Chapter CLI: Section VI: Paper Money—A Curse Or A Blessing? (2)

115 According to _Th. Cooper_, Lectures on the Elements of Political
Economy, (1726), 1, 15 ff. 117, the wealth of society is nothing but
the aggregate wealth of all the individuals that compose it. Each
individual looks out best for his own interests, and, hence, that
nation must be the richest, in which each individual is most
completely left to himself. (If this were so, savage nations would
be the richest!) _Cooper_ goes so far as to disapprove of the
protection afforded to commerce on the high seas by a national navy;
no naval war is worth what it costs, and merchants should protect
themselves. He says, too, that the word “nation” is an invention of
the grammarians, made to save the trouble of circumlocution, a
nonentity! _Adam Smith_ is, as might be expected, far removed from
such absurdities. (Compare Wealth of Nations, IV, ch. 2, and the end
of the fourth book.) But, even he is of opinion that men, in the
study of their own advantage are led “naturally, or rather
necessarily” (IV, ch. 2), to the employment which is most useful to
society. But here _Adam Smith_ overlooks the fact, that every
individual nation strives after earthly immortality, and is, in
consequence, frequently compelled to make immediate sacrifices for
the sake of a distant future, a thing which can never be to the
private interest of the mortal individuals who compose it. And thus,
_D. North_, Discourses upon Trade (1691), 13 seq., says, that in
commercial matters, different nations stand in precisely the same
relation to the whole world, that individual cities do to the
kingdom, and individual families to the city. Similarly,
_Boisguillebert_, Factum de la France, ch. 10, 327, Daire’s edition.
_Benjamin Franklin_ (ob. 1790), Political Papers, § 4. And _J. B.
Say_, Traité d’Economie politique (1802) I, 15: every nation is, in
relation to neighboring nations, in the situation of a province in
relation to neighboring provinces. Unfortunately, such doctrine is
only too palpably refuted by every war! _J. Bentham’s_ saying: _Les
intérêts individuels sont les seuls intérêts réels_ (Traité de
Législation, I, 229). _Infra_ § 98.

Among those who, in antiquity, most energetically maintained that
the idea of national economy is not a merely nominal one, is _Plato_
(De Republ., IV, 420, I, 462); more recently, _Fichte_ (Der
geschlossene Handelstaat, 1800), although, in general, the
socialists attach as little importance to nationality as their most
decided opponents. Adam Müller is a writer who deserves recognition
for his advocacy of national economy, and of the state as a whole,
paramount to individuals, and even generations. He gives war the
credit of causing the scientific knowledge of the state to cast
deeper roots, and of enlightening individuals in the most forcible
way, that they are parts of one great whole. (Elemente der
Staatskunst, 1809, I, 7, 113). He calls public economy, as a whole,
the product of all products. What, he inquires, is the use of all
wealth, if it does not guarantee itself? And this, it can do, only
through the organization of the whole people, that is, through the
nation (I, 202). _Adam Smith’s_ theory of labor would be correct if
it considered the entire national life of a people itself as one
huge piece of labor. (II, 265). And so, Müller directs his polemics
against Adam Smith’s premise of a merely mercantile world-market.
(II, 290). Similarly, the protective tariff theoreticians, _Ganieh_,
Théorie de l’Economie politique (1822), II, 198 ff. and _Fr. List_,
Nationales System der politischen Oek. (1842), I, 240 ff. _Colton_,
Political Economy of the United States, 1853. _Sismondi_, Nouveaux
Principes (1819), I, 197, ridicules the opinion which resolves the
public interest into merely private interests: It is A’s interest to
rob B; B, the weaker, is equally interested to let himself be
robbed, that he may fare no worse. But the state—?!

116 National wars are really no mere operations of the will of the
state! Since 1800, Ireland, and, since 1858, even British India,
constitute one state with England, and yet how different are the
economic tendencies of these different countries of which the
individual husbandman or business man must take cognizance!

117 One might also deny the reality of a stream, considered as a whole,
since its bed, no one calls a stream, and its watery contents change
every moment. And yet, it is well known to scientific geography that
every stream has its own individual character.

118 This would be to be guilty of explaining _ignotum_ per _ignotius_.
And yet, there are a great many modern writers who imagine that they
have said something all-sufficient, when they have told us that the
state is an organism. As early a writer as _Hufeland_ (N.
Grundlegung, I, 113), enters his protest against such abuses. The
person who would operate with this notion, should, at least, have
read the acute observations, so well calculated to dissipate
preconceived opinions, made by _Lotze_, in his Allgemeine
Physiologie des körperlichen Lebens, 1-165. The organic conception
of national life, the life of a whole people, where the individual
organs are free and rational beings, is evidently a much more
difficult one to form than that of the animal or human body.

119 I first called attention, in my work on the life-work and age of
_Thucydides_, to the fact that that great historian always accounts
for causes in the following manner: A. is produced by B., and B. by
A. (_Roscher_, Leben Work und Zeitalter des Thukydides, 199 ff.;
compare especially _Thucyd._, I, 2, 7, seq.) Such a circle is not a
vicious one. All first class historians have thus explained
historical phenomena. The one-sided deduction of A. from B., and B.
from C., etc., which the so-called pragmatic writers like
_Polybius_, for instance, is the result of overlooking all
reciprocal action. _Scialoja_, Principii (1840), p. 60, makes a
somewhat similar observation for Political Economy.

120 Whether we call the unknown and inexplicable ground back of all
analysis, and which our analysis cannot reach, vital force, generic
form, spirit of the nation, or God’s thought, is for the present a
matter of scientific indifference. All the more necessary are the
self-knowledge and honesty, in general, which admit the existence of
this background, and which do not, by denying it, deny the
connection of the whole, which is, for the most part, much more
important than the analyzed parts. But I must at the same time,
enter my energetic protest against the imputations of heresy made by
those who do not comprehend the sacred duty of science, by never
ceasing investigation, to push farther back the bounds of this
inexplicable background.

