, finds its analogon in every thing that is human, but seems to contradict a law of nature which very widely prevails, viz.: that it is easier to advance in a certain direction in proportion to the distance gone over in it already.[264-4]
The problem of decline, however, is solved by the enervating influence of possession and power, an influence which only a select few among men can escape. And yet to every external advance there must be a corresponding advance of the interior man, else there is a fall great in proportion to the height before attained. The greater number take their ease once they have attained the object of their ambition. I need only cite the example of the posterity of those men who have grown rich by unusual exertion. Success itself generates vanity and a feeling of false security, the latter especially, inasmuch as that is expected from the whole community, from the state for instance, from others generally, which should be the fruits of one's own vigilance and one's own endeavors. It should not be forgotten that the nation is made up of individuals.[264-5]
In addition to this there is the striving after the new for the sake of novelty; a striving promotive of progress in itself, and without which the full development of the forces of civilization would probably not be possible. But if the genius of no nation is possessed of infinite capacities, it must happen, at last, that, in case the best has been attained, and the demand for novelty continues, men will go over to that which is worse. Even very great competition has here a dangerous influence, since it raises the great mass of the incompetent to the dignity of judges, and endeavors to seduce them by illicit means; in the arts, for instance, sensuousness is made to take the place of the feeling of the beautiful.[264-6]
There is, further the process of undeceiving, inseparable from the prosecution of any ideal purpose. Such ideals have always very much of human weakness in them. The great crowd of ordinary men follow, as a rule, their material interests. Only occasionally do they rise to the height of ideal things; and here we discover the brightest points in history. Later there comes uniformly a period of disenchantment and of exhaustion after the debauch is over. When all the ideals accessible to the nation have been destroyed or outlived, nothing can be done to awaken the masses from their slumber, or induce them to shake off their inactivity.
As a rule, the influences which have accelerated a nation's progress and brought it to the apogee of its social existence end in precipitating its ruin by their further action. Every direction which humanity takes has almost always something of evil in it, is limited in its very nature, and cannot stand its extremest consequences.[264-7] All earthly existence bears in itself, from the first, the germs of its decay.
However, to calm the feeling of human liberty, we may boldly assert that there never was a nation remarkable for its religiousness and morality which declined so long as it preserved these highest of all goods; but then no nation outlived their possession.
SECTION CCLXV.
CONCLUSION.
All the separate nations which have lived side by side, or followed one another, are embraced under the general name, humanity. Who would deny the existence of a point, viewed from which humanity might be seen to constitute one great whole; all the variations and differences in its life only one great plan, one wonderful sovereign decree of the divine will, grandly and wonderfully executed by God? Or who is so bold as to say that he stands on this point himself? Theologians should be the last to do it, since even the apostle Paul calls God's ways inscrutable. So long as we do not even know whether we live in one of the first or one of the last decades of humanity, every system of universal history in which each nation and period is made to take its place in due subordination to its superiors, can be only a castle in the air; and it is a matter of indifference whether the basis of the system is philosophical, socialistic, or natural-philosophical.[265-1]
The usual error into which the builders of such history fall, is that they consider the peculiarities of certain stages of civilization, which may be shown to exist among all nations in the corresponding period of their history as the national peculiarity of the single people with whose history they are, for the time being, concerned. They deduce wonderful consequences, from the premises they laid down, but which our increasing acquaintance with other nations immediately shows to be unfounded.
There is, however, a number of facts really peculiar to a people which make up the national character, and which may give to an observer endowed with an imaginative mind, an inkling to the special vocation in the economy of providence of a particular people. That a positive system can be constructed from the material of such facts, I do not, indeed, think. But they are at least a safeguard against false systems, against the improper application of analogies, against the idle, fatalistic exaggeration of the maxim: "nothing new under the sun!" It had almost become the fashion to compare our present with the period of decline of the Greek and Roman republics. Frightful parallel, in which the greatest and most undoubted differences were frequently overlooked for smaller and certainly questionable similarities. Is not the abolition of slavery, which has been accomplished among all the most important nations of the present, something new and of great import from a moral and economic point of view?[265-2] Can the national wealth, which depends on labor and frugality, be in any way compared with that which was based on plunder? And so, no one can calculate the benefits which may be reaped by posterity from the mere continuation of the scientific and especially natural-philosophical results obtained by former generations. The discovery of the whole earth soon to be completed, and its probable consequence, the civilization of all nations of any importance, must remove the danger to which all the civilized nations of antiquity eventually succumbed, namely, destruction by entirely barbarous hordes. Nor should the significance of the state-system of Europe, which might be extended soon enough into a state-system embracing the world, be under-estimated. Macedonia would not so readily have subjugated the Hellenes and the Persians if the great powers of the west, Rome and Carthage, had intervened at the right time. And there, too, is Christianity, whose means of grace are at hand for every one at all times, for his complete moral regeneration.
In one word, the usual argument with which the "man of experience" meets the man of inventive genius, that there never was anything of the like seen before, may suffice in thousands and thousands of cases; but it affords no strict proof. It is the province of genius to compel rules to extend their limits. But science should never forget that self-denial is necessary to the discovery of truth.[265-3]
APPENDIX II.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE.
SECTION I.
THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM.
