Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy
John Stuart Mill · en
But, further, the recognised boundaries which separate the field of
Political Economy from that of physical science, by no means correspond
with the distinction between the truths which concern all kinds of
wealth and those which relate only to some kinds. The three laws of
motion, and the law of gravitation, are common, as far as human
observation has yet extended, to all matter; and these, therefore, as
being among the laws of the production of all wealth, should form part
of Political Economy. There are hardly any of the processes of industry
which do not partly depend upon the properties of the lever; but it
would be a strange classification which included those properties among
the truths of Political Economy. Again, the latter science has many
inquiries altogether as special, and relating as exclusively to
particular sorts of material objects, as any of the branches of physical
science. The investigation of some of the circumstances which regulate
the price of corn, has as little to do with the laws common to the
production of all wealth, as any part of the knowledge of the
agriculturist. The inquiry into the rent of mines or fisheries, or into
the value of the precious metals, elicits truths which have immediate
reference to the production solely of a peculiar kind of wealth; yet
these are admitted to be correctly placed in the science of Political
Economy.
The real distinction between Political Economy and physical science must
be sought in something deeper than the nature of the subject-matter;
which, indeed, is for the most part common to both. Political Economy,
and the scientific grounds of all the useful arts, have in truth one and
the same subject-matter; namely, the objects which conduce to man's
convenience and enjoyment: but they are, nevertheless, perfectly
distinct branches of knowledge.