CONVERSATION IX.

ON WAGES AND POPULATION-CONTINUED.

High wages not invariably accompanying great capital.

Great capital and low wages in China.-Small capital and

high wages in America.-Advantages of new settled

countries. Poverty the natural check to population.-

Great population advantageous only when resulting from

plenty. Increasing wealth preferable to any stationary

capital. Mistake in encouraging population.-Population

of manufacturing towns.-Industry.-Piecework,

CONVERSATION X.

ON THE CONDITION OF THE POOR.

103

Of the cultivation of common and waste lands.-Of emigra-

tion.-Education of the lower classes.-Benefit clubs.-

Savings banks.-Parochial relief.-Alms and private

charities.-Rewards,

CONVERSATION XI.

ON REVENUE.

115

Modes of employing capital to produce revenue.- -Which of

these is most advantageous.-Varies according to the

state of the country.-Garnier's observations on the em-

ployment of capital.-Equality of profits affords a criterion

of the due distribution of capital.-Natural arrangements

of the distribution of capital.-Equality of profits in agri-

culture, manufactures, and trade. Why those profits ap-

pear unequal,
129

CONVERSATION XII.

ON REVENUE DERIVED FROM PROPERTY IN LAND.

On rent. High price of agricultural produce the effect,

not the cause of rent.-Causes of rent; 1. The fertility of

the earth; 2. Diversity of soil and situation requiring dif-

ferent degrees of expense to raise similar produce.-Ori-

gin of rent. Rent increases positively in a progressive

country, and diminishes relatively.-High price of raw

produce necessary to proportion the demand to the supply.

-Monopoly of land.-Monopoly defined,

141

CONVERSATION XIII.

ON REVENUE DERIVED FROM THE CULTIVATION OF LAND.

Two capitals employed on land.-Two revenues derived from

it. Of the capital and profits of the farmer.-Of the du-

ration and terms of leases. Of tythes.-Extract from

Paley. Of proprietors farming their own estates.-Ex-

tract from Townsend's Travels.-Farms held in adminis-

tration.-Advantage of an opulent tenantry.-Metayer

system of farming.-Small landed properties.-Extract

from Arthur Young's Travels.-Dairy establishments in

Switzerland. Small farms.—Size of farms in Belgium and

Tuscany. Of mines.-Of fisheries,

CONVERSATION XIV.

158

ON THE REVENUE OF THOSE WHO DO NOT EMPLOY THEIR

CAPITAL THEMSELVES.

Rent, or income derived from letting land.—Interest of mon-

ey, or income derived from loans.-Causes of the differ-

ent rate of interest yielded by land or by money.-Causes

of the fluctuations of interest.—Rate of interest in India,

in China, and in America.—Of usury.—Government loans,

or income derived from the funds. Of unproductive labor-

ers, or those who derive an income from the expenditure

of others,
182

CONVERSATION XV.

ON VALUE AND PRICE.

Of the value of commodities. Of the distinction between

exchangeable value and price. Of utility considered as

essential to value.-Of the cost of production, or natural

value of commodities.-Of the component parts of the

cost of production, rent, profit, and wages. Of their im-

perfection as a measure of value.-Of supply and demand.-

Of the component parts of the exchangeable value of com-

modities. High price of commodities arising from scarci-

ty.-Low price arising from excessive supply.-Low price

arising from diminution of cost of production,

CONVERSATION XVI.

ON MONEY.

199

Of the use of money as a medium of exchange. Of coining.-

Use of money as a standard of value.-Ŏf the variation of

the exchangeable value of gold and silver.-In what man-

ner it affects the price of commodities.-Of nominal and

real cheapness.-What classes of people, are affected by

the variation in the value of gold and silver.-How far

money constitutes a part of the wealth of a country.-Of

the exportation of money.-Of the means by which the

value of the precious metals equalises itself in all parts of

the civilized world,
217

CONVERSATION XVII.