The principal peculiarities of the so-called mercantile system depend on a five-fold over-estimation: of the density of population, of the quantity of money, of foreign commerce, of the industries concerned with the transformation of materials (Verarbeitungsgewerbe), and of the guardianship of the state over private industry.[A2-1-1] All these tendencies are very intelligible, and almost self-evident, in a sovereign city-economy (Stadtwirthschaft) as opposed to the governed and worked-out (ausgebeuteten)[TN 122] country districts; as they are found even in the city-republics of later medieval times. But they are also natural in whole national economies, during that period of youthful and rapid growth in which the increasing density of population continues still, for a long time, to be really only a spur and an assistance, and in which, therefore, there can be no expression of anxiety concerning over-population; in which the new and rapidly growing division of labor draws attention particularly to the market-side of all businesses and to the circulation of goods; in which the progress from trade by barter to trade by money necessarily makes the volume of money needed even relatively greater; but especially are they natural in that world-period in which foreign trade suddenly increased enormously in consequence of the discovery of the whole earth; when the citizen classes of the people assumed immense importance as compared with the landed and clerical aristocracy, and when, in the internal affairs of state absolute monarchy, and in foreign politics, the system of equilibrium, through the instrumentality of the great compact-formation of states prevailed.
All these tendencies are most intimately connected with one another. If precious metal-money be really the essence of national wealth,[A2-1-2] a people who possess no gold and silver mines themselves;[A2-1-3] for instance, Italy, France and England, can become richer only through foreign trade,[A2-1-4] by means of a favorable balance produced by a preponderance of their exports over their imports; and only inasmuch as this excess is balanced by a payment in money from foreign parts. And so, too, in foreign trade, one nation can gain only what another nation has lost.[A2-1-5] Gain is promoted not only by direct obstacles placed in the way of the exportation of the precious metals, but still more by the value-enhancement of the exported commodities, and by the value-diminution of the imported commodities.[A2-1-6] And as commodities which have undergone the process of transformation are, on an average, more valuable than raw materials, the state can best carry out this policy by import duties, import prohibitions, and export premiums on manufactured articles, as well as by export duties, export prohibitions and import premiums on raw materials.[A2-1-7] This is extremely necessary against those nations who are superior to others in culture, wealth, the cheapness of labor and capital; and hence the envy of the mercantilists was directed chiefly against Holland, and after Colbert's time also against France.[A2-1-8] Such commodities as are not at all adapted to the nature of a country, because of its climate, for instance, the nation should produce at least in colonies of its own, that it might, in this way, emancipate itself from foreign countries.[A2-1-9] As the clear distinction drawn to-day between money and capital has asserted itself only since Hume's time, the notion that prevailed for centuries, that much money, much trade and a large population mutually conditioned one another, was a very natural one.[A2-1-10]
The younger and more refined conception of the mercantile system is distinguished from the coarse Midas-believing one, by two tendencies especially:
A. By the more thorough consideration of the balance of trade and the consequent limitation of the traditional supposition, that the excess of exports over imports would be always made up in cash money.[A2-1-11]
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.
SECTION II.
REACTION AGAINST THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM.
The reaction against the mercantile theory of the balance of trade, which reached its height in Adam Smith, was based principally upon the following considerations:
A. Precious-metal-money is a commodity like all other commodities, and therefore useful only for certain purposes. It is as little to the wealth-interest of a people, by means of a continually favorable balance, to import infinite quantities of the precious metals, as it is to its power-interest, by means of its commercial policy, to accumulate infinite stores of powder. The person who possesses other exchangeable goods will be as well able, in case of need, to obtain gold and silver therewith as to obtain powder.[A2-2-1] We part with no capital when we export the precious metals and import other commodities instead; we simply exchange thereby one form of capital for another.[A2-2-2] The notion that the gain in trade is coincident with the balance of account paid in cash, is just as palpably false in the trade among nations as in trade among private persons.[A2-2-3] It would be a decided hardship to most men, if they were to receive payment at once in money for all that they possessed: and the nation is made up of individuals.[A2-2-4] And even the reasons which make payments in cash more uniformly desirable, in the case of private persons not engaged in mercantile pursuits, cease in the case of whole nations.[A2-2-5]
B. But a continual over-balance (Ueberbilanz) is not at all possible. Every relative increase of the amount of money must enhance the price of commodities, lower the value of money, and thus produce an exportation of money until a restoration of the level with other countries.[A2-2-6] The prohibitions of the exportation of money, so often resorted to, can avail nothing, because the precious metals are among the specifically most valuable goods; and because it is easier yet to smuggle them out of a country than to smuggle them into it.[A2-2-7]
C. The signs by which the mercantile system supposed it could estimate the favorableness of the balance of trade are essentially deceptive.[A2-2-8] We cannot, for instance, from the course of exchange, determine whether the payments made by us to foreign countries have been made for purchases, to absentees, etc., or as loans; and yet, according to the mercantilists, the latter are as useful to us as the former are injurious.[A2-2-9] And even the most accurate tariff-record (Zollregister) of the exportation and importation of commodities affords no guaranty[A2-2-10] that, in many instances, the rendering of the counter-value may not remain absent, by reason of bankruptcy, shipwreck, or the emigration of property.[A2-2-11]
D. Every act of exchange is advantageous only because through it a greater value is received than the one parted with was. (?) Fortunately, in normal trade, where both parties satisfy a real want, and neither party is deceived, this is actually the case on both sides.[A2-2-12] In accordance with all this,[A2-2-13] Baudrillart is of opinion that the whole theory of the balance of trade no longer exists.
SECTION III.
FURTHER REACTION AGAINST THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM.
Simultaneously with this opposition, the theory of the international balance of trade underwent important refinements, a new and improved edition, so to speak, of old Colbertism.[A2-3-1] Each school is wont to estimate the favorableness of the balance according to the preponderance of that which they consider the most important element in a nation's economy. Thus the population-enthusiasts, after the middle of the 18th century, distinguished the "balance of advantage" from the "merely numerical:" the former is favorable to the country which, by means of its exports, employs and feeds the greatest number of men; the latter to the country with a preponderating importation of money. And they call the former much more important than the latter.[A2-3-2] The great advance which this view constitutes over the old system lies chiefly in two points: that the number and employment of men are evidently, so far as the whole national economy and national life are concerned, a much more important element than the quantity of money in a country; and further, that now, at least, the possibility of a simultaneous profit on both sides is admitted.[A2-3-3] The best writer in this direction, Jos. Tucker, is among the great-grand-parents of the Manchester theory of to-day!
