Sketch of the Life and Writings of David Ricardo, Esq., M.p.

Mr Ricardo was placed, in early life, under circumstances apparently the least favourable for the formation of those habits of patient and comprehensive investigation, which afterwards raised him to a high rank among political philosophers.

He was the third of a numerous family, and was born on the 19th of April 1772. His father, a native of Holland, and of the Jewish persuasion, settled in this country early in life. He is said to have been a man of good talents, and of the strictest integrity; and, having become a member of the Stock Exchange, he acquired a respectable fortune, and possessed considerable influence in his circle. David, the subject of the present memoir, was destined for the same line of business as his father; and received, partly in England, and partly at a school in Holland, where he resided two years, such an education as is usually given to young men intended for the mercantile profession. Classical learning formed no part of his early instruction; and it has been questioned, with how much justice we shall not undertake to decide, whether its acquisition would have done him service; and whether it might not probably have made him seek for relaxation in the study of elegant literature, rather than in the severer exercises of the understanding, and prompted him to adopt opinions sanctioned by authority, without inquiring very anxiously into the grounds on which they rested.

Mr Ricardo began to be confidentially employed by his father in the business of the Stock Exchange when he was only fourteen years of age. Neither then, however, nor at any subsequent period, was he wholly engrossed by the details of his profession. From his earliest years he evinced a taste for abstract reasoning; and manifested that determination to probe every subject of interest to the bottom, and to form his opinion upon it according to the conviction of his mind, which was a distinguishing feature of his character.

Mr Ricardo, senior, had been accustomed to subscribe, without investigation, to the opinions of his ancestors on all questions connected with religion and politics, and he was desirous that his children should do the same. But this system of passive obedience, and of blind submission to the dictates of authority, was quite repugnant to the principles of young Ricardo, who, though he did not fail to testify the sincerest affection and respect for his father, found reason to differ from him on many important points, and even to secede from the Hebrew faith.

Not long after this event, and shortly after he had attained the age of majority, Mr Ricardo formed a matrimonial union, productive of unalloyed domestic happiness. Having been separated from his father, he was now thrown on his own resources, and commenced business for himself. At this important epoch of his history, the oldest and most respectable members of the Stock Exchange gave a striking proof of the esteem entertained by them for his talents and character, by voluntarily coming forward to support him in his undertakings. His success exceeded the most sanguine expectations of his friends; and in a few years he realised an ample fortune.

“The talent for obtaining wealth,” says one of Mr Ricardo’s near relations, from whose account of his life we have borrowed these particulars, “is not held in much estimation; but perhaps in nothing did Mr R. more evince his extraordinary powers than he did in his business. His complete knowledge of all its intricacies,—his surprising quickness at figures and calculation,—his capability of getting through, without any apparent exertion, the immense transactions in which he was concerned,—his coolness and judgment, combined certainly with (for him) a fortunate tissue of public events,—enabled him to leave all his contemporaries at the Stock Exchange far behind, and to raise himself infinitely higher, not only in fortune, but in general character and estimation, than any man had ever done before in that house. Such was the impression which these qualities had made on his competitors, that several of the most discerning among them, long before he had emerged into public notoriety, prognosticated in their admiration that he would live to fill some of the highest stations in the state.”

According as his solicitude about his success in life declined, Ricardo devoted a greater portion of his time to scientific and literary pursuits. When about twenty-five years of age, he began the study of some branches of mathematical science, and made considerable progress in chemistry and mineralogy. He fitted up a laboratory, formed a collection of minerals, and was one of the original members of the Geological Society. But he never entered warmly into the study of these sciences. They were not adapted to the peculiar cast of his mind; and he abandoned them entirely, as soon as his attention was directed to the more congenial study of Political Economy.

He is stated to have become acquainted, for the first time, with the “Wealth of Nations” in 1799, while on a visit at Bath. He was highly gratified by its perusal; and it is most probable that the inquiries about which it is conversant continued henceforth to engage a considerable share of his attention, though it was not till a later period that his spare time was almost exclusively occupied with their study.

