value so simple that, in the words of one of the highest authorities in economical science, "there could arise no case in which a man should determine to make an exchange in which it would not be found to apply." Here, as every where, simplicity and breadth marched hand in hand together; the law embracing every commodity or thing in reference to which the idea of value could be predicated, and thus contributing largely toward demonstration of the universality of natural laws; the value of land having been ascribed by all previous economists to causes widely different from those which gave value to its products.* * Till then, amid the many suggestions as to the "nature, measure, and causes of value," there had been none, to quote again from the same high authority, that had not proved itself "liable to perpetual exceptions." The law then furnished was that of the labor saved; the limit of * " Carey, and after him Bastiat, have introduced a formula à posteriori, that I believe destined to be universally adopted; and it is greatly to be regretted that the latter should have limited himself to occasional indications of it, instead of giving to it the importance so justly given by the former. In estimating the equilibrium between the cost to one's self and the utility to others, a thousand circumstances may intervene; and it is desirable to know if there be not among men a law, a principle of universal application. Supply and demand, rarity, abundance, etc., are all insufficient, and liable to perpetual exceptions. Carey has remarked, and with great sagacity, that this law is the labor saved, the cost of reproduction —an idea that is, as I think, most felicitous. It appears to me that there cannot arise a case in which a man shall determine to make an exchange, in which this law will not be found to apply. I will not regard it as equivalent, unless I see that it will come to me at less cost of labor than would be necessary for its reproduction. I regard this formula as most felicitous; because while on one side it retains the idea of cost which is constantly referred to in the mind; on the other it avoids the absurdity to which we are led by the theory which pretends to see everywhere a value equivalent to the cost of production; and, finally, it shows more perfectly the essential justice that governs us in our exchanges."-FERRARA : Biblioteca dell' Économista, vol. xii. p. 117. value being found in the cost of reproduction.* Subsequently adopted by an eminent French economist,† it has been made known to tens of thousands who had never seen, or even heard of, the work in which it first appeared. Consequent upon this, was the discovery of a general law of distribution, embracing all the products of labor; whether that applied to cultivation or conversion-to change of place or change of form. According to the theories then most generally received, the profit of one was always attended with loss to another-rents rising, as labor became less productive, and profits advancing, as wages retrograded; a doctrine said to come as natural consequence of a great law instituted by the Deity for man's government; but which, if true, tended to the production of universal discord.t Directly the reverse of this, however, was the law that was then announced, and now is reproduced;§ proving, as it did, that both capitalist and laborer profited by every measure tending to render labor more productive, while losing by every one that tended to render it less so-and thus establishing a perfect harmony of interests. Likewise adopted by M. Bastiat, and characterized by him as "the great, admirable, consoling, necessary, and * CAREY. Principles of Political Economy, vol. i. Philad., 1837. † BASTIAT. Harmonies Economiques, Paris, 1850. "Low wages, as a consequence of competition for the sale of labor, reduce the prices of the things to the production of which that labor is applied; and it is the consumers of those products, the whole society, that reap the profit. If, then, as a consequence of low wages, the latter find themselves obliged to contribute to the support of the poor workman, they are indemnified therefor by the reduced prices at which they obtain his products."-J. B. SAY; Traité d'Économie Politique, t. ii., p. 292. It is here supposed that society profits by a state of things that impoverishes the workman, and sends him to the hospital. The real and permanent interests of the employer and his workmen being one and the same, such a state of things can not exist. ? See Appendix A. See also pp. 66, 67. inflexible law of capital," it constituted a second step in the direction of proving that in each department of the social relations there was perfect unity; and, that the whole were as much subjected to law, absolute and inflexible, as were those of inorganic matter. Thoroughly convinced of the truth of the laws then presented for consideration, the author felt not less certain. that the really fundamental principle remained yet to be discovered; and, that until it could be brought to light many societary phenomena must continue unexplained. In what direction, however, to seek it, he could not tell. He had already satisfied himself that the theory presented for consideration by Mr. Ricardo, not being universally true, had no claim to be so considered; but, it was not until ten years later he was led to remark the fact, that it was universally false. The real