POLITICAL ECONOMY 671 siderable confidence, namely, the tendency of cerebral development to lessen fecundity," and approvingly quotes Herbert Spencer's views. But he says that some years ago he had hoped to be able to show that Malthus's premises were imperfect and his conclusions in conse- quence unsound. " It is with sadness," he adds, " I am now compelled to admit that further investigation and deeper thought have shaken this confidence. I now only venture to suggest as eminently probable what I once fancied I could demonstrate to be certain." Probably no work on political economy has been more extensively read or studied, or has exerted a larger influence in the formation of opinions in the United States at least, than Jean Bap- tiste Say's "Treatise on Political Economy, or the Production, Distribution, and Con- sumption of Wealth" (Paris, 1803; 6th ed., 1841). This treatise is in form the most scien- tific and methodical which at the time of its publication had appeared in any language. "If," says Say, " we take the pains to inquire what that is which mankind in a social state of existence denominates wealth, we shall find the term employed to designate an indefinite quantity of objects bearing inherent value, as of land, of metal, of coin, of grain, of stuffs, of commodities of every description. When its signification is further extended to landed se- curities, bills, notes of hand, and the like, it is evidently because they contain obligations to deliver things possessed of inherent value. In point of fact, wealth can only exist where there are things possessed of real and intrinsic value. Wealth is proportionate to the quantum of that value ; great when the aggregate of component value is great, small when that aggregate is small. . . . The knowledge of the real nature of wealth, thus defined, of the difficulties that must be surmounted in its attainment, of the course and order of its distribution among the members of society, of the uses to which it may be applied, and further, of the consequences resulting respectively from these several cir- cumstances, constitute that branch of science now entitled political economy." Subsequent- ly Say published his lectures on the applica- tion of the science, under the title of Cours complet (Veconomie politique pratique, suivi de melanges (6 vols., Paris, 1828-'30; 3d ed., edited by Horace Say, 1852). An examination of this book will show that he had materially altered his views, and was now disposed to treat political economy as something higher and better than a mere science of wealth. " The object of political economy," he says in this later book, " seems heretofore to have been restricted to the knowledge of the laws which govern the production, distribution, and con- sumption of riches. And it is so that I have considered it in my treatise upon political economy, published first in 1803 ; yet in that same work it can be seen that the science per- tains to everything in society." In the same year in which Say's first treatise appeared, Sismondi published in Geneva his Traite de la richesse commerciale. At this time Sis- mondi was a decided follower of Adam Smith ; "but," says Colwell, "being an ardent friend of humanity, his views underwent a complete change in the progress of his investigations. No more pleasing task could be offered us than turning through the voluminous works of Sismondi for the evidences of his pure love of human welfare, and his detestation of the science of wealth apart from human well-be- ing." At the request of Alexander I. of Rus- sia H. Storch prepared his Cours tfeconomie politique, ou exposition des principes qui de- terminent la prosperite des nations (St. Peters- burg, 1815). " The emperor Alexander, hav- ing taken his lessons in political economy from M. Storch," says Carey, "determined to carry out in the administration of the empire the lessons he had learned in the closet ; but the result proved most disastrous. British goods flowed in in a constant stream, and Russian gold flowed out; and the government was par- alyzed, while the manufacturers were ruined. . . . Count Nesselrode issued a circular prelim- inary to a change of system, in which it was declared that Russia found herself forced to resort to a system of independent commerce; that the products of the empire no longer found markets abroad ; that the manufactures of the country were exceedingly depressed ; that the coin of the country was rapidly flowing out to distant nations ; that the most solid mercantile establishments had become endangered ; and that agriculture and commerce as well as manu- facturing industry were not only paralyzed, but had been brought to the brink of ruin." In 1824 Russia again imposed heavier duties in opposition to the theories of Storch. "The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," by David Ricardo, appeared in London in 1817 (3d ed., 1821). The most noted doctrines of this work are the theory of rent and the con- sequent theory of value. The former, with which the name of Ricardo is now always as- sociated,, was announced in 1777 by James An- derson, a Scotchman, in a tract entitled "An Inquiry into the Nature of the Corn Laws;" and it seems to have been so completely over- looked and forgotten, that "when in 1815," says an English economist, "Mr. Malthus and Sir Edward West published their tracts exhib- iting the nature and progress of rent, they were universally believed to have for the first time discovered the laws by which it is governed." The theories of rent and value, abridged from Ricardo's own statement, are as follows: On the first settling of a country in which there is an abundance of rich and fertile land, there will be no rent; for no one would pay for the use of land when there was an abundant quantity not yet appropriated. If all land had the same properties, if it were boundless in quantity and uniform in quality, no charge could be made for its use, unless where it pos- sessed peculiar advantages of situation. It is