Ricardo made his first appearance as an author in 1809. The rise in the market price of bullion, and the fall of the exchange, which had taken place in the course of that year, excited a good deal of attention. Ricardo applied himself to the consideration of the subject; and the studies in which he had latterly been engaged, combined with the experience he had derived from his moneyed transactions, not only enabled him to perceive the true causes of the phenomena in question, but to trace and exhibit their practical bearing and real effect. He began this investigation without intending to lay the result of his researches before the public. But having shown his manuscript to the late Mr Perry, the proprietor and editor of the “Morning Chronicle,” the latter prevailed upon him, though not without considerable difficulty, to consent to its publication, in the shape of letters, in that journal. The first of these appeared on the 6th of September 1809. They made a considerable impression, and elicited various answers. This success, and the increasing interest of the subject, induced him to commit his opinions upon it to the judgment of the public, in a more enlarged and systematic form, in the tract entitled, “The High Price of Bullion a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes,” which led the way in the far-famed bullion controversy. It issued from the press several months previously to the appointment of the Bullion Committee, and is believed to have had no inconsiderable effect in forwarding that important measure. In this tract Mr Ricardo showed that redundancy and deficiency of currency are only relative terms; and that, so long as the currency of any particular country consists exclusively of gold and silver coins, or of paper immediately convertible into such coins, its value can neither rise above nor fall below the value of the metallic currencies of other countries, by a greater sum than will suffice to defray the expense of importing foreign coin or bullion, if the currency be deficient; or of exporting a portion of the existing supply, if it be redundant. But when a country issues inconvertible paper notes (as was then the case in England), they cannot be exported to other countries in the event of their becoming redundant at home; and whenever, under such circumstances, the exchange with foreign states is depressed below, or the price of bullion rises above, its mint price, more than the cost of sending coin or bullion abroad, it shows conclusively that too much paper has been issued, and that its value is depreciated from excess. The principles which pervade the “Report of the Bullion Committee” are substantially the same with those established by Ricardo in this pamphlet. But the more comprehensive and popular manner in which they are illustrated in the Report, and the circumstance of their being recommended by a committee comprising some of the ablest men in the country, gave them a weight and authority which they could not otherwise have obtained. And though the prejudices and ignorance of some, and the interested, and therefore determined, opposition of others, prevented for a while the adoption of the measures proposed by Ricardo and the committee for restoring the currency to a sound and healthy state, they were afterwards carried into full effect; and afford one of the most memorable examples in our history of the triumph of principle over selfishness, sophistry, and error.

The fourth edition of this tract is the most valuable. An Appendix added to it has some observations on certain disputed questions in the theory of exchange; and it also contains the first germ of the original idea of making bank notes exchangeable for bars of gold bullion.

Among those who entered the lists in opposition to the principles laid down, and the practical measures suggested in this tract, and in the Report of the Bullion Committee, a prominent place is due to Mr Bosanquet. This gentleman had great experience as a merchant; and as he professed that the statements and conclusions embodied in his “Practical Observations,” which are completely at variance with those in the Report, were the result of a careful examination of the theoretical opinions of the Committee by the test of fact and experiment, they were well fitted to make, and did make, a very considerable impression. The triumph of Mr Bosanquet was, however, of very short duration. Mr Ricardo did not hesitate to attack this formidable adversary in his stronghold. His tract, entitled “Reply to Mr Bosanquet’s Practical Observations on the Report of the Bullion Committee,” was published in 1811, and is one of the best essays that has appeared on any disputed question of Political Economy. In this pamphlet, Ricardo met Bosanquet on his own ground, and overthrew him with his own weapons. He examined the proofs which the latter had brought forward, of the pretended discrepancy between the facts stated in his own tract, which he said were consistent with experience, and the theory laid down in the Bullion Report; and showed that Mr Bosanquet had either mistaken the cases by which he proposed to test the theory, or that the discrepancy was apparent only, and was entirely a consequence of his inability to apply the theory, and not of anything erroneous or deficient in it. The victory of Ricardo was perfect and complete; and the elaborate errors and misstatements of Bosanquet served only, in the words of Dr Coppleston, “to illustrate the abilities of the writer who stepped forward to vindicate the truth.”

This tract affords a striking example of the ascendancy which those who possess a knowledge both of principle and practice, have over those who are familiar only with the latter. And though the interest of the question which led to its publication has subsided, it will always be read with delight by such as are not insensible of the high gratification which all ingenuous minds must feel in observing the ease with which a superior intellect clears away the irrelevant matter with which a question has been designedly embarrassed, reduces false facts to their just value, and traces and exhibits the constant operation of the same general principle through all the mazy intricacies of practical detail.

