Principles of Political EconomyPerry, Arthur Latham
General
Principles of Political Economy
Perry, Arthur Latham
Economics
Such is the constitution of the universe, that a really good thing is
usually cognate with and inseparable from a good many other good
things. Buying and selling, as we have now clearly seen, springs right
out of the nature of men in the circumstances in which they are
providentially placed on the earth, and ends in the satisfaction of
innumerable wants common to all men. This makes trade a thoroughly
good thing in itself; and consequently it is intimately associated
with many other good things. The scriptural instance, that we have
been examining, gives a neat illustration of this: "_and there was
peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league
together_." The mutually profitable exchange of commodities led to a
feeling of amity between the two neighboring kings; the feeling of
amity led to a treaty of Peace between the two adjacent nations; and
the "_league_" so ratified not only kept out war from their borders,
but also permitted the unhindered continuance of profitable exchanges
between them.
So it is always. Peace waits on Commerce. Good-will among the nations
is strengthened by the ties of interest and profit among their
citizens. The mercantile classes as such are always averse to war,
because war is the natural enemy of exchanges. Thus traffic leads to
peace and tends to maintain it, and peace preludes increased
prosperity, and commercial prosperity under freedom is wholly friendly
to mental and moral progress, and Christianity walks before and all
along this line of individual and national blessing. The commercial
treaty of 1860 between France and England has tended powerfully,
perhaps more powerfully than any other single cause, to keep those
formerly inter-belligerent nationalities in peace and amity ever
since.
We will now put into a little table the final results of the present
analysis of Buying and Selling. The ultimate elements seem to be
these:
1. _Two Persons._ 4. _Two Estimates._
2. _Two Desires._ 5. _Two Renderings._
3. _Two Efforts._ 6. _Two Satisfactions._
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