Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 2Roscher, Wilhelm
General
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 2
Roscher, Wilhelm
Economics
[Footnote 221-2: That consumption and saving are not two
opposites which exclude each other is one of _Adam Smith's_
most beautiful discoveries. See Wealth of Nat., II, ch. 3.
But compare _Pinto_, Du Crédit et de la Circulation, 1771,
335. Before his time most writers who were convinced of the
necessity of consumption were apologists of extravagance.
Thus _v. Schröder_, F. Schatz- und Rentkammer, 23 seq. 47,
172. Louis XIV.'s saying: "A King gives alms when he makes
great outlays." According to _Montesquieu_, Esprit des Louis
VII., 4, the poor die of hunger when the rich curtail their
expenses. This view, which must have found great favor among
the imitators of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. was entertained to
some extent by the Physiocrates; for instance, _Quesnay_,
Maximes générales, 21 seq. Compare _Turgot_, Œuvres, éd,
_Dare_, 424 ff. On the other hand, _Adam Smith_, loc. cit.
says that the spendthrift is a public enemy, and the person
who saves a public benefactor. _Lauderdale_, Inquiry, 219,
reacts so forcibly against the one-sidedness which this
involves that he believes no circumstance possible "which
could so far change the nature of things as to turn
parsimony into a means of increasing wealth." In his polemic
against Pitts' sinking fund as inopportune and excessive, he
assumes that all sums saved in that way are completely
withdrawn from the national demand. See per contra
_Hufeland_ n. Grundlegung I, 32, 238. _Sismondi_, N. P. II,
ch. 6, with his distinction between _production_ and
_revenu_, is more moderate; the former is converted into the
latter only in as much as it is "realized," that is, finds a
consumer who desires it, and pays for it. Now only can the
producer rely on anything; can he restore his productive
capital, estimate his profit, and use it in consumption, and
lastly begin the whole business over again.... A stationary
country must remain stationary in everything. It cannot
increase its capital and widen its market while its
aggregate want remains unaltered. (IV, ch. 1.)]
[Footnote 221-3: Thus _John Stuart Mill_ thinks that the
American people derive from all their progress and all their
favorable circumstances only this advantage: "that the life
of the whole of one sex is devoted to dollar-hunting, and of
the other to breeding dollar-hunters." (IV, ch. 6, 2.) In
the popular edition of 1865, after the experience of the
American civil war, he materially modified this judgment.]
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