The merit of these pamphlets was duly appreciated; and Mr Ricardo’s society was, in consequence, courted by men of the first eminence, who were not less pleased with his modesty and unassuming manners, than with the vigour of his understanding. He formed, about this time, an intimacy with Mr Malthus, and Mr Mill, the historian of British India, which ended only with his death. To the latter he was particularly attached, and readily acknowledged how much he owed to his friendship.

Mr Ricardo next appeared as an author in 1815, during the discussions on the bill, afterwards passed into a law, for raising the limit at which foreign corn might be imported for consumption, to 80s. Malthus, and a “Fellow of University College, Oxford” (afterwards Sir Edward West), had, by a curious coincidence, in tracts published almost consentaneously, elucidated the true theory of rent, which, though fully explained by Dr Anderson as early as 1777, appears to have been entirely forgotten. But neither of these gentlemen perceived the bearing of the theory on the question in regard to the restriction of the importation of foreign corn. This was reserved for Ricardo, who, in his “Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock,” showed the effect of an increase in the price of raw produce on wages and profits; and founded a cogent argument in favour of the freedom of the corn trade, on the very grounds on which Malthus had endeavoured to show the propriety of subjecting it to fresh restrictions.

In 1816, Mr Ricardo published his “Proposals for an Economical and Secure Currency, with Observations on the Profits of the Bank of England.” In this pamphlet he examined the circumstances which determine the value of money, when every individual has the power to supply it, and when that power is restricted or placed under a monopoly; and he showed that, in the former case, its value will depend, like that of all other freely supplied articles, on its cost; while, in the latter, it will be unaffected by that circumstance, and will depend on the extent to which it may be issued compared with the demand. This is a principle of great importance; for it shows that intrinsic worth is not necessary to a currency, and that, provided the supply of paper notes, declared to be legal tender, be sufficiently limited, their value may be maintained on a par with the value of gold, or raised to any higher level. If, therefore, it were practicable to devise a plan for preserving the value of paper on a level with that of gold, without making it convertible into coin at the pleasure of the holder, the heavy expense of a metallic currency would be saved. To effect this desirable object, Ricardo proposed that, instead of being made exchangeable for gold coins, bank notes should be made exchangeable for bars of gold bullion of the standard weight and purity. This plan, than which nothing can be more simple, was obviously fitted to check the over-issue of paper quite as effectually as it is checked by making it convertible into coin; while, as bars could not be used as currency, it prevented any gold from getting into circulation, and, consequently, saved the expense of coinage, and the wear and tear and loss of coins. It was recommended by the Committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons appointed, in 1819, to consider the expediency of the Bank of England resuming cash payments; and was adopted in the bill for their resumption introduced by Sir Robert Peel. In practice it was found completely to answer the object of checking over-issue. Inasmuch, however, as it required that the place of sovereigns should be filled with one pound notes, the forgery of the latter began to be extensively carried on. And it was wisely judged better to incur the expense of recurring to and keeping up a mixed currency, than to continue a plan which, though productive of a large saving, held out an all but irresistible temptation to crime.

In 1817, Mr Ricardo published his great work on the “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.” This was a step which he did not take without much hesitation. He was not, and did not affect to be, insensible of the value of literary and philosophical reputation; but his modesty always led him to undervalue his own powers; and having acquired a high degree of celebrity as a writer on currency, he was unwilling to risk what he already possessed, by attempting to gain more. Ultimately, however, he was prevailed upon, by the entreaties of his friends, to allow his work to be sent to press. Its appearance forms a memorable æra in the history of political science. Exclusive of many valuable subsidiary inquiries, he has pointed out, in this work, the source and limiting principle of exchangeable value, and has traced the laws which determine the distribution of wealth among the various ranks and orders of society. The powers of mind displayed in these investigations, the dexterity with which the most abstruse questions are unravelled, the sagacity displayed in tracing the operation of general principles, in disentangling them from such as are of a secondary and accidental nature, and in perceiving and estimating their remote consequences, have never been surpassed; and will secure the name of Ricardo a permanent place among those who have done most to unfold the mechanism of society, and to discover the circumstances on which the well-being of its various orders must always mainly depend.

