That political economy, as at present taught, does not explain the persistence of poverty amid advancing wealth in a manner which accords with the deep-seated perceptions of men; that the unquestionable truths which it does teach are unrelated and disjointed; that it has failed to make the progress in popular thought that truth, even when unpleasant, must make; that, on the contrary, after a century of cultivation, during which it has engrossed the attention of some of the most subtle and powerful intellects, it should be spurned by the statesman, scouted by the masses, and relegated in the opinion of many educated and thinking men to the rank of a pseudo-science in which nothing is fixed or can be fixed—must, it seems to me, be due not to any inability of the science when properly pursued, but to some false step in its premises, or overlooked factor in its estimates. And as such mistakes are generally concealed by the respect paid to authority, I propose in this inquiry to take nothing for granted, but to bring even accepted theories to the test of first principles, and should they not stand the test, freshly to interrogate facts in the endeavor to discover their law. I propose to beg no question, to shrink from no conclusion, but to follow truth wherever it may lead. Upon us is the responsibility of seeking the law, for in the very heart of our civilization to-day women faint and little children moan. But what that law may prove to be is not our affair. If the conclusions that we reach run counter to our prejudices, let us not flinch; if they challenge institutions that have long been deemed wise and natural, let us not turn back. BOOK I. WAGES AND CAPITAL. CHAPTER I.—THE CURRENT DOCTRINE—ITS INSUFFICIENCY. CHAPTER II.—THE MEANING OF THE TERMS. CHAPTER III.—WAGES NOT DRAWN FROM CAPITAL, BUT PRODUCED BY THE LABOR. CHAPTER IV.—THE MAINTENANCE OF LABORERS NOT DRAWN FROM CAPITAL. CHAPTER V.—THE REAL FUNCTIONS OF CAPITAL. He that is to follow philosophy must be a freeman in mind. —_Ptolemy_. CHAPTER I. THE CURRENT DOCTRINE OF WAGES—ITS INSUFFICIENCY. Reducing to its most compact form the problem we have set out to investigate, let us examine, step by step, the explanation which political economy, as now accepted by the best authority, gives of it. The cause which produces poverty in the midst of advancing wealth is evidently the cause which exhibits itself in the tendency, everywhere recognized, of wages to a minimum. Let us, therefore, put our inquiry into this compact form: _Why, in spite of increase in productive power, do wages tend to a minimum which will give but a bare living?_