121 When _Hildebrand_, for instance, objects to the application of the
expression “natural law” to the economic actions of man, for the
reason that it conflicts with human freedom and man’s capacity for
progress (Jahrbücher der N. Œek. und Statistik., 1863, Heft., I), I
cannot agree with him. I use the expression “natural law” wherever I
observe uniformity, explicable in its broader connections, and not
dependent on human design. That there are such uniformities there
can be no question. I need only mention the philological law of the
so-called “permutation of consonants,” which individuals follow when
speaking—certainly not through compulsion,—and, by means of which,
the progress of the speaking aggregate is made manifest. Or, I might
call attention to the well known fact, that, in populous countries
marriages and crimes, which are for the most part free, are divided
among the different age-classes in a proportion much more uniform,
from year to year, than are deaths, which are not free. I adhere all
the more firmly to the expression “natural law,” because no one
takes offense at or objects to the expression, “nature of the human
soul.” But to this very nature of the human soul belong the freedom
and responsibility of the individual, as well as the capacity of the
species for progress. Compare _A. Wagner_, on Law in the Apparently
capricious Actions of Man (_Die Gesetzmässigkeit in den scheinbar
willkürlichen menschlichen Handlungen_, 1864, p. 63 seq.), in which,
however, he only goes so far as to show that law and freedom coexist
side by side as indubitable facts, while the seeming contradiction
between the two remains. _Drobisch’s_ Moralische Statistik und die
menschliche Willensfreiheit, 1867, is an important contribution to
the literature of this question.

_ 122 Whately_, in his fourth lecture (Lectures, 1831), shows in a very
clear way, how London is supplied and provisioned by men with no
object in view but their own personal interest, each of whom is
possessed of but a very limited knowledge of the aggregate wants of
its inhabitants, and yet they work into one another’s hands, in the
interests of the whole, purely instinctively, and infinitely better,
perhaps, than the operations of the most skillful governmental
commission, organized for the same purpose.

123 Alphonsus of Castile, the king astrologer of the thirteenth century,
is reported to have said, that the universe would have been much
better constituted, if the Creator had asked his advice beforehand.
Astronomers like Newton and Gauss have, certainly, judged otherwise.

_ 124 MacCulloch_ remarks, that there is an essential difference between
the physical and the moral and political sciences in this, that the
principles of the former apply in all cases, those of the latter,
only in the greater number of cases—a thought very ably developed by
_Knies_, loc. cit., _passim_. If, with _Newmarch_, (London
Statistical Journal, 1861, p. 460 seq.), we could grant, that there
is no “law,” except where it is possible to predict each individual
occurrence under it, there would be no such thing even as the “laws”
of the probability of life. The word “element,” also, means
something very different in Political Economy from what it does in
chemistry: a combination which might be broken up, but which that
science leaves it to other sciences to do. The “element” of
Political Economy is Man. Compare _Pickford_, Einleitung in die
politische Œk., 1860, 17.

125 It is in this sense that _Aristotle_ (Polit., I, p. 1, 9 Schn.)
says: φανερὸν, ὅτι τῶν φύσει ἡ πόλις ἐστὶ, καὶ ὅτι ἄνθρωπος φύσει
πολιτικὸν ζῶον. According to _L. Stein, Lehrbuch der
Volkswirthschaft_, 1858, 33, the political economy of a people
begins at the point where the overplus of individuals begins.

126 Compare _K. L. von Haller_, Restauration der Staatswissenchaft, I,
p. 446 ff.

127 As _Sallust_ characterizes the political apogee of the Romans:
_Optimis moribus et maxima concordia egit populus Romanus inter
secundum atque postremum bellum Carthaginiense._ See _Augustin_
(Civ. Dei II, 18). _Puchta_ (Institutionen, I, f. 83), with a great
deal of good sense, distinguishes in every people their individual
character from that which they share in common with all mankind. The
latter exists among savage nations, only as a germ buried under the
overpowering weight of that which is special to them. The period of
the perfect equilibrium of both elements is coincident with that of
a people’s real culture. In the further course of development, the
latter, more general element becomes gradually over-powerful,
destroys the individual, and thus dissolves nationality.

128 Thus formulated, the principles of the two great parties, evidently,
no more contradict one another than their ordinary watchwords,
“freedom” and “order,” are in contrast with one another. Hence all
the great statesmen of the best periods of history have adopted the
middle course recommended by Aristotle.

129 See _Lotze_, Allgemeine Pathologie, 1842. _Ruete_, Lehrbuch der
allgemeinen Therapie, 1852. These analogies, obviously, should not
be pushed too far. One of the most essential differences between the
two consists in this, that in the diseases of the body politic,
physicians and nurses are themselves part of the diseased organism.

130 See _Ahren’s_ very beautiful exposition, Organische Staatslehre,
1850, I, 77. National economy (_Nationalökonomie_=public economy);
national economics (_Nationalökonomik_=the science of public
economy). The latter term was first proposed, in Germany, in 1849,
by _Uhde_; the former was naturalized therein 1805: _v. Soden_,
Nationalökonomie, 1805; _Jacob_, Grundsätze der N. Œk., 1806. In
Italy, _G. Ortes_ used it as early as 1774, in his Dell Economia
nazionale, and in England it was employed, even in 1867, by
_Ferguson_, History of Civil Society, III, p. 4. Holland.
Volkshuyshoudkunde. As a rule, outside of Germany, the term
political economy, _économie politique_, one which is somewhat
calculated to mislead the student, is used. (Thus _Montchrêtien
sieur de Vatteville_, Traité de l’Economie _politique_, 165; later
_J. J. Rousseau_, Discours sur l’Economie politique, later yet the
Traités d’E. p., _Maillardère_, _Page_ and _J. B. Say_, 1801-1803).
Political Economy (_Sir J. Stewart_, Inquiry into the principles of
P. E., 1767); also Public Economy (_Petty_, several Essays, 1682,
35); _Economia politica_ or _pubblica_ (the latter by _Verri_ and
_Beccaria_). The title _Economia civile_ (_Genovesi_, Lezioni, d’Ec.
civ. 1769), has found few adherents. It has, however, been used
recently by _Cernuschi_: Illusions des Sociétés coöperatrices
(1866). The term, _Economie sociale_ has been used all the more in
France (Dunoyer, Nouveau Traité d’Ec. soc., 1830), since recommended
by _J. B. Say_, and employed by _Buat_ (Des vrais Principes de
l’Origine et de la Filiation du Mot Economie politique, in the
Journal des Economistes, 1852.)

_ 131 Stein_, Lehrbuck der V. W., prefaces his “Science of Public
Economy” (pp. 329-358), by a “Science of Economy” (pp. 96-328),
which, however, treats individual economies only as the elements of
the national economy. A science of household or isolated individual
economy could, of course, treat only of the economic relations of
anchorites. Those who object that Political Economy is not a real
whole will be satisfied with the definition of it given by _F. I.
Neumann_: “The Science of the bearing of household or separate
economies to one another, and to the state as a whole.” (Tüb.
Zeitschr., 1872, 267.)