The principle, that the exchangeable value of commodities, or their worth as compared with each other, depends on the quantities of labour necessarily required to produce them and bring them to market, is fully established in this work. Adam Smith had shown that this principle determines the value of commodities in the earlier stages of society, before land is appropriated and capital accumulated; but he supposed that, after land has become property and rent begins to be paid, and after capital has been amassed and workmen are hired by capitalists, the value of commodities fluctuates not only according to variations in the labour required to produce and bring them to market, but also according to variations of rents and wages. Ricardo, however, has shown that this theory is erroneous, and that the value of commodities is determined, in all states of society, by the same principle, or by the quantities of labour required for their production. He has shown that variations of profits or wages, by affecting different commodities to the same, or nearly the same extent, would either have no influence over their exchangeable value, or, if they had any, it would depend upon the degree in which they occasionally affect some products more than others. And Dr Anderson and others having already shown that rent is not an element of cost or value, it follows that the cost or value of all freely produced commodities, the supply of which may be indefinitely increased (abstracting from temporary variations of supply and demand), depends wholly on the quantities of labour required for their production, and not upon the rate at which that labour may be paid; so that, supposing the labour required to produce any number of commodities to remain constant, their cost and value will also remain constant, whether wages fall from 3s. to 1s., or rise from 3s. to 5s. or 7s. a-day. This is the fundamental theorem of the science of value, and the clue which unravels the intricate labyrinth of the laws which regulate the distribution of wealth. Its discovery has shed a flood of light on what was previously shrouded in all but impenetrable mystery; and the knotty and formerly insoluble questions regarding the action of wages and profits on each other and on prices, have since ceased to present any insuperable difficulties. What the researches of Locke and Smith did for the production of wealth, those of Ricardo have done for its value and distribution.

The establishment of general principles being Ricardo’s great object, he has paid comparatively little attention to their practical application, and sometimes, indeed, he has in great measure overlooked the circumstances by which they are occasionally countervailed. In illustration of this we may mention, that society being laid under the necessity of constantly resorting to inferior soils to obtain additional supplies of food, he lays it down that, in the progress of society, raw produce and wages have a constant tendency to rise and profits to fall. And this, no doubt, is in the abstract true. But it must at the same time be observed, that if on the one hand society be obliged constantly to resort to inferior soils, agriculture is on the other hand susceptible of indefinite improvement; and this improvement necessarily in so far countervails the decreasing fertility of the soil; and may, and in fact frequently does, more than countervail it. Ricardo has also very generally overlooked the influence of increased prices in diminishing consumption and stimulating industry, so that his conclusions, though true according to his assumptions, do not always harmonise with what really takes place. But his is not a practical work; and it did not enter into his plan to exhibit the circumstances which give rise to the discrepancies in question. The “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” is not even a systematic treatise, but is principally an inquiry respecting certain fundamental principles, most of which had previously been undiscovered. And though it be often exceedingly difficult, or it may be all but impossible, to estimate the extent to which these principles may in certain cases be modified by other principles and combinations of circumstances, it is obviously of the greatest importance to have ascertained their existence. They are so many land-marks to which to refer, and can never be lost sight of even in matters most essentially practical.

The portion of his work, in which Ricardo traces the incidence of taxes on rent, profit, wages, and raw produce, is more practical than the others; and should be carefully studied by those who wish to make themselves well acquainted with this department of political science.

Mr Ricardo had now become an extensive landed proprietor, and had wholly retired from business, with a fortune acquired with the universal respect and esteem of his competitors. But he did not retire from the bustle of active life, to the mere enjoyment of his acres. Non fuit consilium socordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere. He had other objects in view; and while his leisure hours, when in the country, were chiefly devoted to inquiries connected with that science, of which he was now confessedly at the head, he determined to extend the sphere of his usefulness, by entering the House of Commons. In 1819 he took his seat as member for Portarlington. His diffidence in his own powers had, however, nearly deprived the public of the services which he rendered in this situation. In a letter to one of his friends, dated the 7th of April 1819, he says—“You will have seen that I have taken my seat in the House of Commons. I fear that I shall be of little use there. I have twice attempted to speak; but I proceeded in the most embarrassed manner; and I have no hope of conquering the alarm with which I am assailed the moment I hear the sound of my own voice.” And in a letter to the same gentleman, dated the 22d of June 1819, he says,—“I thank you for your endeavours to inspire me with confidence on the occasion of my addressing the House. Their indulgent reception of me has, in some degree, made the task of speaking more easy to me; but there are yet so many formidable obstacles to my success, and some, I fear, of a nature nearly insurmountable, that I apprehend it will be wisdom and sound discretion in me to content myself with giving silent votes.” Fortunately he did not adopt this resolution. The difficulties with which he had at first to struggle, and his diffidence in himself, gradually subsided; while the mildness of his manners, the mastery which he possessed over the subjects on which he spoke, and the purity of his intentions, speedily secured him a very extensive influence both in the House and the country, and gave great weight to his opinions.