A further advance was made by men who introduced the higher notions of nationality and of the stages of civilization into the theory of international trade. Thus, at about the same time, the socialistic J. G. Fichte, with his shut-in commercial state, and the romantic reactionary, Ad. Müller, with his organic whole of national economy.[A2-3-4] Finally, Fr. List,[A2-3-5] with his "National system of Political Economy," and his severe subordination of the mere "agricultural state" to the "agricultural, manufacturing and commercial state," acknowledges the favorableness of the balance in the nation which by means of the exportation of manufactured articles, the importation of the means of subsistence and of articles to be manufactured, demonstrates and promotes its higher stage of civilization.[A2-3-6]
SECTION IV.
PARTIAL TRUTH OF THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM.
But even among the successors of Hume and Smith, a deeper insight into, so to speak, the physics of money and of international trade must have led to the recognition of many a truth which the mercantile system had, indeed, badly formulated, insufficiently proved, but which it had, nevertheless, an inkling of. And, indeed, how frequently it happens that the progress of science proceeds from one one-sidedness, through another opposed but higher one-sidedness, to the all-sidedness which knows no prejudice!
A. Precious-metal-money is, indeed, a commodity, but of all commodities, the most current, the most many-sided in its utility, the most economically energetic, and at the same time of peculiarly great durability.[A2-4-1] Money-capital, far from being the least useful portion of a nation's capital, is rather one of its most important parts; and especially in the higher stages of civilization, where the division of labor has been most largely developed, is it peculiarly productive and indispensable.[A2-4-2] Here it is really more likely that the possessor of commodities may be wanting the wished for money, than that the possessor of money should be wanting in the wished for commodities. And, hence, the numerous half mystic expressions of the magical power of money, which have passed into literature from the common usage of the people, can be, by no means, considered mere errors.
B. Just as little, can the impossibility of the preponderant importation of money for a long time, be asserted. Hume's rigid theory of a level, by no means, exactly corresponds with the reality. The precious metal which is, indeed, imported, but which does not subsequently enter into the circulation, need exert no influence whatever on the prices of commodities in general; and may, therefore, remain permanently in the country. Think only of the articles made of the precious metals, which minister to luxury,[A2-4-3] of buried private treasure, of the treasures of the state, which are idly stored up; as well as of a portion at least of most cash on hand.[A2-4-4] From the other side, also, the over-balance or under-balance (Ueber-oder Unterbilanz) of a country may continue, a very long time, when its internal trade with its money-need is, in the first case, an increasing, and in the last, a decreasing one. So far, the preponderance of the importation of money may be called a favorable sign and the preponderance of the exportation of money an unfavorable one. And the person who thinks that a permanent preponderance of exports or imports is not at all possible in the way of commerce, overlooks the possibility of a very extensive national indebtedness.[A2-4-5]
C. But a distinction should be made between the balance of payments and the balance of trade in the narrower sense of the expression.[A2-4-6] In the case of the latter, to be complete, it is necessary to carry to the credit side of the account: 1, The exports of commodities; 2, the profit made by parties at home by realizing on (Realisierung[TN 126]) the exports in foreign countries; 3, the freight-profit made by parties at home on exports and imports, as well as in foreign carrying trade (Zwischenverkehr); 4, the sale of inland ships in foreign countries; 5, premiums and compensation for damage on account of maritime insurance from foreign countries. On the debit side, on the other hand, the corresponding items when foreigners have received from the home country, as in the case of imports, etc. To obtain the general payment-balance, we have still, in addition, on the credit side: 1, The profit from home participation in enterprises in foreign countries and the transfers of capital originating therefrom; 2, the interest and repayments of money-capital loaned in foreign countries; 3, the sale of stocks (Effecten) to foreign countries as well as new loans to which the home country makes in foreign parts; 4, remittances from foreign countries to foreigners sojourning in the home country, and money brought with them by travelers and emigrants; 5, inheritances, pensions and extraordinary payments from foreign countries. Then, too, on the debit-side, belong the corresponding counter-items.[A2-4-7] If we, in this way, take a survey of the whole world, we shall perceive a treble current of the precious metals. The first and most regular goes, in long lines, from mining countries, over to the commercial countries of the world, and distributes the newly acquired gold and silver as commodities according to the wants of the coinage, of manufactures, etc. The second oscillates, as it were, in short waves from country to country, in order to adjust the plus or minus for the time being of payment-balances. Lastly, regular sudden currents, with slow subsequent counter-currents, when single economic districts require to make extraordinary drafts or shipments of the precious metals, by reason of bad harvests, war, a disturbed double standard, etc.
D. Since international indebtedness has so much increased, precisely the richest nations may have the greatest regular excess of exports over imports; partly because of the great amount of capital, etc., which they possess in foreign countries; partly because of the great development of their system of credit in the interior, by means of which they find substitutes for so great a part of the metallic currency.[A2-4-8]
SECTION V.
THE ADVANTAGES OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE.