132 In so far as these various institutions are concerned, with objects
beyond the human, or supernatural, only the manner in which they are
accepted, or in which they are made use of, is an expression of
national life.

133 Thus, _J. Tucker_ thinks that religion, the state and commerce, are
only the parts of one same general plan: no institution, therefore,
can be called appropriate, within the limits of the province of any
one of these, if it be clearly in opposition to the other two,
because the harmony of God’s work can not be broken up. (Four Tracts
and two Sermons on political and commercial Subjects, 1774, Serm.
I.)

_ 134 Riedel_ (National Œkonomie, 1838, I, p. 178 seq.), gives a good
illustration of the difference between the manner in which law and
Political Economy look at the same question. The law (to avoid
strife, or to settle controversies) looks upon the debtor as the
owner of the capital, and lets him run all the risk; Political
Economy, on the other hand, looking deeper into the nature of the
contract, reaches an entirely opposite result. The mere jurist has a
dangerous tendency to undervalue the reign of the laws of nature;
the mere political economist, just as readily, undervalues the
element of free will. (_Arnold_, Cultur und Recht I, 97.) In this
respect, the two sciences complement each other very well. _Roesler_
(_Hildebrand’s_ Jahrb., 1868, II, and 1869, I.) shows, and he does
not exaggerate the fact, that political economists have made
altogether too little use of the results of the science of law.

135 Jurists will always experience the want of divesting their isolated
ideas of their purely accidental character, by grouping them
together in such a manner as to make them constitute a complete and
independent whole. One must be possessed of profound knowledge to
perceive their necessary connection from an historico-juridical
point of view. Political Economy, with its characteristic accuracy
and practical utility, can best take its place, at the present time.
It is in the greater number of legal questions, the systematically
elaborated science of “the nature of the thing.” See the able
beginnings of a policy of legislation and higher history of law,
based on Political Economy, by _H. Dankwardt_: N. Œk. und
Jurisprudenz, 3 Hefte, 1857, and my preface to _Dankwardt’s_
Nationalökonomisch-civilistischen Studien, 1862.

136 The intellectual power of a people depends upon the vigorous and
harmonious development of all seven spheres of life.

_ 137 Montecuccoli_, Besondere und geheime Kriegsnachrichten (Leipzig,
1736). A very similar judgment by Cæsar in _Dio Cass._, XLII, 49.

_ 138 Bülan_, Handbuch der Staatswirthschaftslehre, 1835.

139 Thus _v. Justi_, Staatswirthschaft 1755. _Kraus_, Staatswirthschaft,
published by Auerswald, 1808; _Schmalz_, Handbuch der
Staatswirthschaft, 1808. More recently, _Hermann_,
Staatswirthschaftliche Untersuchungen, 1832. In France, the
expression _économie de l’état_, is very seldom used. _Gavard_,
Principes del’E. d’Etat, 1796.

_ 140 Pölitz_, Staatswissenschaften im Lichte unserer Zeit, II, 3.
Compare _Lotz_, Handbuch der Staatswirthschaft (2d ed., 1837), I, 10
ff.

141 Our view of Political Economy holds a middle place between opposed
extremes. The view expressed by _Whately_, Lectures on Political
Economy (1831), No. 1, and covered by the proposed term
“catalactics,” is by far too narrow. Similarly, _Macleod_, Elements
of Political Economy, 1858, I, 11. A like objection may be raised to
the earlier title of _Pritzwitz’s_ book: Die Kunst reich zu
werden,—the art of growing rich. On the other hand, _Dunoyer_,
Liberté du Travail (1845), L. IX, ch. I, goes too far altogether:
“not only in what manner a nation grows rich, but according to what
laws it best succeeds, in the execution of all its functions.” And
so _Storch_, Handbuch, translated into German by _Rau_, I, 9. Many
modern writers define Political Economy simply as the theory of
society; for instance, _Scialoja_, Principj. dell’Economia sociale,
1840. _Cibrario_, E. polit. del medio Evo, III, 1842.

142 For the many and various definitions of the police power, see _von
Berg_, Handbuch des Polezeirechts, I, 1-12; _Butte_, Versuch der
Begründung eines System der Polezei (1807), 6 ff.; _Rosshirt_, Ueber
den Begriff der Staatspolizoi (1817), 34 ff. One of the principal
difficulties is, that the practical domain of the police power is,
in consequence of the successive grades of civilization through
which a people passes, subject to greater modifications than any
other state power. We call attention especially to the expressions
“without mediation, to prevent,” and “external order,” in our
definition. The church, the school, the administration of justice
etc., act mediately towards the prevention of such disturbances; and
there are many other institutions which offer immediate protection
to order of a higher and more intellectual nature.

143 See the great number of earlier definitions collected in _R. von
Mohl_, Gesch. und Literatur der Staatswissenschaften III, pp. 637
ff. There are two principal groups of them, the one of which
considers it as the science of things of political note, the other
as the science of actual or past conditions.

144 See _Dufau_, Traité de Statistique, 1840; _Moreau de Jonnès_,
Elements de Statistique, 1847; _Knies_, Die Statistik als
selbstständige Wissenschaft, 1850. _B. Hildebrand_, in his
Jahrbüchern, 1866, I etc., but especially _Quetelet’s_ works. For
the contrary view, see _Fallati_, Einleitung in die Wissenschaft der
Statistik der St., 1843; _Jonak_, Theorie der Statistik, 1856, and
_Heeren_, in the Gött. Gelehrten Anzeigen, 1806, No. 84, 1807, 1302.

145 So thinks _v. Rümelin_ (Tübinger Zeitschr., 1863, 653 ff.); and he
recommends in place of statistics an independent branch of learning
bordering on history and geography, to be called demography. His
statistics is a science auxiliary to all the experimental sciences
of man, just as criticism and hermeneutics are a methodological
science auxiliary to many sciences, otherwise different. It would be
difficult to justify the use of the name statistics for such a
science, as such a science corresponds to neither of the two
meanings of the word _status_ (state—condition).