Mr Ricardo was not one of those who make speeches to suit the ephemeral circumstances and politics of the day; he spoke only from principle, and with a fixed resolution never to diverge in any degree from the path which it pointed out; he neither concealed nor modified an opinion for the purpose of conciliating the favour, or of disarming the prejudices or hostility, of any man or set of men; nor did he ever make a speech or give a vote which he was not well convinced was founded on just principles, and calculated to promote the lasting interests of the public. Trained to habits of profound thinking, independent in his fortune, and inflexible in his principles, Ricardo had little in common with mere party politicians. The public good was the grand object of his parliamentary exertions; and he laboured to promote it, not by engaging in party combinations, but by supporting the rights and liberties of all classes, and by unfolding the true sources of national wealth and general prosperity.

The change that has taken place in public opinion respecting the financial and commercial policy of the country, since the period when Ricardo obtained a seat in the House of Commons, is as complete as it is gratifying. Not only are the most enlarged principles advocated by all the leading members of both Houses; not only are they ready to admit that it is sound policy to admit free competition in every branch of industry, and to deal with all the world on a fair and liberal footing; but they have embodied these doctrines in the law of the land, and given them the sanction of parliamentary authority. Sir Robert Peel, at a vast personal sacrifice, and despite obstacles which none else could have overcome, carried out and established, in their fullest extent, the principles of commercial freedom developed by Smith and his followers. And that great statesman willingly admitted that the writings and speeches of Ricardo had contributed in no ordinary degree to pave the way for this desirable consummation. As he was known to be a master of economical science, his opinion, from the moment he entered the House of Commons, was referred to on all important occasions. And he acquired additional influence and consideration, according as experience served to render the House and the country better acquainted with his talents, and his singleness of purpose.

In 1820, Ricardo contributed an article on the “Funding System,” to the Supplement to the “Encyclopædia Britannica.” This tract, though confused in its arrangement, and in many respects defective, embraces some valuable discussions. He was a decided friend to the plan for raising the supplies for a war within the year, by an equivalent increase of taxation. And he also thought (in which opinion few probably will be disposed to concur) that it would be not only expedient but practicable to pay off the public debt by an assessment on capital.

In 1822, Ricardo published, during the parliamentary discussions on the subject of the corn laws, his tract on “Protection to Agriculture.” This is the best of all his pamphlets, and is, indeed, a chef-d’œuvre. The questions respecting remunerating price, the influence of a low and high value of corn over wages and profits, the influence of taxation over agriculture and manufactures, and many other topics of equal difficulty and interest, are all discussed in the short compass of eighty or ninety pages, with a precision and clearness that leaves nothing to be desired. Had he never written anything else, this pamphlet would have placed Ricardo in the first rank of political economists.

In this tract, Mr Ricardo explained his views in regard to the proposal, which he supported, of opening the ports to the free importation of corn under a fixed duty, accompanied with a nearly corresponding drawback. These he held to be necessary to countervail the peculiar burdens falling on the land, of the existence and pressure of which he had no doubt whatever. Conformably to this principle, he proposed that a duty of 20s. a-quarter should be laid on wheat (and proportionally on other grain), to be diminished by 1s. a-year till it was reduced to 10s., when it should become permanent; and that the accompanying drawback should be 7s. a-quarter. He adds, “10s. is, I am sure, rather too high as a countervailing duty for the peculiar taxes which are imposed on the corn-grower, over and above those which are imposed on the other classes of producers in the country; but I would rather err on the side of a liberal allowance than of a scanty one; and it is for this reason that I do not propose to allow a drawback quite equal to the duty.”

In farther illustration of this statement, we may mention, that in a letter, which the author of this work had the honour to receive from Mr Ricardo, about a year previously to the publication of the tract now referred to, he expressed himself as follows, viz.:—“Your observations on the Report of the Agricultural Committee (of 1821) are excellent. I fought hard against the principle of the first passage which you quote, but without success. Mr Huskisson did not himself quite agree with its correctness. But the difference between him and me is this: he would uphold agriculture permanently up to its present height; I would reduce it gradually to the level at which it would have been if the trade had been free; for I should call the trade free, if wheat were subject to a permanent duty of 8s. a-quarter, to countervail the peculiar taxes to which land is subject.”

