In an introductory chapter it is better to give a general description of Political Economy, rather than to attempt an accurate definition of the science—Political Economy investigates the laws which regulate the production, the distribution and the exchange of wealth—Popular prejudice considers that Political Economy is hard-hearted and selfish—This fallacy explained and refuted—Any commodity which has an exchangeable value is wealth—The civilisation of a country determines to what extent its natural resources can be classed as wealth—Fallacies now known as the Mercantile System explained. |
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Chapter II. The Requisites of Production.
The production of wealth has three requisites: land, labour, and capital—Capital defined to be wealth which is saved, and applied to the future production of wealth |
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Chapter III. Labour as an Agent of Production.
The simplest commodity cannot be made available for consumption without the application of many different kinds of labour—All labour does not contribute to the production of wealth—Hence labour is classed as productive and unproductive—Labour is productive when it either directly or indirectly embodies utilities in material objects—The most useful labour may be sometimes unproductive—As an example, a railway may be partly made and never opened—Labour which is unproductive may yet be very useful—Mr. Mill's definition of productive labour would make the labour of the schoolmaster to be unproductive, and this may be obviated by a wider definition—Consumption also may be either productive or unproductive. |
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Chapter IV. Of Capital.
It is sometimes fallaciously supposed that capital consists of money, to the exclusion of any other kind of wealth—The entire capital of the country can never be simultaneously employed—A most useful commodity, such as wheat, need not necessarily be employed as capital— |
