Political economy is the study of wealth, and particularly of those results of human activity, which spring from the necessary physical relation of human beings to their surroundings. It is this relation which makes the firm foundation on which political economy rests. The subject leads to three great branches of inquiry--viz., the things which constitute wealth, the method of their production, and the way in which they are distributed. The study of wealth must always take in this large scope in any lasting system of political economy, because the many special branches which the subject includes are all connected together. Every part is built up on the sure foundation of the relation of human needs to their surroundings. If our knowledge of this relation is unsound, the edifice will in time fall down. In seeking truth in any branch of political economy, whether it be the relations of labour and capital, land tenure, or free trade, etc., examination must be made of this foundation of knowledge. Artificial arrangements which do not recognise the primitive needs of human nature can only lead at last to misery. Reason shows us that physical needs are imperative in a material world where mind works through matter. They come first in order of growth as the primary condition of life, through which and out of which the higher moral and intellectual forces grow. They are like the first gasping inspiration of the infant, which sets in motion the astonishing mechanism of conscious human life. Trade and commerce are a necessary first outcome of a nation’s physical needs; the nature of its trade and commerce and the methods by which they are carried on are inextricably woven in with social life, and stamp the character of a nation. Trade and commerce being the direct result of human needs in relation to the material world will be governed by fixed laws respecting the production and distribution of wealth. The term ‘law,’ however, is often erroneously applied to temporary phases in the arrangements of human industry, which vary with age and country. But a fixed law in political economy can only become such when, and because, it expresses the necessary relation between human growth or nature, and the conditions which promote it. It is only the result of this necessary relation that can claim the name of Law. Political economy must, therefore, necessarily be a progressive study, because, although human desires are unlimited, human power or ability to discover law is much more limited. This power grows with intelligence, and intelligence is of slower development than the motive-spring of human life, which is desire, emotion, will.