There cannot, therefore, be any doubt in regard to Mr Ricardo’s opinion respecting the proper course to be followed in dealing with the late corn laws. Had he lived to take part in the debates in 1846, there is every probability that he would have supported the measures which were then taken for their abolition. But he would not have done this from a conviction that they were really just and fair to all classes, but because, in addition to their being highly expedient in a general point of view, they had become imperatively necessary in the peculiar circumstances under which the failure of the potato crop had placed the country.

Though not robust, Mr Ricardo’s constitution was apparently good, and his health such as to promise a long life of usefulness. He had, indeed, been subject for several years to an affection in one of his ears; but as it had not given him any serious inconvenience, he paid it but little attention. When he retired to his seat in Gloucestershire (Gatcomb Park), subsequently to the close of the session of 1823, he was in excellent health and spirits; and, besides completing a tract containing a plan for the establishment of a National Bank, he engaged, with his usual ardour, in elaborate inquiries regarding some of the more abstruse economical doctrines. But he was not destined to bring these inquiries to a close! Early in September he was suddenly seized with a violent pain in the diseased ear. The symptoms were not, however, considered unfavourable; and the breaking of an imposthume that had been formed within the ear contributed greatly to his relief. But the amendment was only transitory. Within two days, inflammation recommenced; and, after a period of the greatest agony, pressure on the brain ensued, which produced a stupor, that continued until death terminated his sufferings, on the 11th September, in his fifty-second year.

In private life, Ricardo was most amiable. He was an indulgent father and husband, and an affectionate and zealous friend. No man could be more thoroughly free from every species of artifice and pretension, more sincere, plain, and unassuming. He was particularly fond of assembling intelligent men around him, and of conversing in the most unrestrained manner on all topics of interest, but more especially on those connected with his favourite science. On these, as on all occasions, he readily gave way to others, and never discovered the least impatience to speak; but when he did speak, the solidity of his judgment, his candour, and his extraordinary talent for resolving a question into its elements, and for setting the most difficult and complicated subjects in the clearest light, arrested the attention of every one, and delighted all who heard him. He never entered into an argument, whether in public or private, for the sake of displaying ingenuity, baffling an opponent, or gaining a victory. The discovery of truth was his exclusive object. He was ever open to conviction. And if he were satisfied he had either advanced or supported an erroneous opinion, he was the first to acknowledge his error, and to caution others against it.

Few men have possessed in a higher degree than Mr Ricardo, the talent of speaking and conversing with clearness and facility on the abstrusest topics. In this respect, his speeches were greatly superior to his publications. The latter cannot be readily understood and followed without considerable attention; but nothing could exceed the skill and felicity with which he illustrated and explained the most difficult questions of Political Economy, both in private conversation and in his speeches. Without being forcible, his style of speaking was easy, fluent, and agreeable. It was impossible to take him off his guard. To those who were not familiar with his speculations, some of his positions were apt to appear paradoxical; but the paradox was only in appearance. He rarely advanced an opinion on which he had not deeply reflected, and without examining it in every point of view. And the readiness with which he overthrew the most specious objections that the ablest men in the House could make to his doctrines, is the best proof of their correctness, and of the superiority of his understanding. That there were greater orators, and men of more varied and general acquirements, in Parliament than Ricardo, we readily allow; but we are bold to say, that in point of deep, clear, and comprehensive intellect, he had no superiors, and very few, if any, equals, either in Parliament or in the country.

Not less generous than intelligent, he was never slow to come forward to the relief of the poor and the distressed; and while he contributed to almost every charitable institution in the metropolis, he supported, at his own expense, an alms-house for the poor, and two schools for the instruction of the young, in the vicinity of his seat in the country.

Besides the publications previously enumerated, he left one or two manuscripts. Among others a “Plan for the Establishment of a National Bank” was found in a finished state, and was soon after published.

He also left “Notes” on Mr Malthus’s Principles of Political Economy; containing a vindication of his own doctrines from the objections of Malthus, and showing the mistakes into which he conceives the latter had fallen. But we doubt whether they have sufficient interest to warrant their publication. The truth is, that Mr Malthus never had any clear perception of Mr Ricardo’s peculiar doctrines, nor was he very successful in elucidating his own. Mr Ricardo refers as follows, in one of his letters, to Malthus’ tract on the “Measure of Value,” published in 1823:—“Have you seen Malthus’ book on the ‘Measure of Value’? His arguments appear to me fallacious from beginning to end. He would have done much better to rest his defence of the standard he has chosen upon the old arguments in its favour, which I think unsatisfactory. But those which he now uses are delusive, and scarcely to be understood.”