The truth that no exportation is permanently possible without importation, and that, in international trade, also, both sides better their condition, was clear to the Italians in the fifteenth century, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the Netherlanders.[A2-5-1]
Every nation can, through its instrumentality, for the first time, acquire not only those commodities which nature entirely refuses to it, but such also which it can itself produce only at a great cost.[A2-5-2] And here it is not so much the absolute costs of production as the comparative which are decisive.[A2-5-3] The country A may be superior to the country B in all kinds of productiveness; but when this superiority for the group of commodities x amounts to only 50 per cent., and for the group y, on the other hand, to 100 per cent., it is to the interest of A, which possesses only a limited quantity of the factors of production, to produce a surplus of the commodities y, and to exchange that surplus against what it wants of x.[A2-5-4] B, also, would willingly agree to this, even if it were not to get the commodities y entirely as cheap as A might supply them, but still decidedly cheaper than their production would cost in B itself. But, if both parties derive advantage from international trade, there is no necessity whatever that this advantage should be equally great on both sides. As in every struggle over prices, the gain here also is greatest on the side of the nation whose desire to hold fast to their own commodities is farthest from being outweighed by the want of the foreign commodity, and which, at the same time, employs most productively the equivalent received in imports in exchange for its exports.[A2-5-5] Yet, in estimating this productiveness, it is necessary to take the whole national life into consideration.[A2-5-6]
The international distribution of the precious metals is subject to the same law. These, also, are procured most cheaply by the nation which, directly or indirectly (by the production of counter values wished for by the whole world), employs the most productive economic activity upon them, and at the same time (it may be by especially well developed credit), is in the least urgent need of them.[A2-5-7] Therefore, on the whole, their value in exchange is wont to be lowest among the richest and most highly cultivated nations.[A2-5-8] Such a relative cheapness of gold and silver is not only a symptom of economic power, but considering the preëminent energy of these very commodities, at the same time, a means to procure most foreign commodities with a smaller expenditure of one's own forces.[A2-5-9] Hence, a great change in the distribution, hitherto usual, of the precious metals, produced, possibly, by great advances made in production here, or by an increase in consumption there, or by means of commercial prohibitions, etc., may be just as advantageous to the country which receives more as hurtful for the country which pays more;[A2-5-10] and both, all the more as the revolution in prices enhances the most productive elements of the nation there, and here the most unproductive.[A2-5-11] Hence, even when it cannot, in general, be said that one branch of commerce, carried on in a normal manner, should necessarily remain behind another in economic productiveness, those which have nothing to fear from a disturbance of their balance by the measures of foreign states are distinguished by the greatest security, and those are capable of the greatest growth which exchange articles to be manufactured (Fabrikanden), and the means of subsistence against ordinary manufactured articles.[A2-5-12] [A2-5-13]
SECTION VI.
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL TREATIES.
All international commercial treaties have this object in common: to moderate the impediments to trade which arise from the differences and even from the enmities of states. According to time and character, they fall into three groups:
A. Medieval, where a barbarous state for the first time promises foreign merchants in general legal security, without which regular trade is unthinkable. Such treaties, where their provisions are not a matter of course, must be certainly considered as a salutary advance; and they may, under certain circumstances, be necessary even to-day.[A2-6-1]
B. Mercantilistic treaties, which close, perhaps, even a bloody commercial war carried on against a rival,[A2-6-2] or which by a closer connection with a state, whose rivalry is not so much feared, are intended to moderate the worst consequences of a general seclusion.[A2-6-3] Consistently carried out, and without any regard for consequences, the mercantile system really means a war of each state against all others, and it is no mere accident that after the cessation of the wars of religion (1648) and before the beginning of the war of the French revolution (1792), commercial wars occupy the foreground. Such economic alliances as are entered into in these treaties generally unite states which, by reason of the very different nature of their land and their different national culture, are adapted to production of very different kinds, and which, at the same time, have a common political interest.[A2-6-4] Each party here agrees with the other to give a preference to its subjects in trade, to not exceed certain maxima of duties, etc.[A2-6-5]
The art of the negotiator was employed to overreach the other contractant in relation to the balance of trade.[A2-6-6] It was considered a special matter of congratulation to induce a less highly developed nation to abandon the traditional means employed to artificially elevate its industries. Hence it is, that such friendly treaties frequently contained the germs of the bitterest enmity.[A2-6-7] A popular remnant of this second group has been noticeable even in recent times, when in diplomatic negotiations concerning the reciprocal modification of duties, it was considered an overreaching and even as an outrage, in case one state made more "concessions" than it received:[A2-6-8] evidently, a confusion of the producers of the industry in question with the whole nation.
C. Free-trade treaties, intended to pave the way to the general freedom of trade.[A2-6-9] Two provisions especially are characteristic here: putting the subjects of the other party on an equal footing with those of the home country in what relates to the ship-duties, etc.;[A2-6-10] and the promise that the products of the other party, as regards import duties, shall be treated like those of the most favored nation.[A2-6-11] [A2-6-12] Whether this preparation for the universal freedom of trade is better made through the medium of an international treaty or of national legislation cannot be answered generally.[A2-6-13] Besides, in our day, the preference of one foreign nation would be easily evaded through the perfection of the modern means of communication.
APPENDIX III.
THE INDUSTRIAL PROTECTIVE SYSTEM AND INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE.
THE INDUSTRIAL PROTECTIVE SYSTEM AND INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE.
SECTION I.
PROXIMATE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.
That the principal measures which the mercantile system recommended, artificially to increase a nation's wealth, could not produce the immediate effects expected of them, has been shown, especially from the natural history of money. Their proximate economic consequences necessarily consisted in this, that they diverted the existing productive forces of the nation from their places of application (Verwendungsplätzen) hitherto, to others which the government thought more advantageous.