law, as he then was led to see, was directly the reverse of that which had been propounded; the work of cultivation having, and that invariably, been commenced on the poorer soils, and having passed to those more rich as wealth had grown and population had increased. Here was the great fundamental truth of which he before had thought; the one, too, that was needed for perfect demonstration of the truth of those he previously had exhibited. Here, too, was further proof of the universality of natural laws— the course of man, in reference to the earth at large, being thus shown to have been the same that we see it now to be in reference to all the instruments into which he fashions parts of the great machine itself. Always commencing with the poorest axes, he proceeds onward to those of steel; always commencing with the poorer soils, he proceeds onward toward those capable of yielding larger returns to labor; increase of numbers being thus * Harmonies Economiques, Paris, 1850. proved to be essential to increase in the supply of food. Here was a unity of law leading to perfect harmony of all real and permanent human interests, and directly opposed to the discords taught by Mr. Malthus.* This great law was first announced nearly a quarter of a century since. While engaged in its demonstration, the author found himself constantly impelled to the use of physical facts in illustration of social phenomena, and hence was led to remark the close affinity of physical and social laws. Reflecting upon this, he soon was brought to expression of the belief, that closer examination would * Adam Smith having assumed that the work of cultivation commenced always with the richest soils, Mr. Malthus adopted the idea as basis for a law of population requiring that large numbers of men, women, and children should "regularly die of want." Mr. Ricardo next perfected the system, furnishing a theory of rent by means of which he sought to establish that precisely as it became necessary to cultivate the poorer soils, and as labor became less and less productive, the landlord's share of the products increased, leaving steadily less and less for the unfortunate laborer; the tendency toward absolute enslavement of the latter becoming necessarily greater with each successive hour. From that time forward, all the distress, all the pauperism, of England, was treated as natural result of a necessity for cultivating the "inferior soils." So far indeed was this idea carried out, that it was not unfrequently suggested that the remedy for existing difficulties would be found in throwing out of cultivation all such soils. The time arriving, however, when the theory was shown to be wholly without foundation, it came then to be discovered, that this fundamental question-as important in furnishing a stand point in Social Science as had been that of Copernicus in the astronomical one-was wholly unimportant, and might be left entirely unconsidered; the essence of the RicardoMalthusian doctrine being, however, still retained in that assumption which constitutes the basis of the existing system, to wit: that the return to agricultural labor, when population and wealth increase, is a constantly diminishing one (see post pp. 17, 18); than which no assertion could by any possibility have less of even the appearance of support from facts. That the reader may judge for himself of this, as well as of the accuracy of the views now presented, the history of the earth's occupation is here reproduced in appendix B. The Past, the Present, and the Future, Philad., 1848. lead to development of the great fact, that there existed but a single system of laws; those instituted for the government of inorganic matter proving to be the same by which that matter was governed when it took the form of man, or of communities of men. In the work then published, the discoveries of modern science proving the indestructibility of matter were, for the first time, rendered available to social science the difference between agriculture and all other of the pursuits of man having been there exhibited in the fact, that the farmer was always employed in making a machine whose powers increased from year to year; whereas, the shipmaster, and the wagoner, were always using machines whose powers as regularly diminished. The whole business of the former, as there was shown, consisted in making and improving soils; his powers for improvement growing with the growth of wealth and population. To fully develop the law of the perpetuity of matter, in its bearing upon the law of population, was, however, reserved for the author's friend, Mr. E. Peshine Smith, an important passage from one of whose works will be found at page 150 of the present volume.* Further reflection having confirmed him in the belief that the laws thus far exhibited were but parts of a perfectly harmonious system instituted for the government of matter in all its forms, whether those of coal or iron, fish or birds, clay, corn, oxen, or men; that the Creator of the Universe had not been obliged to institute different laws for government of the same matter; that the physical and social laws must, therefore, be in harmony with each other; and, that the idea of unity of law must be as clearly susceptible of proof as was that of unity of force; he availed himself in a further work,+ of the familiar pheno * See also Manual of Political Economy, New York, 1853. |