Though not properly belonging to the Whig party, Ricardo voted almost uniformly with the Opposition. He was impressed with the conviction that many advantages would result from giving the people a greater influence over the choice of their representatives in the House of Commons than they then possessed; and he was so far a friend to the system of the radical reformers, as to give his cordial support to the plan of voting by ballot; which he considered as the best means for securing the mass of the electors against improper solicitations, and for enabling them to vote in favour of the candidates whom they really approved. He did not, however, agree with the radical reformers in their plan of universal suffrage. He thought the elective franchise should be given to all who possessed a certain amount of property; but he was of opinion, that while it would be a very hazardous experiment, no practical good would result from giving the franchise indiscriminately to all. His opinions on these subjects are fully stated in the “Essay on Parliamentary Reform,” and in the “Speech on the Ballot,” in the collected edition of his works.

Of the value of the services which he rendered to Political Economy, there can be, among intelligent men, only one opinion. His works have made a large addition to the mass of useful and universally interesting truths, and afford some of the finest examples to be met with of discriminating analysis, and of profound and refined discussion. The brevity with which he has stated some of his most important propositions; their intimate dependence on each other; the fewness of his illustrations; and the mathematical cast he has given to his reasoning, render it sometimes a little difficult for readers, unaccustomed to such investigations, readily to follow him. But we can venture to affirm, that those who will give to his works the attention of which they are so worthy, will find them to be as logical and conclusive as they are profound and important. It was the opinion of Quintilian, that the students of eloquence who were highly delighted with Cicero, had made no inconsiderable progress in their art; and the same may, without hesitation, be said of the students of Political Economy who find pleasure in the works of Ricardo: Ille se profecisse sciat, cui Ricardo valde placebit.

When the circumstances under which he spent the greater part of his life are brought under view; and when it is also recollected that he died at the early age of fifty-one, it may be truly said that very few have achieved so much. His industry was as remarkable as his sagacity and his candour.

“The History of Mr Ricardo,” to use the words of Mr Mill, “holds out a bright and inspiring example. Mr Ricardo had everything to do for himself; and he did everything. Let not the generous youth, whose aspirations are higher than his circumstances, despair of attaining either the highest intellectual excellence, or the highest influence on the welfare of his species, when he recollects in what circumstances Mr Ricardo opened, and in what he closed, his memorable life. He had his fortune to make; his mind to form; he had even his education to commence and conduct. In a field of the most intense competition, he realised a large fortune, with the universal esteem and affection of those who could best judge of the honour and purity of his acts. Amid this scene of active exertion and practical detail, he cultivated and he acquired habits of intense, and patient, and comprehensive thinking; such as have been rarely equalled, and never excelled.”

Originally published in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Etymologists differ respecting the derivation of the word money. Some contend that it comes from monere (quia nota inscripta de valore admonet), because the stamp impressed on coined money indicates its weight and fineness (Bouteroue, “Recherches sur les Monnoyes de France, p. 1); and others that it originates in the circumstance of silver being first coined at Rome in the temple of Juno Moneta.—Suidas, in voce Μονητα.

Wealth of Nations, M‘Culloch’s ed., in one vol., p. 10.

Storch, Traité d’Economie Politique, tome iii. p. 16; Ulloa, Mémoires Philosophiques sur l’Amérique, tome ii. p. 100.

Iliad, lib. 6, lin. 235. Garnier contends, in a note to his translation of the Wealth of Nations (v. p. 18, ed. 1822), that by oxen in the statement now referred to, Homer did not mean the animals so called, but coins impressed with the figure of an ox. But though the oldest Attic and some other ancient coins were marked with an ox, it does not follow that cattle were not used as money previously to their being issued. Indeed, the fair presumption is, that that circumstance was the cause of their figures being impressed on the coins.

Morellet, Prospectus d’un Nouveau Dictionnaire de Commerce, p. 115.

Storch, in loco citato.

Wealth of Nations, p. 10.