A. If home producers are in a condition to offer their commodities as good and as cheap as foreigners, all protection of the former by import duties, or even by prohibitions, is superfluous. The home producer has, as a rule, not only the advantage of the smaller cost of freight to the place of consumption,[A3-1-1] but that of being earlier informed, because of his proximity to consumers, of a change in their tastes.[A3-1-2] If, indeed, foreigners could supply us better and cheaper, and if they are kept from supplying our market only by artificial means, the state compels our consumers to a sacrifice of enjoyment;[A3-1-3] and such a sacrifice as is not fully compensated for by the profit made by the favored producers in any manner. The latter are generally soon compelled by home competition to arrange their prices in accordance with the rate of profit usual in the country. If they had no "protection" they would simply employ their productive forces in other branches of production; and in those in which they were equal or even superior to foreign competitors. By means of the products thus obtained, the people might then get in exchange all those commodities from foreign countries, the production of which it is, according to the laws of the division of labor, better to leave to foreign countries.[A3-1-4] Since one nation can lastingly pay another nation only with its own products, any limitation of imports must, under otherwise equal circumstances, be attended by a corresponding limitation of exports.[A3-1-5] Directly, therefore, these hindrances to importation produce no increase, but only a change in the direction (Umlenkung) of the national forces of capital and labor; an increase, only in case that foreign producers are thereby caused to transfer their productive forces within our limits;[A3-1-6] which may certainly be considered the greatest triumph of the protective system. Hence it is absurd when an equal extension of "protection" to all the branches of a nation's economy is demanded, as it is so frequently, in the name of justice. There is here no real protection whatever, analogous, for instance, to the protection afforded by the judge, but a favor which can be accorded to no one without injuring some one else.[A3-1-7]
SECTION II.
EFFECT OF EXPORT DUTIES, etc., ON RAW MATERIAL.—EXPORT PREMIUMS.
B. Export duties on raw material, and prohibitions of the exportation of raw material, lower the price of such articles, by preventing the competition of foreign buyers.[A3-2-1] To this loss of the producers of raw material, there is, in the long run, no corresponding gain to the manufacturers. Rather will there be, when freedom of competition prevails at home, an increased flow of the forces of production to the favored branch, because of its rate of profit, which is greater than that usual in the country, and a corresponding flow from the injured branch, until such time as the level of profit usual in the country is restored.[A3-2-2] Hence here, also, the final result is only a change of the direction, not a direct increase of the productive forces.[A3-2-3]
C. In the case of export-premiums, it is necessary to distinguish between the mere refunding back of the taxes which have been paid on the assumption of a home consumption which has not taken place (drawbacks), and the actual making of donations because of the exportation of goods (bounties). The former produces no result except to maintain the possibility of a production which would otherwise have been prevented by the tax. The latter, on the contrary, compels all those who are subject to taxation to make a donation to one particular class of persons engaged in industry.[A3-2-4] Moreover, all consumers are compelled to pay a higher price for the commodity to the extent that the market price, inclusive of the premium to be obtained abroad, is higher than the home market price hitherto usual. But, as the cost of production has not increased, this profit of the producers, which is greater than that usual in the country, must induce other productive forces to enter into the favored branch; so that here, also, the lasting result is not a higher rate of profit of the individuals engaged in the industry, but an extension of the industry itself. Foreign countries chiefly reap the greatest advantage from this course, since they obtain the commodities at gift-prices.[A3-2-5] The premiums paid, not for exportation, but for the production of a commodity, have a meaning akin to this.[A3-2-6] Either the industry could not maintain itself without premiums, in which case the state encourages a losing production,—and the more there is produced the greater is the loss to the national economy;—or the industry might exist without the payment of premiums, and then the newly increased profit would lead to an extension of the industry. Exportation would follow, and all the effects of export-premiums appear.[A3-2-7]
SECTION III.
THE FREE-TRADE SCHOOL.
From what has been said, we may understand why the so-called free-trade school, with its atomistic over-valuation of the individual and the moment, rejects all those measures of the industrial protective system.[A3-3-1] As such measures really injure the oppressed portions of the people more than they help the favored classes, their introduction, it is said, uniformly depends on this, that single classes of producers understand their private interests better than others, and are better organized than other producers and especially better than consumers, to take care of their interests.[A3-3-2] Adam Smith approves import hindrances for the purpose of artificially promoting an industry only in two cases:
A. When military safety demands it. Hence he calls the English navigation act, that great prohibitive and protective law intended to advance the merchant marine, the wisest perhaps of all English commercial regulations, although he clearly saw that it compelled England to sell her own commodities cheaper and buy foreign commodities dearer.[A3-3-3]
B. When the import duty is no more than sufficient to balance the tax imposed on the corresponding home product. Smith rightly remarks that a universally heavier taxation by the home country, but which affected all branches of its production equally, operated like diminished natural fertility, and hence does not make any equalizing tax for foreign trade necessary.
The person who has only a modest opinion of the power of his own reason, and therefore a just one of the reason of other men and other times, will not believe that a system like the industrial protective system which the greatest theorizers and practitioners favored for centuries, and which governed all highly developed countries in certain periods of their national life, proceeded entirely from error and deception. It really served, in its own time, a great and regularly occurring want; and the error consisted only in this, that, partly through improper generalization by doctrinarians and partly by the avarice of the privileged classes and the inertia of statesmen, the conditioned and transitory was looked upon as something absolute.[A3-3-4]
SECTION IV.
FURTHER EDUCATIONAL EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.
The sacrifices which the protective system directly imposes on the national wealth consist in products, fewer of which with an equal straining (Anstrengung) of the productive forces of the country, are produced and enjoyed, than free trade would procure. But it is possible by its means to build up (bilden) new productive forces, to awaken slumbering ones from their sleep, which, in the long run, may be of much greater value than those sacrifices. Who would say that the cheapest education is always the most advantageous?[A3-4-1] Only by the development of industry also, does the nation's economy become mature.[A3-4-2] The merely agricultural state can attain neither to the same population nor the same energy of capital, to say nothing of the same skillfulness of labor, as the mixed agricultural and industrial state; nor can it employ its natural forces so completely to advantage.[A3-4-3] How many beds of coal, waterfalls, hours of leisure,[A3-4-4] and how much aptitude for the arts of industry, can be turned to scarcely any account in a merely agricultural state? If, therefore, the protective system could materially promote a national industry, or if it made such industry possible, for the first time, the sacrifice connected therewith, in the beginning, should be considered like the sacrifice of seed made by the sower;[A3-4-5] but this can be justified only on the three following conditions: that the seed is capable of germination; that the soil be fertile and properly cultivated, and the season favorable.[A3-4-6] [A3-4-7]
SECTION V.