146 The ancients understood by the term καμάρα _camera_, covered places
such especially as were vaulted, also vaults of the most varied
kind. Compare _Herod_, I, 199; _Diod._, II, 9; _Strabo_, XI, 495;
_Arrian_, Exp. _Alex._, VII, 5, 55; _Dio Cass_. XXXVI, 32;
_Sallust_, B. C., 55; _Cicero_, ad Q. fratrem III, 1; _Plin._, H. N.
XXX, 27; _Seneca_, Epist., 86; _Tacit._ Hist. III, 47; _Sueton_,
Nero, 34. During the middle ages, the meaning treasure-chamber
(_Schatzkammer_) became predominant: _camera est locus, in quem
thesaurus recoilligitur, vel conclave, in quo pecunia reservatur_
(_Ocham_, Cap. Quid sit Scaccarium). It gradually became synonymous
with finance,—from the time of Charlemagne, or at least since Louis
II. (Charter of 874). See _Ducange_, Glossarium, v. Camera, and
_Muratori_ Antiquitt. Ital., I, 932 ff.

147 “A husbandman must plow and manure his land if he would reap a
harvest from it. He must fatten his cattle if he would slaughter
them; and furnish his cows with good fodder if he would have them
give good milk. In like manner, a prince should begin by assuring
his subjects healthy and abundant food, if he would take anything
from them.” _von Schröder_, Fürstl. Schatz-und Rentkammer (1686),
preface, § 11. _Von Horneck_ before him, Oesterreich über alles wann
es nur will, p. 220, ed. of 1707, had expressed the idea that the
watchful solicitude for the public economy of the country was no
_parergon_, no _appendix_, to the council (_Kammer_), but its real
basis, and that it embraced many subjects which had nothing in
common with the cameralia (“_Cameralien_”).

_ 148 Morhof_, Polyhistor (1688), III. _Thomasius_, 1728, Cautelæ circa
præcognita Jurisprudentiæ (1710), ch. 17. (Cautelæ circa studium
œconomicum.) Also, in his lectures on _Seckendorff’s_ “Teutschen
Fürstenstaat.” Compare _Roscher_, Gesch. der N. Œk. in Deutschland,
328 ff.

149 While _Dithmar_ (1731) distinguishes economy-police and cameralistic
sciences and restricts the latter to finance and taxation; _Darjes_
(1756) comprises under the name of cameralistic science, economy
(municipal and rural), and police, as well as cameralistic subjects
in the strict sense of the term, that is, the public, domain and
regal rights. While _Nau_ (1791), in his “Ersten Linien der C.,”
treats only of the branches of private economy, _Schmalz_, (1797)
treats also of national or public economy, and _Rössig_ (1792)
divides cameralistic science into the doctrine of the public demesne
and regal rights (cameralistic science in the narrower sense), and
the doctrine of taxation and police.

150 Thus, for instance, all that concerns domestic economy, book-keeping
and private financial administration.

_ 151 John Stuart Mill_, Principles of Political Economy (1848), I, p.
25, draws a distinction between the physical conditions which
influence the economic situation of a people, and the moral and
psychological conditions; which last have their origin in social
institutions or in the fundamental principles of human nature. Only
the latter belong to the domain of Political Economy. According to
_J. B. Say_, Traité, Introd., this science embraces at once
agriculture, manufactures and commerce, but only in their relation
to the increase or diminution of wealth, and does not concern itself
with the means employed to reach the desired end. As a rule, says
_Arndt_ (Naturgemässe Volkswirthschaft, 1851, p. 16), it takes into
consideration not so much things themselves as their exchange value.
_Lotz_ (Handbuch, I, p. 6 seq.), in like manner, defines Political
Economy—the science of the one activity which constitutes the basis
of all industries etc. _F. G. Schulze_ (Ueber volkswirthschaftliche
Begründung der Gewerbswissenschaften, 1826), characterizes Political
Economy as the science of the fundamental conditions of the
well-being of a people, in so far as they lie in human nature.

When _Adam Smith_ (book IV, c. II) says that the government in
respect to matters of economy is inferior to the first best person
engaged in industrial pursuits, he is right only from a technic
point of view. And when _Stewart_, on the other hand, vindicates for
the state the office of a pater-familias (book II, ch. 13), he
evidently means only in national economical matters.

152 See also _Rau_ (Ueber die Cameralwissenschaft, Entwickelung ihres
Wesens und ihrer Theile, 1825); _Baumstark_ (Cameralistische
Enclycopädie, 1835).

_ 153 Xenoph._ Œconom. I, 8 ff. Cyrop. VIII; 2, 23. He saw with equal
clearness the moral light and shade of wealth. (Œcon. XI. 9. Conviv.
4. Memor. I, 6. Cyrop. VIII, 3, 35 ff. Hiero 4.)

_ 154 Thomas Aquinas_ values earthly goods according to the end they are
made to serve; when used for a good purpose, they have a mediately
true value. Hence it was an error of the stoics to despise them
under all circumstances. (Summa Theol. II, 2. Qu., 50, 3. 58, 2. 59,
3. 125, 4.)

_ 155 Whateley_ considers the savage much beneath the materialist,
instead of superior to him. The latter possesses, although he
frequently abuses it, the faculty of self-control and forethought,
which is entirely wanting in the former. (Lectures, No. 6.)
_Dunoyer_, De la Liberté du Traväil, liv. IV, ch. I, 8, an apology
for the moral wholesomeness of civilization, since promotive of
military prowess, favorable to the development of the sciences, and
even poetical. _Baudrillart_, Manual d’Œkonomie politique, 1857, 24.
See _Fallati_, Ueber die sogennannte materiellen Tendenz der
Gegenwart, 1842.

156 See the inscription on the tomb of Sardanapalus: ταῦτ᾽ ἔχω, ὄσσ᾽
ἔφαγον καὶ ἐφύβρισα καί μετ᾽ ἔδωτος τέδπν ἔπαθον. (Strabo, XIV,
672.) _Isaiah_, 122, 13, 56, 12, and the book of wisdom (2)
characterizes the view of the fallen Jewish people. In Greece, the
Cynic and Epicurean schools were only different phases of the same
degeneration. “Thirst, for money, and nothing else, will be the ruin
of Sparta!” (_Cicero_, De Offic, II, 22, 77.) See the magnificent
description by Demosthenes, in which he shows the over-estimation of
material things to be the principal cause of the decline of Athens,
and in which he lays great stress on the fact, that Athens, on its
decay, had a larger population, more wealth, ships, and evidences of
external power, than in its golden age. (Phil., III, 120 seq.) Also
Phil., IV, 144, cautions us against the Manchester criterion of
national prosperity. See _Plato_, De Rep., VIII. In Rome, the
principle _ommia venalia esse_ was a chief element in the total
decline and fall of the republic. (_Sallust_, Cat., 10 ff., Jug., 8
ff.) In an age when people think they can do everything with money,
the ruin of all things is the last end of mercantile, financial and
political speculation. (_Condillac_, Le Commerce et le Gouverment,
1776, II, 18.)

