Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1

TO

WILLIAM H. GAYLORD, Esq.,

COUNSELLOR AT LAW,

OF CLEVELAND, OHIO,

TO WHOSE BROTHERLY CARE IT IS LARGELY DUE THAT I LIVED TO
TRANSLATE THEM,

THESE VOLUMES

ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

[pg v]

Translator's Preface.

Our literature is rich enough in works on the principles of Political Economy. So far as the translator is informed, however, it possesses none in which the science is treated in accordance with the historical method. We may therefore venture to express the hope that this translation will fill a place hitherto unoccupied in the literatures of England and America, and fill it all the more efficiently and acceptably, as Professor Roscher is the founder and still the leader of the historical school of Political Economy. Were this the only recommendation of our undertaking, it would not be a useless one. But a glance at Professor Roscher's book will convince even the most hasty reader that its pages fascinate by their interest and are rich in treasures of erudition which should not remain inaccessible to the English student from being locked up in a foreign tongue.

The present translation has received, throughout, the revision of the author, and should any imperfections remain in the rendering of his thought into English, the blame is certainly not his, for his revision has been most minute.

The three appendices have been supplied by Professor Roscher expressly for this edition. As they are intended to form a part of the work on the Political Economy of Industry and Commerce, on which he is now engaged, he authorizes [pg vi] their publication in English, only by the publishers of this edition of his principles; and only for the purpose of being added to the present translation. He desires especially that their appearance in their present shape should not in any way interfere with any of his rights in his forthcoming volume, and that they should not be translated into any language nor translated back into German.

The essay of Mr. Wolowski, on the historical method in Political Economy constitutes no part of Professor Roscher's book, and neither he nor its author, but only the translator, is responsible for its appearance here. In it the reader will find a short sketch of the life of Professor Roscher, brought down to the date at which the essay was written. The translator has little to add to that sketch, all the information he possesses in addition to what it contains being embraced in the following lines from a letter received by him from the author in answer to a request that he would supply the biographical data not to be found in Wolowski's essay: “You might perhaps say ... that I have repeatedly declined calls to the Universities of Munich, Vienna and Berlin, but that I have never regretted remaining in Leipzig.”

The acknowledgments of the translator are due, in the first place, to the eminent author himself, for the revision of the plate-proof of the entire work, and then to Professor William F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin, for his interest in the progress of the enterprise, and for many valuable suggestions; also to Professor W. G. Sumner, of Yale College, for some excellent hints as to the best translation of certain words in the Appendix on Paper Money.

[pg vii]

Author's Preface. (1st Edition.)

My Of the peculiar method which I have followed in this work, and which will produce still better fruits in the succeeding volumes, I have given a sufficient explanation in §§ 26 ff., and all I desire now is to say a few words on the relation the notes bear to the text. The careful reader will soon be convinced that of the many citations in this work, not one has been made from a vain desire of the display of erudition. Part of them serves as the necessary proof of surprising facts adduced, but which are little known. Another part of them is intended to incite the reader to the study of certain questions nearly related to those treated in the text, but which are still different from them. The object of the greater number is to supply information concerning the history of economic principles. As far as the sources at my command permitted, I have endeavored to point out the first germs, the chief stages of development, the contrasts, and, finally, what has been thus far attained in economic science. This sometimes required some little victory over self, inasmuch as I was conscious of having [pg viii] independently discovered certain facts, when I afterwards found that some old and long-forgotten writer had made similar observations. Thus, this work may serve both as a handbook and as a history of the literature of Political Economy. Students of the science know how little has thus far been done by writers in this direction. And hence I shall be very grateful to those who labor in the same field, if they will, either by writing to me personally, or through the medium of the press, inform me when I have erred in ascribing a truth, or a scientifically important error, to its earliest author.

I have already said in the title that this work is intended not for the learned only, but for all educated men, for men of a serious turn of mind, who desire truth and science for their own sake. Like that ancient historian, whom I honor above all others as my teacher, I desire that my work should be useful to those, ὅσοι βουλήσοντοι τῶν τε γενομένων τὸ σαφὲς σκοπεῖν καὶ τῶν μελλόντων ποτὲ αὖθις κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπειον τοιούτων καὶ παραπλησίων ἔσεσθαι. (Thucydides I, 22.)

University of Leipzig,

End of May, 1854.

[pg ix]

From The Author's Prefaces. (2d to 11th Edition.)

The preface to the second edition is dated October, 1856; that to the third, April, 1858; that to the fourth, April, 1861; that to the fifth, November, 1863; that to the sixth, November, 1865; that to the seventh, November, 1868; that to the eighth, August, 1869; that to the ninth, March, 1871; that to the tenth, May, 1873; that to the eleventh (unaltered), December, 1873. Each successive edition, nearly, has been announced as an improved and enlarged one; and the tenth edition contains one hundred and fifty-six pages more than the first, although in places, a large number of abbreviations had been made from previous editions. There are many things in some of the previous editions which criticism induced me, long since, to change. I have considered it my duty to the public, who gave my work so warm and friendly a reception, to take into consideration, in each successive edition, not only my own new investigations, but those also of all others with which I became acquainted, and, whenever possible, to correct statistical illustrations from the latest sources. I have especially, in each following edition, enriched a number of paragraphs with here and there historical, ethnographic and statistical features. Plutarch is certainly right, spite of the fact that pedants may abuse him for it, when he says, that trifling acts, a word and even a jest, are often more important, as characterizing the life of a people or an age, than great battles which cost the lives of tens of thousands of men.

I have changed the titles “Ricardo's Law of Rent,” and “The Malthusian Law of the Increase of Population,” which [pg x] I formerly used, for others. But I would not be misunderstood here. I hold it to be a duty of reverence in the learned—as it has long been practiced in the case of the natural sciences—in the sciences of the human mind to call the natural laws, methods etc., in acquainting us with which, some one particular investigator has won very distinguished merit, by the name of that investigator. In the case of the law of rent, the application of this rule would as unquestionably entitle Ricardo to this honor as it would Malthus in that of the increase of population, spite of the fact that Ricardo may not have succeeded in finding the best possible form of the abstraction, and although Malthus even, in a one-sided reaction against a former still greater one-sidedness, was not always able to steer clear of positive and negative errors. Recent science has endeavored, and successfully, to examine the facts which contradict the Ricardoan and Malthusian formulations of the laws in question, and to extend the formulas accordingly. I have myself contributed hereto to the extent of my ability. But, in the interval, it is not hard to comprehend that, while this process of elucidation is going on, most scholars, those especially possessed more of a dogmatic than of a historical turn of mind, should estimate these two leaders more in accordance with their few defects than with the great merits of their discoveries. If, therefore, I now drop the title “Malthusian law,” it is to guard hasty readers from the illusion that §§ 242 seq. teach what the great crowd understand by Malthusianism; when they might, perhaps, omit that portion entirely. For my own part, I have no doubt that, when the process of elucidation above referred to shall have been thoroughly finished, the future will accord both to Ricardo and Malthus their full meed of honor as political economists and discoverers of the first rank.1

[pg 001]

Preliminary Essay On The Application Of The Historical Method To The Study Of Political Economy,

By M. Wolowski,

Member Of The Institute Of France.

“

Clyx.com

Contents

Translator's Preface.

Author's Preface. (1st Edition.)

From The Author's Prefaces. (2d to 11th Edition.)