Note 215-1 — Chapter I

Boisguillebert lays the greatest weight on the harmony of the different branches of commerce. L'équilibre l'unique conservateur de l'opulence générale; this depends on there being always as many sales as purchases. The moment one link in the great chain suffers, all the others sympathise. Hence he opposes all taxation of commodities which would destroy this harmony. (Nature des Richesses, ch. 4, 5, 6; Factum de la France, ch. 4; Tr. des Grains I, 1.) Canard Principes d'E. politique, ch. 6, compares the relation between production and consumption in national economy with that between arteries and veins in the animal body. On the other hand, Sismondi, N. Principes I, 381, describes the bewilderment and want which are wont to arise when one wheel of the great politico-economical machine turns round more rapidly than the others.