Though Leibnitz declared with respect to these treatises that nothing more solid or intelligent could be said on their subject,it is difficult absolutely to adopt that verdict.Locke's spirit of sober observation and patient analysis led him indeed to somejust conclusions;and he is entitled to the credit of having energetically resisted the debasement of the currency,which wasthen recommended by some who were held to be eminent practical authorities.But he falls into errors which show that hehad not by any means completely emancipated himself from the ideas of the mercantile system.He attaches far too muchimportance to money as such.He says expressly that riches consist in a plenty of gold and silver,that is,as he explains,inhaving more in proportion of those metals than the rest of the world or than our neighbours."In a country not furnishedwith mines,there are but two ways of growing rich,either conquest or commerce."Hence he accepts the doctrine of thebalance of trade.He shows that the rate of interest can no more be fixed by law than the rent of houses or the hire of ships,and opposes Child's demand for legislative interference with it.But he erroneously attributed the fall of the rate which hadtaken place generally in Europe to the increase of the quantity of gold and silver by the discovery of the American mines.Hesets too absolute a value on a numerous population,in this point agreeing with Petty.On wages he observes that the ratemust be such as to cover the indispensable wants of the labourer;when the price of subsistence rises,wages must rise in alike ratio,or the working population must come on the poor rates.The fall of the rent of land he regards as a sure sign of thedecline of national wealth."Taxes,however contrived,and out of whose hands soever immediately taken,do,in a countrywhere their great fund is in land,for the most part terminate upon land."In this last proposition we see a foreshadowing ofthe impôt unique of the physiocrats.Whatever may have been Locke's direct economic services,his principal importance,like that of Hobbes,lies in his general philosophic and political principles,which powerfully affected French and indeedEuropean thought,exciting a spirit of opposition to arbitrary power,and laying the foundation of the doctrine developed inthe Contrat Social .(13)
NOTES:
1.Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences morales et politiques ,lxii,435,sqq.
2.Geschichte der N.O.in Deutschland ,p.25.
3.Geschichte der N.O.in Deutschland ,p.228,sqq.
4.Roscher,Geschichte der N.O.in Deutschland ,p.227.
5.Clément,Histoire de la vie et de l'administration de Colbert (1846),p.134.
6.A more valuable work is that of Romeo Bocchi (written in 1611and published in 1621),Della guista universale misura esuo typo :vol.i,Anima della Moneta ;vol.ii,Corpo della Moneta ,of which a full account has been given by U.Gobbi in his Economia Politica negli Scrittori Italiani del Secolo xvi-xvii (1889).
7."Il ne se faict aucun profit qu'au dommage d'autruy."Essais .liv.I,chap.21.
8.A writer whose literary activity was of a similar character to Bodin's and who seems to have been much influenced byhim,was the Italian Giovanni Botero (1540-1617).His treatise Delle cause della grandezza delle citta (1588;Eng.Trans.
by Robert Peterson,1606)was introductory to his chief work Della ragion di Stato ,libri X (1589),in which he combatedthe principles of Machiavelli.
9.Montchrétien,having fomented the rebellion in Normandy in 1621,was slain with a few followers,by Claude Turgot,lordof Les Tourailles,who belonged to the elder branch of the noble house from which the great Turgot was descended.
10.On Mun's doctrines,see Smith's Wealth of Nations ,Bk.iv.chap.i.
11.Writers of less importance who followed the same direction were Sir Thomas Culpeper (A Tract against the High Rateof Usury ,1623,and Useful Remark on High Interest 1641),Sir Dudley Digges (Defence of Trade ,1615),G.Malynes(Consuetude vel Lex Mercatoria ,1622)E.Misselden (Circle of Commerce,1623),Samuel Fortrey (England's Interest andImprovement ,1663and 1673),and John Pollexien (England and India inconsistent in their Manufacturers ,1697).
12.Yet M.Eugène Daire asserts (Oeuvres de Turgot,i,322)that "Hume et Tucker sont les deux premiers écrivains qui sesoinet élevés,en Angleterre,au-dessus des theéories du système mercantile."13.Minor English writers who followed the new economic direction were Lewis Roberts,Treasure of Traffick ,1641;RiceVaughan,Discourse of Coin and Coinage ,16715;Nicholas Barbon,Discourse concerning Coining the new money higher ,1696,in which some of Locke's errors were pointed out;and the author of an anonymous book entitled Considerations onthe East India Trade ,1701.Practical questions much debated at this period were those connected with banking,on which alengthened controversy took place,S.Lamb,W.Potter,F.Cradocke,M.Lewis.M.Godfrey,R.Murray,H.Chamberlain,and W.Paterson,founder of the Bank of England (1694),producing many pamphlets on the subject;and the management ofthe poor,which was treated by Locke,Sir Matthew Hale,R.Haines,T.Firmin,and others.