PROTECTION AS A POLICY.
A. So long as a nation is, indeed, politically independent, but economically in a very low stage, it is best served by entire freedom of trade with the outside world; because such freedom causes the influences of the incentives, wants, and the means of satisfaction of a higher civilization to be soonest felt in the country.
B. The further advance which consists in the development of home industries by the country itself, may, indeed, be rendered exceedingly difficult by the unrestricted competition of foreign industries, which are already developed. The carriers on of industry in an old industrial country have a superiority over those in the new, in the amount of capital, the lowness of the rate of interest, the skill of undertakers (Unternehmer) and workmen, generally, also in the consideration in which the whole country hold industry, and the interest they take in it;[A3-5-1] while in the country which has hitherto been merely agricultural, it happens only too frequently that industry is undervalued, and that young industrial talent is, as a consequence, forced to emigrate. How frequently it has happened that England by keeping down her prices for a time has strangled her foreign rivals.[A3-5-2] Even on the supposition of equal natural capacity, the struggle between the two industries would come to a close similar to that between a boy of buoyant spirits and an athletically developed man. What then is to be said of the cases in which the more highly developed nation is at the same time possessed of the more favorable natural advantages, such, for instance, as England possesses over Russia in her incomparable situation in relation to the trade of the world, and which gives her for all distant countries, without any active commerce, a monopoly-like advantage; farther, her magnificent harbors, streams, her well-situated wealth in iron and coal, etc. The advantages of mere priority weigh most heavily, when the great development of all means of transportation almost does away with the natural protection afforded by remoteness; and when, at the same time, a certain universality of fashion, which, as a rule, is governed by the most highly developed nations, causes national and local differences of taste, which could be satisfied only by national or local production, to become obsolete.[A3-5-3] Under such circumstances, it would be possible, that a whole nation might be made continually to act the part of an agricultural district (plattes Land), to one earlier developed, leaving to the latter, almost exclusively, the life of the city and of industry.[A3-5-4] A wisely conducted protective system might act as a preventive against this evil, the temporary sacrifices which such a system necessitates being justifiable where some of the factors of industrial production unquestionably exist but remain unused, because others, on account of the mere posteriority of the nation, cannot be built up. The abusive term "hot-house plant" should not be used where there is question only of transitory protection, and where there is the full intention to surrender the grown tree to all the wind, rain and sunshine of free competition, and where it is foreseen that it shall be so surrendered.[A3-5-5] [A3-5-6] The want of a certain economic many-sidedness which must be given to a nation manifests itself in a particularly urgent manner in times of protracted war. Here the error of so many free-traders, that different states should comport themselves towards one another as the different provinces of the same state do, is most clearly refuted.[A3-5-7]
C. No less important is the political side of the question. Since the protective system forces capital and labor away from the production of raw material and into industry, it exerts a great influence on the relations of the classes or estates of a country to one another. The immense preponderance possessed in medieval times by the nobility, agriculture, the country in general as contradistinguished from the city, by the aristocratic and conservative elements, is curtailed in favor of the bourgeoisie, of industry, of the cities generally, and of the democratic and progressive elements. If when the history of a nation is at its highest point, there is supposed a certain equilibrium of the different elements, all of which are equally necessary to the prime of a nation's life, this height is now attained sooner than it would otherwise be. It is no mere accident that in almost every instance, those monarchs who humbled the medieval nobility and introduced the modern era, also established a protective system.[A3-5-8]
D. However, such an education of industry can be attempted with proper success only on a large scale, that is, on a national basis. The least hazardous (unbedenklich) measure of the system, import-duties supposes a relatively short boundary line, such as only a great country, even where its formation is the most favorable imaginable, can possess.[A3-5-9] The greater the tariff territory (Zollgebiet), the less one-sided is its natural capacity wont to be, the sooner may an active competition in its interior be built up, while the foreign market always suffers from uncertainty. Hence all tariff-unions (Zollverein) between related states are to be recommended not only as financially but also as economically advantageous. Between states not related and of equal power, so far-reaching a reciprocity, embracing nearly the whole of economic policy, can scarcely be established; and it would be still harder for it to continue long. If the states not related are of very unequal power, the probable consequence would be the early absorption of the weaker by the stronger.[A3-5-10] [A3-5-11]
SECTION VI.
WHY THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM WAS ADOPTED.
This explains why so many nations in the periods of transition between their medieval age and their higher stages of civilization, adopted the industrial protective system. [A3-6-1] [A3-6-2] [A3-6-3] [A3-6-4] [A3-6-5] [A3-6-6]
SECTION VII.
HOW LONG IS PROTECTION JUSTIFIABLE?