SUBJECT OF MONEY-CONTINUED.

Of the depreciation of gold and silver.-Of the adulteration

and depreciation of coined money.—Of banks.—Of paper

money.-Effects of paper money when not payable in specie

on demand. Of the proportion of currency to the com-

modities to be circulated by it,

CONVERSATION XVIII.

ON COMMERCE.

235

Difference of wholesale and retail trade.-General advantages

of trade. How it enriches a country.-Advantages of

retail trade. Great profits of small capitals explained.—

Advantages of quick return of capital to farmers and

manufacturers.—Advantages of roads, canals, &c.-Dif-

ference of the home trade, foreign trade, and carrying

trade. Of the home trade, it employs two capitals at home,

and puts in motion double the quantity of home industry.

-It returns capital quicker,
253

CONVERSATION XIX.

ON FOREIGN TRADE.

Advantages of foreign trade. It employs the surplus of capi-

tal, and disposes of a surplus of commodities. Of boun-

ties.-Effects of restrictions on foreign trade.-Extract

from Say's Political Economy.-Extract from Franklin's

Works,

CONVERSATION XX.

CONTINUATION OF FOREIGN TRADE..

269

On the corn trade.-Consequences depending upon a home

supply of corn in countries of great capital and population.

-It produces high prices in ordinary seasons, and great

fluctuation of prices in times of scarcity and of abundance.

-Why this is not the case in newly settled countries.-

Propriety of free trade in general.-Danger of introducing

a new branch of industry prematurely.-Extract from Mi-

rabeau's Monarchie Prussienne on the advantages of free

commercial intercourse,

CONVERSATION XXI.

SUBJECT OF FOREIGN TRADE-CONTINUED.

283

Of bills of exchange.—Of the balance of trade.-Cause of the

real variation of the exchange.-Disproportion of exports

and imports.-Cause of the nominal variation of the ex-

change.—Depreciation of the value of the currency of the

country,

CONVERSATION XXII.

ON EXPENDITURE.

293

Of the disposal of revenue.-Of the expenditure of individu-

als.-Effects of consuming capital.-Increase of revenue

of a country beneficial to all classes of people.-Except in

cases where government interferes with the disposal of

capital. Of sumptuary laws.-Ofluxury.—Industry promo-

ted by luxury.—Passages from Paley on luxury.—Sudden

increase of wealth prejudicial to the laboring classes.-

Passages from Bentham on legislation.-Luxury of the

Romans not the result of industry. Of the disadvantages

arising from excess of luxury,

309

CONVERSATION I.

INTRODUCTION.

Errors arising from total ignorance of Political Economy.-Advantages resulting from the knowledge of its principles.-Difficulties to be surmounted in this study.

MRS B.

WE differ so much respecting the merit of the passage you mentioned this morning, that I cannot help suspecting some inaccuracy in the quotation.

Caroline. Then pray allow me to read it to you it is immediately after the return of Telemachus to Salentum, when he expresses his astonishment to Mentor at the change that has taken place since his former visit; he says, "Has any misfortune happened to Salentum in my absence? the magnificence and splendor in which I left it have disappeared. I see neither silver, or gold, nor jewels, the habits of the people are plain, the buildings are smaller and more simple, the arts languish, and the city is become a desert."" Have you observed," replied Mentor with a smile, "the state of the country that lies round it?"-"Yes," said Telemachus, "I perceive that agriculture is become an honorable profession, and that there is not a field uncultivated."—" And which is best," replied Mentor, "a superb city, abounding with marble, gold, and silver, with a steril and neglected country; or a country in a state of high cultivation, and fruitful as a garden, with a city where decency has taken place of pomp? A great city full of artificers, who are employed only to effeminate the manners, by furnishing the superfluities of luxury, surrounded by a poor and

1. What is the quotation from Telemachus with which this work commences? -2. What is the leading sentiment in this quota

tion ?