157 Under Pericles, the Athenian treasury of the state contained at most
9,700 talents. (_Thucyd._ II, 13.) On the other hand, Alexander the
Great had a treasure of 180,000 talents accumulated in the citadel
of Ecbatana. (_Strabo_, XV, 731); Ptolomy II. left after him 740,000
talents. (_Appian._ præf. 10, _Droysen_, Geschichte des Hellenismus
II, 44 ff.) In Nero’s time there was many a freedman’s daughter who
owned a looking glass worth a greater sum than the senate had
appropriated as a dowry to the daughter of the great Scipio.
(_Seneca_, Quæst. Natur. I, 17. Compare Cons, ad Helviam, 12.)
_McCulloch_ says that an intelligent despotism can enrich a nation
as well as freedom. (In his Discourse on the Rise, etc. of Polit.
Econ., 1825, 77 seq.)

_ 158 Bacon_ (Sermones, 56) says that youthful states distinguish
themselves specially by their warlike instincts; mature states in
literature; old and decaying ones in industry and commerce.
_Davenant_ very happily remarks, that the development of commerce
among a people has an ambiguous value. It, indeed, increases wealth,
but, at the same time, it may introduce luxury, covetousness and
fraud, destroy virtue, do away with simplicity of manners and
customs, and then it inevitably ends in internal or external
slavery. (Works II, 275.) The simplicity of the patriarchal state,
however, cannot last always, if for no other reason, because of the
emulation of foreign nations. (1, 348, ff.) The impoverishment of
even the wealthiest nation is certainly inevitable when its morality
declines. It is especially true, that the public economy of a people
can be prosperous only where political liberty obtains, and this,
independent of the fact that wealth without freedom has no value.
(II, 336 ff., 380, ff., 285.) According to _Ferguson_, private
wealth, honestly acquired, used rightly and with moderation, managed
with a sense of independence, may be to those who possess it, an
element of self-confidence and of liberty, provided they loosen
their purse strings not through vanity or for their personal
gratification, but for commendable party purposes. But in periods of
decay, even a greater amount of wealth is very far from producing
these results. (History of Civil Society, VI, 5.) _Whately_, on the
contrary, maintains that only personal wealth—never national
wealth—has a disastrous influence on morals. Lectures, No. 2.

159 “The method of a science is of much greater importance than any
individual discovery, however wonderful.” (_Cuvier._)

160 Thus, for instance, _G. Biel_ (ob. 1495), the “last of the
schoolmen,” gives us his doctrine of Political Economy, in a work on
Dogmatic Theology, in the chapter on Penance, his starting point
being the inquiry, how the economic damage caused by the sinner may
be repaired. _Roscher_, Geschichte der Nationalökonomik in
Deutchland, 1074, I, 23. The Melittotheologia, Arachnotheologia of
later times! A recent attempt in this direction has been made by
_Ad. Müller_, Nothwendigkeit einer theologischen Grundage der
gesammten Staatswissenschaften und der Staatswirthschaft
insbesondere (1819), i.e., “necessity of a theological basis for all
political science, and especially for Political Economy.” He divides
political science into two parts: the science of law, and the
science of wisdom, embracing under the latter denomination,
politics, Political Economy, etc. Law emanates from God, as supreme
judge; the science of wisdom from God, as our Supreme Father.

161 Abstraction is indulged in on a large scale, when a number of
elements which are always found combined in life, are here separated
and examined apart. It is precisely thus that anatomy proceeds,
dissecting each member of the human frame, separating the bones,
ligaments and muscles from one another, thus becoming the necessary
preparatory school to physiology.

162 Thus, for instance, _Canard_, Principes d’Economie politique (1801).
Also _Kröncke_, in several of his works, and _Count Buquoy_, in his
Theorie der Nationalwirthschaft (1816), p. 333 ff.; _Lang_,
Grundlinien einer politischen Arithmetik, Charkow, 1811, and more
especially _v. Thünen_, Der isolirte Staat, vol. I (1842), vol. II,
1850. See my criticism of his method in _Birnbaum’s_ Georgika, 1869,
77 ff. _Voa Thünen’s_ first volume is an essay towards a geometrical
exposition of the science. See also _Rau_, Lehrbuch I, § 154,
appendix; _von Mangoldt_, Grundriss der Volkswirthschaftslehre
(1862); _Cazaux_, Elements d’Economie privée et Principes
mathématiques de la Théorie des Richesses (1838); _F. Fuoco_, Saggi
economici (1827) II, 61 ff. _Walras_, Eléments d’Econ. politique
pure (1874). _Jevons_ has recently endeavored to give Political
Economy a mathematical basis by reducing the objects of which it
treats to the calculable feelings of pleasure (+) and pain (-). The
duration of a feeling is treated as an abscissa, its intensity as
the ordinate of a curve, and its quantity as the area. Future
feelings are reduced to present ones, by allowing for their
distance, and the uncertainty of their occurrence. All this,
however, is rather curious than scientifically useful.

_ 163 Herbart_, Ueber die Möglichkeit und Nothwendigkeit, Mathematik auf
Psychologie anzuwenden; Kleinere Schriften, II, 417.

164 How detrimental it is to ignore the psychological nature of
Political Economy is evident from the errors of _Karl Marx_, who
personifies things in a manner almost mythological. Thus, according
to him, modesty should be ascribed to a coat which exchanges for a
piece of linen, and purpose to the linen, etc. (Das Kapital, 1867,
I, 19, 22, seq.) The greatest fault of this intelligent but not very
acute man, his inability to reduce complicated phenomena to their
constituent elements, is greatly increased by his way of thus
looking at things.

165 Compare _J. B. Say_, Traité I, introd. Thus, it would be certainly
possible to describe every individual’s physiognomy by means of a
very complicated mathematical formula, and yet there is no one who
would not prefer the usual mode of taking pictures. The simple
motions of the heavenly bodies, on the contrary, are always treated
mathematically. (_Lotze_, Allgemeine Physiologie, 322 ff.)

166 When _Fawcett_ says that all “principles of Political Economy are
describing tendencies instead of actual results” (Manual of
Political Economy, 1863, p. 90), our method, the historical, would
give also the theory of the latter.

