INTRODUCTION.
Of all the circumstances connected with the "Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations," there is no one more remarkable than the fact, that its celebrated author leaves us in doubt what he himself understands by that wealth, the nature and causes of which it is the object of his inquiry to investigate.
His followers have scarce been more fortunate.They have sought, by definitions, to remedy the acknowledged defect, but have been unable to agree in the terms of them.The school is thus split into many little sects at variance with each other regarding the very elements of the science.(1)It seems to me that this circumstance arises from, and very clearly marks the existence of, a great and fundamental defect in the principles of investigation on which Adam Smith and the school he founded proceed ; an uniform tendency to hold that up as an explanation of other things, which, in reality, is the very thing itself to be explained.
It is the nature of wealth in the general, and the laws regulating its increase and diminution, that can alone, as I conceive, form the proper subject of philosophical investigation.These being determined, from them may be deduced the manner in which particular societies, or particular individuals, come to possess this or that amount of wealth.But, though such is the proper philosophical view of the subject, it is not that under which it appears to common observers.
Before men begin to speculate, they are obliged to act.They are therefore first led, in regard to any system with which they have to do, to fix their attention altogether on the phenomena exhibited by it, without attempting to reach the causes of those phenomena.It is usually long after the events themselves have thus been observed and noted, that to trace their causes becomes the employment of philosophers.The mere sailor, for example, regards the winds simply as connected with the different seasons, the various regions of the globe, and the particular aspect of the heavens at the time.This makes up the sum of his knowledge concerning them, which, notwithstanding, may be very extensive and of great practical utility.It is not his object to inquire into the general causes producing all these phenomena, nor into the laws regulating the general system of things, of which they make a part, and so of ascertaining the true nature of the different winds, the real manner of their existence, and the measure of their force and duration.
He believes that while that system endures as it is, his knowledge will serve to direct his practice, and this is all about which he concerns himself.
An extensive practical knowledge of this sort here long preceded a philosophical knowledge of the subject.It has been the business of the latter, as it has at last had place, to ascertain the nature of wind itself, and the causes producing all different winds, and acting on them.For this purpose the philosopher has turned himself to the investigation of whatever, in the general system of things, is connected with that concerning which he inquires; to the constitution and properties of the atmosphere; the effects of changes of temperature on aeriform fluids; the motions induced by these, by the rotatory movement of the globe, and by other circumstances.From them he deduces the true theory of wind, and shows that it is in accordance with the observations and rules of him, who has been accustomed to view the subject in its practical bearings alone, and tends to elucidate and simplify them.
In a somewhat similar manner wealth was felt and noted in its effects long before, as a circumstance largely affecting societies, it was proposed philosophically to investigate its nature and causes.To mark those effects, riches and a series of other terms of the sort, were invented.Like all every-day words and phrases they apply to particular facts and occurrences, and have no necessary reference to the causes of those facts and occurrences.