Principles of Social Science - Henry Charles Carey - Google Books

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by

H. C. CAREY,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of

Pennsylvania.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION.

21. Every act of consumption also an act of production - the one being,

therefore, the measure of the other.

22. Production consists in the direction of the forces of nature to the service

of man. For obtaining command of nature, man must qualify himself by

first obtaining command over his own latent powers. Identity of the physi-

cal and social laws

23. Man the ultimate object of all production. Demand, the cause of supply.

The more numerous the men, and the greater the power of combination, the

greater the demand..........

PAGE

4. Production grows as the power of the trader and transporter declines.

That decline a consequence of diversification in the demand for human

25. Labor-power the most perishable of all commodities. Perishes, unless the

demand follows instantly upon its production

26. Waste of labor one of the conditions of early society and scattered popula-

tion. Errors of Mr. Malthus and his disciples

27. Wages and productive power of England, at various periods .......

28. Wages and production of the people of Scotland, of the past and present, 37

9. The more continuous and steady the societary motion, the more instant

the demand for, and the economy of, labor. That continuity the test of real

civilization. Diversity of employments indispensable to its existence. Waste

of power in, and consequent poverty of, all purely agricultural countries.....

10. Continuity in the demand for labor, with growing commerce, to be found

in those countries in which raw materials and finished commodities most ap-

proximate in prices

11. The more that matter tends to take upon itself its highest form, the more

continuous and steady must be the societary motion, and the greater the eco-

12. Errors of modern economists in regard to productive and unproductive

labor. All labor productive which tends to enable man more thoroughly to

direct the forces of nature to his service-wealth consisting in the existence

of that power of direction. The greater the power of man over nature, the

more rapid the progress of accumulation

OF ACCUMULATION.

1. Power of accumulation, in both the natural and social world, in the ratio

of the circulation

2. Capital, the instrument by means of which man is enabled to direct the

natural forces to his service. Power of association grows, as he obtains in-

creased command over the instrument. Declines, as it obtains command

23. Movable capital declines in its proportions, as compared with that which

is fixed that decline being an evidence of advancing civilization. Com-

merce grows with this change of proportions

24. Centralization increases the proportion of movable capital — that change

being an evidence of declining civilization. Historic illustrations. Increase

of movable capital in all the present free-trade countries

25. Fixed capital increases in its proportions, as the prices of raw materials

and finished commodities more and more approximate declining as they

recede from each other

26. Errors of modern economists in regarding saving as the cause of the

growth of capital

27. That growth due to the economy of human effort. That economy a conse-

quence of diversification of employments, and consequent combination of

action. Waste of human power in all the countries which follow in the train

of Britain. Resistance to the British system, and its effects

28. Errors of Adam Smith in regard to the origin of capital

29. Inconsistencies of British economists

? 10. Capital grows with the growth of local centres, with constant increase in

the power of production, and in the rapidity of circulation. Summary of the

definitions thus far given in the present work......................................................

OF CIRCULATION.

1. Division of land a consequence of increase in the power of combination

among men ...........................................................................

2. Little circulation of either land or man, in the earlier stages of society.

Large proportion then borne by movable to fixed capital

..................

23. Circulation increases in its rapidity, in the direct ratio of the tendency of

capital to become fixed and immovable. Historic illustrations.........

24. The more rapid the circulation, the greater the tendency towards the cre-

ation of local centres, towards the development of individuality, and towards

having society assume its natural form ......................

25. Circulation diminishes in its rapidity as land becomes consolidated, and

movable capital increases in its proportions. Phenomena presented for exa-

mination by Greece, Italy, and Spain..

26. Circulation becomes more rapid as employments become diversified, and

land becomes divided.............

27. The more perfect the security of property, the greater is the tendency

towards having it become fixed, land then becoming divided. Social pheno-

mena exhibited by France

28. Tendency of British policy to promote increase in the proportions of mova-

ble capital, at the expense of that which is fixed. Consequent sluggishness

of circulation, in all the countries subject to it..........

29. Circulation becomes more rapid in the ratio of the tendency towards ap-

proximation in the prices of rude products and finished commodities. That

tendency grows in all the countries that follow in the lead of Colbert and of

France, while declining in all of those that follow in the train of the Ricardo-

Malthusian school..........

10. Tendency of the British colonial system to produce stoppage of the cir-

culation. Its effects, as exhibited in the past and present of the United

11. Increase in the proportion borne, in the United States, by movable capi-

tal, and consequent sluggishness of circulation. Their growing dependence

on the movements of the trader

12. The more rapid the circulation, the greater the force exerted. Force in-

creases in all the countries that follow in the train of Colbert, while declining

in those which adopt the doctrines of the British school

13. Difference between Adam Smith and the modern British economists.

The one regarded commerce as the handmaid of agriculture. The other looks

to trade as master of the societary movement

14. The more rapid the circulation, the more equitable the distribution.

Identity of the physical and social laws

OF DISTRIBUTION.

1. Of wages, profits, and interest. Large proportion assigned to capital, in

the early stages of society

22. Capitalist's proportion diminishes, as the cost of reproduction declines.... 110

3. General law of distribution. Laborer's share increases in both its propor-

tion and amount. That of the capitalist increases in amount, while dimin-

ishing in its proportion. Tendency of this law to produce equality in the

condition of mankind. Its harmony and beauty.....

24. Universal application of the law that is here propounded..................... 114

5. Labor's proportion increases, as the prices of rude products and those of

finished commodities tend to approximate to each other........................... 116

6. That tendency found in all the countries in which employments become

more diversified. The reverse of this found in all the countries that adopt

the doctrines of the British school

............................

27. Capital accumulates most rapidly where the rate of profit is lowest. That

rate declines as human effort is more and more economised

28. Tendency of the law of distribution towards the production of harmony

and peace among the communities of the world.

29. British economists hold that capital increases most rapidly when and

where profits are highest

................

10. How the rate of interest is affected by increase in the quantity of money.

Errors of Mr. Hume

11. Erroneous views of Adam Smith in regard to the natural law regulating

the charge for the use of money............................................................................................

12. Absence of consistency in the doctrines of the Ricardo-Malthusian school, 128

13. The value of man rises as the rate of profit, interest, and rent declines, 129

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUed.

21. Of the rent of land. Large proportion of the landlord in the days of early

cultivation. That proportion diminishes as labor becomes more productive,

but the amount of rent increases. The laborer's share increases in its pro-

portion, with large increase in its amount-both thus profiting by increase

in the power to command the services of nature....

22. Mr. Ricardo's theory of rent. Teaches the reverse of this, the landlord's

proportion increasing as agricultural labor becomes less productive................................. 134

3. That theory based upon the false assumption that cultivation commences

on the rich soils, and that labor becomes less productive as men increase in

number and in power. The reverse of this proved by all the facts of history, 136

24. Error of Mr. Ricardo in regard to the origin of rent. No such rent as that

indicated by him has ever been, or can be, paid.

5. The ultimate slavery of man the natural tendency of the Ricardo-Malthu-

sian theory-rent rising as labor becomes less productive. That theory and

the facts compared

26. Simplicity, and universal truth, of natural laws. Complexity and error

of Mr. Ricardo's theory

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