167 This was lost sight of by most writers during the second half of the
eighteenth century, because they looked upon that equality as the
really oldest condition, and its restoration the ideal to be striven
for. How much of this still clings to the present free-trade school;
see in _Roscher_, Gesch. der N. Œk. in Deutschland, 10, 17 ff.

168 Thus, for instance, _Ricardo_ examines, almost exclusively, the
actual condition of things, while the socialists confine themselves,
still more exclusively, to the investigation of how things should
be. It has been very usual in Germany since _Rau_ wrote, to draw a
distinction between theoretical and practical Political Economy.
There are many who think that a good manual of practical Political
Economy, dropping the introduction, demonstrations etc., would be
also a good code of law, of universal application. _Mercier de la
Rivière_ has said that he wished to propose an organization which
should be necessarily productive of all the happiness which can be
enjoyed on earth. (Ordre essentiel et naturel (1767), Disc. prélim.)
Compare, also, _Sismondi_, N. Principes, I, ch. 2.

169 The word method is used in an essentially different sense, when the
inquiry is, whether the inductive or deductive method is followed in
Political Economy. _J. S. Mill_ calls Political Economy, and,
indeed, all “sociology,” a concrete deductive science, whose _a
priori_ conclusions, based on the laws of human nature, must be
tested by experience, either by comparing them with the concrete
phenomena themselves, or with their emperical laws. It, in this,
resembles astronomy and physics. (System of Logic VI, ch. 9. Essays
on some unsettled questions of Political E., No. 5.) According to
this, an economic fact can be said to have received a scientific
explanation only when its deductive and inductive explanations have
met and agreed. “Only those principles which, after they have been
obtained by the one, are confirmed by the other method, can be said
to have a scientific basis.” (_von Mangoldt_, Grundriss, 8.) While I
agree to this view, it seems necessary to me to mention points
wherein caution is necessary: A. Even the deductive explanation of
economic facts is based on observation, namely, on the
self-observation of the person accounting for them, who, consciously
or unconsciously, must always inquire: If I had experienced or
accomplished the same fact, what should I have thought, willed and
felt? The man who cannot translate himself into the souls of others,
will give a wrong explanation of most economic facts. In the
question, for instance, of the determination of the price of an
article, the person who can look into the mind of one of the
contracting parties only, will give a one-sided explanation of the
facts. B. Moreover, every explanation, that is, satisfactory
connection of the fact seeking explanation with other facts which
are already clear, can be only provisional. The wider our horizon
grows, the deeper should our solution of all questions become. A
hundred years hence, should science increase in the mean time, the
solutions which are satisfactory to us will be looked down upon by
our posterity, as the speculations of our fathers antecedent to Adam
Smith’s time are looked down upon by us.

_ 170 Tanquam e vinculis sermocinantur_, says _Bacon_ (De Dignit. et
Augm. Scient., III, 3), of those who have written in a not
non-practical way on the laws. _Hugo_, also (Naturrecht, 1819, p.
9), calls attention to the resemblance of the so-called laws of
nature, to the positive law in force at the time. As to political
idealism, see _Roscher_: De historicæ doctrinæ apud sophistas
majores vestigiis (Gött. 1838, 26 ff.). The only exceptions to this
rule are the eclectics, who form their own system from the blossoms
of all foreign ones, a system, indeed, without root, and which
therefore must soon wither.

171 In this place, naturally, such an assertion can be made only as a
programme to be carried out, the proof whereof is to be sought in
the rest of the work. By “the people,” we do not mean the governed,
to the exclusion of the governing classes, but both classes
together. We attach to the expression the most extensive meaning
possible. We do not limit it to the present generation, but intend
it to cover all the generations from the beginning of a people’s
history to its end.

172 The custom, which has become general, of calling all democratic
movements, and them only, revolutions (thus _Stahl_: Was ist
Revolution? 1852, and many other writers of an entirely opposite
tendency, especially in France), is not warranted. It is true that
democratic (and imperial) revolutions are more frequent than others
in our times, just as aristocratic revolutions were in the middle
ages, and monarchical at the beginning of modern history. The
essence of revolution, however, is in the operation of change
contrary to positive law, acknowledged as such by the consciousness
of the people.

173 Compare, especially, the first pages of _Sir J. Stewart_, Principles
of Polit. Economy.

174 See _Colton_, Public Economy of the United States, p. 28, who,
indeed, unwarrantedly, refers to the whole of Political Economy,
what properly belongs to its precepts.

_ 175 Je n’impose rien, je ne propose même rien: j’expose._ (_Ch.
Dunoyer_). _Cherbuliez_, Précis de la Science économique, 1862, p. 7
ff., has exaggerated this idea in a strangely non-practical manner.
That the historical method does not differ essentially from the
statistical as recently recommended, see _Roscher_, Gesch. der Nat.
Œk., 1035 seq.

_ 176 Storch_, Handbuch, II, 222.

_ 177 Ad. Müller_, an essentially mediæval mind, is guilty of this same
braggadocio in an opposite direction, when he calls the “present
with its political disorders simply an intermediate state,—the
transmission of the natural or unconscious wisdom of the fathers,
through the inquisitiveness of their children to the rational
acknowledgment of that wisdom by their grandsons.” (Theorie des
Geldes, 1816, pref.)

178 Thus, for instance, it can not be said that a model university is
better than a model public school; and yet the former is higher,
because the age to which it is adapted is doubtless intellectually
higher.

_ 179 Knies_ (Polit. Œk., 256 seq.) remarks, that it would be a great
mistake, and it is the mistake of the majority, to consider what has
been achieved or striven for in the present, as the absolute _non
plus ultra_, and thus to look upon all future generations as called
upon to play the parts of apes and ruminators; a remark worthy to be
taken to heart.

180 I have, myself, no doubt, that up to the present time, mankind, as a
whole, has, from the beginning of historical knowledge, always
advanced. In individual cases, their movement has been interrupted
by so many pauses, and even by so many occasional retrogressions,
that great care must be taken not to infer superior excellence from
mere subsequency.

_ 181 Buckle_ writes of people whose knowledge is about limited to that
which they see going on under their eyes, and who are called
practical, only because of their ignorance; and he adds that,
although they assume to despise theory, they are in fact slaves of
theory, of others’ theories.