All rational education keeps in view as its object, the subsequent independence of the pupil. If it desired to continue its guardianship, the payment of fees, etc., until an advanced age, it would thereby demonstrate either the pupil's want of capacity or the absurdity of its methods. The industrial protective system also can be justified as an educational measure only on the assumption that it may be gradually dispensed with; that is, that, by its means, there may be a prospect of attaining to freedom of trade.[A3-7-1] In the case of all highly civilized nations, the presumption is in favor of freedom of trade, both at home and abroad, and in such nations, the desire for a protective system must be looked upon as a symptom of disease.[A3-7-2] [A3-7-3] It is true, that recently the inferiority of young countries, even when inhabited by a very active and highly educated people, is greatly enhanced by the improvement of the means of communication. But this is richly compensated for by the simultaneous instinct towards emigration, both of capital and workmen from over-full, highly industrial countries; whereas, the prohibitions by the state, that extreme of exportation embargoes, formerly so frequently resorted to, it is no longer possible to carry out.[A3-7-4] [A3-7-5] Now the young country has the advantage of being able immediately to use the newest processes of labor, etc., without being hindered by the existence there of earlier imperfect apparatus. It is certain that international freedom of trade must be of advantage to a people's nationality the moment they have attained to the maturity of manhood, for the reason that they are thereby forced to make the most of that which is peculiar to them. Care must be taken not to confound many-sidedness with all-sidedness.[A3-7-6] The best "protection of national labor" might consist in this, that all products should be really individually characteristic (artistic), all individuals really national, and national also in their tastes as consumers. This ideal has been pretty closely approximated to by the French in respect to fashionable commodities, so that they will hardly purchase such from abroad, even without a protective tariff; and the cultured of most nations in respect to works of art. Here, too, it is worth considering, that even the most national of poets, when they are great enough to rise to the height of the universally human, possess the greatest universality.[A3-7-7]
SECTION VIII.
INDUSTRIAL-PROTECTIVE POLICY IN PARTICULAR.
If it be once established generally that an industry is to be artificially promoted, and if there be question only of a choice between the different measures to be adopted to thus promote it, moderate[A3-8-1] import duties are not only the most equable, least subject to abuse, but also attended by the greatest number of secondary advantages. Here the sacrifice is imposed on all the consumers of the "protected" commodity, that is, on the entire people, to the extent that they come in contact with the commodity in question. Export duties on raw materials, on the other hand, compel one single class of the people to make sacrifices in order to advance the favored industry.[A3-8-2] Export premiums for commodities on which labor has been expended are distinguished from import duties as the offensive from the defensive: the former promote the artificial trade, the trade which has gone beyond its natural basis, the latter curtail it.
Premiums, advances without interest, gifts of machinery etc., to persons engaged in industry would operate very usefully under an omniscient government.[A3-8-3] But they generally fall to the lot not of the most skillful manufacturers, but of the most acceptable supplicants, who now are doubly dangerous to the former as competitors.[A3-8-4] The same is true to a still greater extent of monopolies granted to undertakings which it is intended to promote.[A3-8-5] They require, at least, to be vigilantly superintended in case of sale from one person to another; otherwise the individual to whom they were first granted is very apt to withdraw with the capitalized value of the privilege accorded, and his successors, loaded with a heavy debt in the nature of a mortgage, to derive no advantage from it.[A3-8-6]
Further, import duties, besides the fiscal advantage which they afford, have the police advantage that they may, like quarantine provisions, prevent somewhat the inroads of many economic diseases: thus, for instance, gluts of the market, and still more, the severe chronic disease of ruinously low wages.[A3-8-7] But only very moderate hopes from protective duties should be entertained in all such respects as these.[A3-8-8]
Prohibition proper operates, as a rule, very disastrously.[A3-8-9] It spoils those engaged in industry by a feeling of too great security (mortals' chiefest enemy: Shakespeare). It may even lead to complete monopoly, when the industry requires very large means and the country is small. The inducement to smuggling is peculiarly great here. But even duties, so high that they far exceed the insurance premium of smuggling, can be of very little advantage either to industry or to the exchequer. They can only promote the smuggling trade. However, the repeal of an import prohibition or the abolition of a tariff approaching to a prohibition should be announced long enough in advance to enable the capital invested in the protected industry to be withdrawn without too heavy a loss.
SECTION IX.
WHAT INDUSTRIES ONLY SHOULD BE FAVORED.
That as a rule only such industries should be favored which, by reason of the natural capacities of the country and of the people, have a good prospect of being able soon to dispense with the favors accorded, would be self-evident were it not for the fact that it has been ignored a thousand times in practice.[A3-9-1] It is especially necessary to take the natural station (Standort)[A3-9-2] as well as the natural succession of the different branches of industry into consideration. Half manufactured articles of foreign raw material should not be protected until the entire manufactured article has completely outgrown protection; which condition manifests itself most clearly by a strong, independent exportation of the article.[A3-9-3] The celebrated tariff controversy between the cotton spinners and the weavers in the Zollverein was probably without any conscious plan, but certainly to the well-being of German industry, settled essentially in accordance with these principles. In such struggles of the different stages of a branch of production with one another, it is necessary not only mechanically to weigh the number of workmen, the amount of capital, etc., on both sides, but also organically the capacity for development and the influence of both sides on the entire national life.[A3-9-4] Half-manufactured articles of a very superior quality should not be kept away, since by promoting commodities of the first quality they have an educational influence on the whole industry. Thus, in the case of the duties on iron, it should not be forgotten, that they enhance the price of all instruments of industry.[A3-9-5] Just as objectionable are protective duties for machines or for intellectual elements of training.[A3-9-6]
INDEX TO NAMES OF AUTHORS
CITED IN THE PRINCIPLES.
[The references are to the sections.]
A.
Académie française, 42.
Agricola, 116, 120.
Ahrens, 16, 77.
Algarotti, 49.
Anacharsis, 116.
Anaxagoras, 38.
Anderson, A. (Origin of Commerce), 188.
Anderson, J. (Nature of Corn Laws), 152, 154.
Anonymous, authors of: —— Britannia languens, 123, 196. —— Discourse of Trade, Coyn and Paper-Credit, 48, 50, 90, 108, 123. —— England's great Happiness, 196. —— Interest of Money mistaken, 188. —— Paying old Debts without new Taxes, 49. —— Virginia's Verger, 9. —— (W. S.) Compendious or brief Examination of certain ordinary Complaints, 137.
