Steuart - An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy (Vol. 1 of 2)

An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy (Vol. 1 of 2) — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy (Vol. 1 of 2)" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...165

---

Transcribers Note:

Footnotes have been collected at the end of each paragraph, and are linked for ease of reference.

The table of contents includes references in Book III to sections printed in the text as marginal notes (sidenotes). Each has been linked, including those that have no explicit page number, appearing as , which serves as a ditto.

Marginal notes | Marginal notes | appeared either to the left or the right of the text, depending on which side of the opened book it annotated. All notes will appear on the right side.

There was an Errata included in the text. The corrections listed there were made.

Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcribers at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.

The cover image was created by superimposing title page information on the original (and otherwise empty) cover.

Any corrections are indicated using an underline highlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce the original text in a small popup.

Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the note at the end of the text.

AN
INQUIRY
INTO THE
PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL OECONOMY:
BEING AN
ESSAY ON THE SCIENCE
OF
Domestic Policy in Free Nations.

IN WHICH ARE PARTICULARLY CONSIDERED

POPULATION, AGRICULTURE, TRADE, INDUSTRY,

MONEY, COIN, INTEREST, CIRCULATION, BANKS,

EXCHANGE, PUBLIC CREDIT, AND TAXES.

---

By Sir JAMES STEUART , Bart.

---

Ore trahit quodcumque potest atque addit acervo. Hor. Lib. I. Sat.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

---

VOL. I.

LONDON:

Printed for A. Millar , and T. Cadell , in the Strand.

MDCCLXVII.

---

PREFACE.

It is with the greatest diffidence that I present to the public this attempt towards reducing to principles, and forming into a regular science, the complicated interests of domestic policy. When I consider the time and labour employed in the composition, I am apt to value it from selfish considerations. When I compare it even with my own abilities, I still think favourably of it, for a better reason; because it contains a summary of the most valuable part of all my knowledge. But when I consider the greatness of my subject, how small does the result of my application appear!

The imperfections, therefore, discovered in this work, will, I hope, be ascribed to the disproportion between the extent of the undertaking, and that of my capacity. This has been exerted to the utmost: and if I have failed, it may, at least, with justice, be said, that I have miscarried in an attempt of the greatest importance to mankind.

I no where shew the least desire to make my court to any particular statesman whose administration might have been hinted at. I freely follow the thread of my reasoning without a biass, either in favour of popular opinions, or of any of the numberless systems which have been formed by those who have written upon particular parts of my subject. The warmth of my temper has led me often into commendations, when I was pleased; but when I felt the effects of ill humour on being dissatisfied with particular circumstances, relating to countries, to men, and to things, which I had in view at the time I was writing, I seldom thought it proper to be particular. I have, in general, considered the danger of error, either in blaming or commending the steps of any administration, without being well informed of the whole combination of circumstances which the statesman had before him at the time.

This composition being the successive labour of many years spent in travelling, the reader will find some passages in which the unities of time and place have not been observed. These I could have corrected with ease, had I not been advised to leave them as characters to point out the circumstances under which I wrote, and thereby to confirm the authenticity of certain facts.

The modes of thinking, also, peculiar to the several countries where I have lived, have, no doubt, had an influence on what I have writ concerning their customs: the work, therefore, will not, in general, correspond to the meridian of national opinions any where; and of this it is proper the reader should be apprised, that he may not apply to the domestic circumstances of his own country what was intended to refer to those of other nations; nor impute what was the irresistible effect of my experience and conviction, to wilful prejudice.

I have read many authors on the subject of political oeconomy; and I have endeavoured to draw from them all the instruction I could. I have travelled, for many years, through different countries, and have examined them, constantly, with an eye to my own subject. I have attempted to draw information from every one with whom I have been acquainted: this, however, I found to be very difficult before I had attained to some previous knowledge of my subject. Such difficulties confirmed to me the justness of Lord Bacons remark, that he who knows how to draw information by forming proper questions, is already possessed of half the science.

. Prudens interrogatio, dimidium scienti.

I could form no consistent plan from the various opinions I met with: hence I was engaged to compile the observations I had casually made, in the course of my travels, reading, and experience. From these I formed the following work, after expunging the numberless inconsistencies and contradictions which I found had arisen from my separate inquiries into every particular branch.

I had observed so many persons declining in knowledge as they advanced in years, that I resolved early to throw upon paper whatever I had learned; and to this I used to have recourse, as others have to their memories. The unity of the object of all my speculations, rendred this practice more useful to me than it would be to one whose researches are more extended.

Whoever is much accustomed to write for his own use merely, must contract a more careless stile than another who has made language his study, and who writes in hopes of acquiring a literary reputation. I never, till very lately, thought of appearing as an author; and in the frequent perusals of what I had writ, my corrections were chiefly in favour of perspicuity: add to this, that the language in which I now write was, for many years, foreign to those with whom I lived and conversed. When these circumstances are combined with the intricacy of my subject, which constantly carried off my attention from every ornament of language, I flatter myself that those of my readers, at least, who enter as heartily as I have done into the spirit of this work, will candidly overlook the want of that elegance which adorns the stile of some celebrated authors in this Augustan age. I present this inquiry to the public as nothing more than an essay which may serve as a canvass for better hands than mine to work upon.

It contains such observations only as the general view of the domestic policy of the countries I have seen, has suggested. It is a speculation, and no more. It is a rough drawing of a mighty plan, proportioned in correctness to my own sagacity, to my knowledge of the subject and to the extent of my combinations.

It goes little farther than to collect and arrange some elements upon the most interesting branches of modern policy, such as

Next page

1234567...165

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy (Vol. 1 of 2)»

Look at similar books to An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy (Vol. 1 of 2). We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Thomas Robert Malthus

An Inquiry Into the Nature and Progress of Rent and the Principles by Which It Is Regulated

Thurman Lee Hester Jr.

Political Principles and Indian Sovereignty

William Steuart McBirnie

The Search for the Twelve Apostles

Jacqueline Basacobert Kelm

The Joy of Appreciative Living: Your 28-Day Plan to Greater Happiness Using the Principles of Appreciative Inquiry

John Taylor

An Inquiry Into the Principles and Policy of the Goverment of the United States

Martin Van Buren

Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States

van Buren

Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States

Steuart Campbell

Chinook Crash

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations - An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Gunnell John G.

Social inquiry after Wittgenstein & Kuhn : leave everything as it is

Richard Payne Knight

An analytical inquiry into the principles of taste

Terence Ball

Idioms of inquiry: critique and renewal in political science

Discussion, reviews of the book An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy (Vol. 1 of 2) and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.