182 Compare this whole chapter with _Roscher_, Leben Werk und Zeitalter
des Thukydides, 1842, pp. 25, 239-275; _Roscher_, Grundries zu
Vorlesungen über die Staatswirthschaft nach geschichtlicher Methode,
1843, preface; _Roscher_ Geschichte der Nat. Œk. in Deutchland
(1874), 882 f., 1017 seq., and D. Vierteljahrsschrift, ff. See also
_J. Kautz’s_ learned and accurate Theorie und Geschichte der N.
Œkonomik, vol. I, 1858, II, 1860. I find no real contradiction
between the views here expressed and those of _Kautz_, when he (I,
pp. 313 ff.) introduces history and ethico-practical reason with
their ideals as sources of Political Economy, to the end that the
science may be something more than simply a picture, namely, a model
of economic life. Apart from the fact that it is only the
ethico-practical reason that can understand history at all, the
ideals of a period constitute one of the most important elements of
its history. The aspirations of an age find in them their best
expression. The historical political, economist as such, is
certainly not disinclined to form plans of reform, nor can it be
said that he is not adapted to the performance of such a task. Only,
he will scarcely recommend his reforms as absolutely better than
what they are intended to supplant. He will confine himself to
showing that there is a want which may, probably, be best satisfied
by what he proposes. See _Sartorius_, Einladungsblätter zu
Vorlesungen über die Politik, 1793.

183 “There is a book which youth may use to grow old, and the old to
remain young—History.” (_K. S. Zaccharia_).

184 Especially when natural science begins to be “a practical science.”
(_L. Stein_).

185 The difference between the broader and narrower sense of production,
corresponds essentially with that of gross and net income (§ 145).
Compare also §§ 206, 211 ff.

_ 186 Von Mangoldt_ distinguishes the coming into existence of free
values of the production undertaken for an economic purpose.
(Grundriss, 9.)

_ 187 Gioja_, Nuovo Prospetto delle Scienze economiche (1815), I, 49 ff.
Besides positive production, there is a latent production, which
prevents the decay of goods. It is not possible to make as exact an
estimate of the latter as of the former; and much more depends in
the latter case than in the former on continuity and proper
extension. Hence, latent production is especially a state concern.
(_Knies_, Telegraph als Verkehrsmittel, 1857, 232.)

188 See _Schäffle_, in the Tübinger Univ. Programm, September 27, 1862,
on the disastrous effect on the community of idleness. The leading
of a happy life the Greeks called very appropriately, εὐπράττειν
(_Garve_).

189 We use the expression “external nature” through the whole of this
work in contradistinction not only to the soul, but also to man’s
body, designating his entire physico-intellectual activity by the
term “labor-force” (_Arbeits kraft_).

190 By the expression “natural forces,” we designate the economically
useful changes of matter, changes of place as well as of
composition, which are made without man’s cooperation; for instance,
the gigantic machinery which supplies the greater part of mankind
with water to drink, for domestic and other purposes—the evaporation
of the sea, the formation of clouds, rain, springs, rivers etc. See
_Bastiat_, Harmonies, 277. Thus the sun’s rays are indirectly the
cause, not only of vegetation, but also of all wind and steam
forces.

191 Spite of this “freedom,” it may well happen that these gifts of
nature can be utilized, in many cases, only on condition of some
expenditure. The photographer can compel the sunlight to work for
him only by means of a camera obscura, and the smithy the
atmosphere, only by means of a bellows. But neither will ever
successfully make an item, in their accounts with their customers,
of the services of the sun or air.

192 The most important ocean currents may be explained by two causes:
the flowing of the water from the polar seas to the equator (polar
current), and the revolution of the earth about its axis
(equinoctial current); besides which, there are the reflex currents
produced by the horizontal form of the coast-lands. Thanks to these
natural ocean highways, England is nearer to almost all the
important mercantile coasts of the world by 300 geographical miles
than the Eastern States of the American Union. The only exception is
the Atlantic coast of America north of the Equator. North Americans
to pass the line, or to double one of the two great capes, are
obliged first to traverse the ocean as far as the Azores. On the
other hand, the western coast of South America is very widely
separated from Mexico, for instance, by its ocean currents. The
colonization of America by Europe, instead of by China, is a
consequence of the direction of ocean currents, as is also the fact
that America has now the fairest prospect of influencing the
civilization of China and Japan. What an influence the warm gulf
stream has on the mild climate of north-western Europe!

193 While the Mississippi has no ebb or flow whatever, the influence of
the ocean is felt in the Hudson, which is 60 geographical miles
long, a distance of 29 miles from its mouth.

194 Thus, _A. Young_, Travels in France I, 293 ff., has defined, with
approximate accuracy, the limits within which the vine, maize and
the olive grow. And so _von Cancrin_, Dorpater Jahrbuch IV, 1,
distinguishes the ice zone, the reindeer-moss (a lichen on which the
reindeer live in winter) zone, the forest zone, the zone within the
limits of which cattle are raised; that in which the culture of rye
begins, that in which it becomes permanent; the wheat, fruit-tree,
vine, maize, olive, sugar cane and silk-worm zones. The United
States are divided into cattle-raising, wheat-raising,
cotton-raising, rice-raising and sugar-raising zones. Even in
Europe, beyond the 60th parallel of north latitude, wheat can
scarcely be cultivated; the polar limits of rye raising extend, at
most, six or seven degrees farther. Towards the north, barley
extends sometimes as far as the 70th degree. Here agriculture almost
ceases, and the inhabitants are compelled to confine themselves to
animal substances for food. On the other hand, these three cereals
are not adapted to a tropical climate, while the bread-fruit tree,
for instance, does not thrive at more than 22 degrees from the
Equator, nor the banana at more than 35. Compare _Grisebach_, Die
Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatischen Anordnung. II, 1871.

195 Thus rye and wheat thrive in many parts of Siberia (Iakutzk) at an
annual temperature of - 7.50, while in Iceland no cereals ripen at
an annual temperature of + 4°. But in the former place the summer
heat is + 16.2°; the winter cold, - 39.2°; in Iceland, + 12° and -
1.6°. In England, the myrtle, laurel, camelia and fuchsia stand the
winter well; while the vine no where ripens. On the other hand,
Astrakan and Hungary are vine growing countries, although the former
is as cold in winter as North Cape, and although the cold is more
intense in Hungary than in the Faroe Islands, where neither the oak
nor the beech grow any longer. No good wine is produced on the
western coast of France, north of 47° 20’ north latitude; in
Champagne, north of 49°, or in the Rheingau, north of 51°. In
Norway, the average heat is greater on the coast than in the heart
of the country where, however, grain ripens, while it does not on
the coast; for the mildness of the winter, no matter how great, can
make no compensation for the want of heat. On the other hand, the
cattle on the coast can remain much longer out of doors, and the sea
seldom freezes in such a way as to interfere with the fisheries.
_Blom_, Norwegen I, 39. _Boussingnault_ (Economie rurale considérée
dans ses Rapports avec la Chimie, II) has made some interesting
attempts to calculate by a mathematical process the amount of heat
necessary to vegetable, during the period of vegetation. Thus, for
instance, wheat requires about 12° (Réaumur) of heat during 140
days; that is, nearly 140 x 12° = 1680° Réaumur. In Venezuela, the
sugar cane requires a longer time to grow in a higher and therefore
cooler position than in a lower and warmer, and the length of time
required is in proportion to the height.