Antisthenes, 225.
Antoninus, 191.
Arbuthnot, 135.
Aretin, v., II, 118.
Aristippos, 225.
Aristophanes, 79, 202.
Aristotle, 1, 2, 5, 9, 14, 36, 38, 43, 49, 57, 63, 69, 70, 75, 79, 81, 100, 107, 116, 117, 190, 205, 250, 251, 253.
Arnd, 20.
Arnold, 184.
Asgill, 49.
Augustinis, de, 51.
Auxiron, 154.
B.
Babbage, 57, 58, 106.
Babœuf, 79, 81.
Bacon, 13, 21, 24, 50, 55, 98, 108, 114, 191, 204, 254.
Bandini, 123, 188.
Banfield, 115, 157, 205, 263.
Bastiat, 2, 5, 9, 31, 35, 42, 54, 58, 81, 82, 84, 87, 97, 116, 117, 152, 167, 185, 210, 238, 242, 243.
Baudrillart, 21, 242.
Baumstark, 20, 154.
Bazard, 11, 53, 67, 84, 86, 90, 97, 205, 207.
Beaumont, de, 250.
Beccaria, 19, 49, 57, 79, 125, 126, 140, 256, 263.
Becher, J. J., 98, 114, 214, 254.
Beckmann, J., 225.
Bentham, J., 12, 71, 193, 232, 250, 256.
Berg, v., 76.
Berkeley, 9, 47, 57, 95, 116, 123, 212, 214, 231, 254, 255.
Bernhardi, v., 147, 154.
Bernhardinus, 191.
Bernoulli, 3, 246, 248.
Besold, 137, 191.
Bible, 11, 16, 36, 41, 63, 69, 81, 84, 190, 202, 204, 218, 225, 239, 245, 255, 264.
Biel, 22, 116, 120.
Blackstone, 42, 86 87, 199.
Blanc, L., 81, 82, 98, 167, 178.
Blanqui, 169.
Böckh, 135, 137.
Boden, 183.
Bodin, J., 37, 137, 254.
Bodz-Reymond, 97.
Boisguillebert, 1, 9, 12, 49, 96, 97, 100, 111, 117, 123, 154, 214, 215.
Booth, 243.
Bornitz, 3, 114.
Bossuet, 77, 191.
Botero, G., 9, 210, 241, 242, 245.
Boussingault, 32, 34.
Boxhorn, 39, 94.
Brentano, 166, 175, 176, 177.
Bridge, 238.
Brissot, 77.
Broggia, 9, 116.
Buat, 16.
Buchanan, 152, 153, 154, 164.
Buckle, 209, 263.
Bülau, 17, 97.
Buonarotti, 79.
Buquoy, Count, 22, 34, 129, 147.
Burke, 11, 220; II, 5, 106, 140, 155.
Büsch, 2, 9, 42, 95, 96, 117, 123, 126, 170, 183, 263.
C.
Cabanis, 37.
Cabet, 79, 82, 250.
Cæsar, Jul., 16.
Calvin, 49, 79, 114, 191.
Campanella, 79.
Canard, 22, 42, 47, 95, 101, 106, 123, 152, 188, 195, 215.
Cancrin, Count, 64, 98.
Cantillon, 47, 49, 90, 98, 106, 123, 126, 128, 137, 144, 154, 161, 167, 185, 193.
Carey, 5, 42, 148, 154, 155, 157, 166, 172, 199, 214, 243, 253, 263.
Carli, 137.
Casper, 246.
Cato, Cens., 43, 190, 222.
Cazaux, 22, 127, 145.
Celtes, 41.
Cervantes, 55.
Chadwick, 218, 248.
Chalmers, Th., 216, 217, 242.
Cherbuliez, 202.
Chevalier, M., 11, 40, 66, 70, 89, 97, 116, 120, 121, 124, 128, 129, 136, 137, 139, 142, 143, 173, 199, 216, 217, 220.
Child, Sir J., 42, 97, 98, 114, 123, 154, 157, 188, 192, 193, 197, 199, 241, 242, 254.
Chrysippos, 250.
Cibrario, 17, 137.
Cicero, 9, 46, 49, 75, 100.
Cieszkowsky, 89.
Clemens, Rom., 81.
Cleonard, 54.
Cliquot de Blervache, 108.
Cobden, R., 98.
Coke, R., 196.
Colbert, 232, 255.
Colton, 12, 25, 42, 116, 201.
Columella, 40, 59, 71.
Comte, Ch., 37, 71.
Condillac, 21, 49, 107, 129.
Condorcet, 263.
Considérant, 51, 88, 183.
Constant, B., 168.
Contzen, Ad., 49, 226.
Cooper, Th., 12.
Corpus Juris civilis, 69, 83, 117, 201.
Corpus Juris canonici, 41.
Corvaja, 82.
Cournot, 22.
Court, P. de la, 94, 97, 98, 108, 114, 185, 254.
Culpeper, Sir Th., 154, 188, 192, 199.
D.
Dankwardt, 16, 56.
Dante, 191, 250.
Darjes, 19, 76, 96, 106, 192, 254.
Darwin, 242.
Davanzati, 116, 123.
Davenant, 9, 10, 21, 97, 103, 116, 124, 157, 242, 254.
Decker, Sir M., 10, 41.
Defoe, D., 222.
Demosthenes, 21, 42, 43, 89, 231.
Diderot, 57.
Dietzel, C., 42, 90.
Diogenes, 225.
Dithmar, 19.
Dohm, 49, 263.
Doubleday, 242.
Drobisch, 13, 129.
Droz, 46, 92, 214.
Dufau, 18.
Dumont, 225.
Dunoyer, 16, 17, 21, 26, 38, 42, 50, 54, 111, 145, 178, 203, 216, 242.