That is the essential point of List’s thesis. But these very practical views tended to damage the well-known arguments of those economists whom List refers to collectively as “the school.” The “school” maintained that nations as well as individuals should buy in the cheapest markets and devote all their energies to producing just those commodities which yield them the greatest gain. Industry can only grow in proportion to the amount of capital saved, but a protective _régime_ hinders accumulation and so defeats its own end. To overcome these objections it is not necessary to combat them one by one, for the discussion may be carried to an entirely different field. The “school” adopts a certain ideal of commercial policy as the basis of its thesis, namely, the increase of consumable wealth, or, as List puts it, in an awkward enough fashion, “the increase of its exchangeable values.”[572] This fundamental point of view must be changed if we would avoid the consequences which naturally follow from it. List realised this, and in his attempt to accomplish the task he gave expression to new truths which make his book one of lasting theoretical value and ensure for it an important place in the history of economic doctrines. In fact, he introduces two ideas that were new to current theory, namely, the idea of nationality as contrasted with that of cosmopolitanism, and the idea of productive power as contrasted with that of exchange values. List’s whole system rests upon these two ideas. (_a_) List accuses Adam Smith and his school of cosmopolitanism. Their hypothesis rested on the belief that men were henceforth to be united in one great community from which war would be banished. On such a hypothesis humanity was merely the sum of its individuals. Individual interests alone counted, and any interference with economic liberty could never be justified. But between man and humanity must be interpolated the history of nations, and the “school” had forgotten this. Every man forms part of some nation, and his prosperity to a large extent depends upon the political power of that nation.[573] Universal _entente_ is doubtless a noble end to pursue, and we ought to hasten its accomplishment. But nations to-day are of unequal strength and have different interests, so that a definite union could only benefit them if they met on a footing of equality. The union might even only benefit one of them while the others became dependent. Viewed in this new light, political economy becomes the science which, by taking account of the actual interests and of the particular condition of each nation, shows along what path each may rise to that degree of economic culture at which union with other civilised nations, accompanied by free exchange, might be both possible and useful.[574]