196 Hence it is that the isothermal lines are not parallel with the
equator or with one another. The greater number of these have two
northern and two southern summits; the former on the western coasts
of Europe and America, and the latter in eastern North America, and
in the interior of Asia.

197 The quantity of rain which falls every year is, at St. Petersburg
and Pesth, from 16 to 17 inches; at Berlin 19, Mannheim 21, Tübingen
26: in the interior of France 16-24; on the French coast 25, on the
eastern coast of England 24, on the western coast 35, in Milan 36,
Genoa 44, on the coast of most tropical lands 70-120. On the
political-economical influences of most climates, see _Gobbi_, Ueber
die Abhängikeit der Populationskräfte von den einfachen
Grundfstoffen, 1842.

198 The snow limit at Mageröe in Norway is 2,200, in Iceland 2,900, in
the northern Ural 4,500, in the Alps 8,200, in the Caucasus 10,400,
and Quito 14,850 feet high. Hence it is that mountainous countries
which produce nothing in the north, make magnificent vineyards in
warmer countries.

199 In central Germany, even a second crop can be produced after the
corn harvest. In Arabia, the same seed produces three harvests,
because the grain which falls at the time of harvesting to the
ground, germinates immediately and suffices for new seed.
(_Niebuhr_, Beschreibung, 154.)

200 Thus in the northern states of the American union, wheat yields a
return of only from four to five times the amount sown; in France,
5-6 times (_Lavoisier_): in Chili, 12 times; in northern Mexico, 17
times; in Peru, 18 and 20 times; in southern Mexico, 25 and even 35
times; in Germany, maize seed yields at best one hundred fold, while
in the torrid zone there is a return of from three hundred to four
hundred fold, generally.

201 Andalusian corn produces in the mill only one-half as much
bran-waste as Baltic wheat produces. _Bourgoing_, Tableau de
l’Espagne, II, 155. Baltic wheat contains 6-7 per cent, of azote,
and Algerian, 20-25 Per cent. (_Kabsch_, Pflanzenleben der Erde,
1865.)

202 In Europe the blossoming season is retarded four days for each
degree of northern latitude. (_Schübler_.) As we advance towards the
north, the difference becomes less noticeable, but more so as we go
towards the south. In mountainous countries a similar difference is
observable, produced by a like climatic influence. It is from about
10 to 12 days, for a height of from 500 to 600 feet. (_Wolff_,
Naturgesetzliche Grundlagen des Ackerbaues I, p. 332 ff.) In the
cantons, in which the Swiss confederation had its origin, the
pasturage of the Alps lasts generally thirteen weeks, but in the
higher Alps it lasts only from six to seven weeks. (_Businger_, C.
Unterwalden., p. 52.)

203 In central Italy, winter wheat may be sown in October, November or
December; summer wheat, in February or March. (_Sismondi_, Tableau
de l’Agriculture Toscane, p. 35.) In Judæa, it was possible to
harvest figs ten months in the year. (_Joseph_, Bell. Jud., Ill, p.
10.) On the other hand, there is Jemtland, where the peasant in many
places surrounds the northern portion of his cornfield with fagots,
and lights them in August when the north wind blows, to protect his
land from the frost; and where the expression “green years” is used
to designate those in which the harvest has to be reaped before it
is ripe. (_Forsell_, Statistik von Schweden, 24.) In the valuation
made of the lands of the kingdom of Saxony, for assessment purposes,
the cost of supporting a yoke of oxen in the lowest country is
estimated at only three-fourths of what it is in the highest
localities, because in the former, 200 work days can be calculated
upon in the year, in the latter only 159. In central Russia, the
greater part of the labor of agriculture, sowing and harvesting, has
to be finished within the space of four months. In central Germany,
they are spread over seven months. Other things being equal, seven
horses and ploughmen are needed in Russia where only four are called
for in central Germany, (_von Haxthausen_, Studien I, 174.) On the
impediments put in the way of agriculture by the climate of eastern
Prussia, see _Meitzen_, Boden und landwirthsch. Verhältnisse des
preussichen Staats, 1868, I, Abschn., 6.

204 “In both hemispheres, the zone in which the temperature decreases
most rapidly lies between the 40th and 50th degrees of north
latitude. This circumstance must have a happy influence on the
culture and industry of the nation inhabiting the neighborhood of
that zone. Here is the point where the regions of the vine touch
upon those of the olive. Nowhere in the world, do the products of
the vegetable kingdom, and the most varied wonders of agriculture,
follow with such rapidity on one another. The great variety of
products enlivens the commerce and increases the industrial activity
of agricultural nations.” (_Humboldt_.) It is true, however, that
tropical countries possess, also, in their mountainous parts, the
_tierra fria_, _templada_ and _caliente_, superimposed the one on
the other.

205 The aggregate coal supply of Great Britain (1869) was 2,180 millions
cwt.; of Belgium (1862), 207 millions; of France (1868) 256
millions; of Prussia (1870), 600 millions, of Austria (1870),
including brown lignite coal, 158 millions; of Russia (1868), only a
little over 9 millions. The great English coal field, in the
counties of Durham and Northumberland, embraces 732 English square
miles; that of South Wales, 1,200, with a depth of 95 feet, so that
the geographical square mile contains here 679 millions of tons,
each of twenty cwt. To obtain the same quantity of combustible
material as was furnished to Prussia, in 1865, by its coal, it would
be necessary to use up 6,331 square miles of forest, (_von Dèchen_,
in _Engel’s_ Zeitschrift, 1867, 258.) The supply of coal is, of
course, exhaustible while, for instance, turf-fields replace
themselves by slow degrees. Compare _Griesbach_, über die Bildung
des Torfs, in the Göttinger Studien, 1845, vol. I. The importance of
the coal-fields of the United States, which are twenty-two times as
large as those of Great Britain, in the distant future, cannot be
over-estimated.