An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy (Vol. 1 of 2) by Steuart James Sir

Author:Steuart, James, Sir [Steuart, James, Sir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415081078
Google: pUWmtgEACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge-Thoemmes Press
Published: 1992-01-15T02:44:26+00:00

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CHAP. XXII.

Preliminary Reflections upon inland Commerce.

I resume the subject, which, as a rest to the mind, I dropt at the end of the 19th chapter.

I am to treat directly of inland commerce, which has been sufficiently distinguished from infant, and foreign trade.

We are to consider ourselves now as transported into a new country. Here foreign trade has been carried to the greatest height possible; but the luxury of the inhabitants, the carelessness, perhaps, of the statesman, and the natural advantages of other nations, added to the progress of their industry and refinement, have concurred to cut this branch off, and thereby to dry up the source which had constantly been augmenting national opulence.

We must examine the natural effects of this revolution; we must point out how every inconvenience may be avoided, and how a statesman may regulate his conduct, so as to prevent the exportation of any part of that wealth which the nation may have heaped up within herself, during the prosperity of her foreign trade. How he may keep the whole of his people constantly employed, and by what means he may promote an equable circulation of domestic wealth, as an adequate equivalent given by the rich, for services rendred them by the industrious poor. How, by a judicious imposition of taxes, he may draw together an equitable proportion of every man’s annual income, without reducing any one below the standard of a full physical-necessary. How he may, with this public fund, preserve in vigour every branch of industry, and be enabled also, by the means of it, to profit of the smallest revolution in the situation of other nations, so as to re-establish the foreign trade of his own people. And lastly, how the society may be thereby sufficiently defended against foreign enemies, by a body of men regularly supported and maintained at the public charge, without occasioning any sudden revolution hurtful to industry, either when it becomes necessary to increase their numbers, in order to carry on an unavoidable war, or to diminish them, upon the return of peace and tranquility. This is, in few words, the object of a statesman’s attention when he is at the head of a people living upon their own wealth, without any mercantile connections with strangers.

However hurtful the natural and immediate effects of political causes may have been formerly, when the mechanism of government was less compounded than at present, they are now brought under such restrictions, by the complicated system of modern oeconomy, that the evil which might otherwise result, is guarded against with ease.

As often, therefore, as we find a notable prejudice resulting to a state, from a change of their circumstances, gradually taking place, we may safely conclude, that negligence, or want of abilities, in those who have the direction of public affairs, has more than any other cause been the occasion of it.

It was observed, in the third chapter of the first book, that before the introduction of modern oeconomy, which is made to

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