“Dans les pays ou le cuivre a trop de valeur pour pouvoir représenter celle des plus menues denrées, on est encore obligé lui substituer quelque autre matière plus commune. C’est cette circonstance qui a fait adopter aux Indiens l’usage des cauris en guise des petite monnoie. Cet usage pourroit paroître étrange dans les pays aussi riches et d’une civilisation aussi ancienne que le Bengale et l’Indoustan: mais le cuivre y est si rare, et les vivres y sont à si bon marchè qu’une pièce de la valeur de 1 cop. et ¼ [about a halfpenny English] peut y acheter une quantite des denrées suffisante pour la subsistence journalière d’un homme du peuple. On est donc obligé de deviser la plus petite monnoie de cuivre en plusieurs fractions; et comme une monnoie d’aussi peu de valeur couteroit plus à fabriquer qu’elle ne pourroit valoir, on la remplace par un coquillage dont la nature fait presque tous les fraix. Quelque mince que soit la valeur d’un cauris, elle suffit dans ces contrées fertiles pour acheter une piece des bananes ou quelque autre fruit commun.”—Le Goux de Flaix, Essai sur l’Indoustan, tome i. pp. 143-226, quoted by Storch, Economie Politique, tome iii. p. 133.

Smith, ubi supra; and Horrebow, Description de l’Islande, tome ii. p. 90.

Wealth of Nations, loc. cit.

Polit. lib. i. cap. 9.

Hist. Nat. lib. 33, cap. 3.

Genesis, chap. xxiii. ver. 16.

Goguet, De l’Origine des Loix, etc. tom. i. p. 268, 4to edit. See also Park’s Travels, vol. i. p. 464, 8vo. edit.

See Memorandum on the Silver Coinage of 1817, by the Master of the Mint, p. 378, of the Appendix to the Lord’s Report on the Resumption of Cash Payments by the Bank.

Goguet, De l’Origine des Loix, etc., tom. i. p. 269.

Torrens on the Production of Wealth, p. 305.

The following passage of Montesquieu has often been referred to in proof of the existence of an ideal standard:—“Les noirs de la côte d’Afrique ont un signe des valeurs sans monnoie; c’est un signe purement idéal fondé sur le degré d’estime qu’ils mettent dans leur esprit à chaque marchandise, à proportion du besoin qu’ils en ont; une certaine denrée, ou marchandise, vaut trois macutes; une autre, six macutes; une autre, dix macutes; c’est comme s’ils disoient simplement trois, six, dix. Le prix se forme par la comparaison qu’ils font de toutes les marchandises entre elles: pour lors, il n’y a point de monnoie particulière, mais chaque portion de marchandise est monnoie de l’autre.”—Esprit des Loix, liv. xxii. cap. 8.

But, instead of giving any support to the notion of an abstract standard, this passage might be confidently referred to in proof of its non-existence. Had Montesquieu said that the blacks determined the values, or prices; of commodities, by comparing them with the arbitrary term macute, the statement, though erroneous, would have been at least in point. But he says no such thing. On the contrary, he states distinctly that the relative values of commodities (marchandises) are ascertained by comparing them with each other (entre elles), and that it is merely the result of the comparison that is expressed in arbitrary terms.

So much for the weight to be attached to this statement, supposing it to be well founded. The truth is, however, that the term macute is not really arbitrary, and employed only to mark an ascertained proportion, but that it has a reference to, and is in fact, the name of an intrinsically valuable commodity. “On a bien dit,” says l’Abbé Morellet, “que ce mot macute étoit une expression abstraite et générale de la valeur, et cela est vrai au sens où nous l’expliquerons plus bas; mais on n’a pas remarqué que cette abstraction a été consequente et posterieure à l’emploi du mot macute pour signifier une marchandise, une denrée réelle à laquelle on avoit longtems comparé toutes les autres.

“Macute en plusieurs lieux de la côte d’Afrique, est encore le nom d’une certaine étoffe: ‘Chez les negres de la côte d’Angola,’ dit le voyageur Angelo, ‘les macutes sont des pièces de nattes d’une aune de long;’ Jobson dit aussi que les macutes sont une espèce d’étoffe.

“Les étoffes ont toujours été l’objet d’un besoin tres-pressant chez des peuples aussi barbares, depourvus de toute espèce d’industrie.—Les nattes en particulier leur sont de la plus grande nécessité. Elles sont divisées en morceaux peu considerables et d’une petite valeur; elles sont très-uniformes dans leurs parties, et les premières qu’on a faites auront pu être semblables les unes aux autres, et d’une bonté égale, sous la même dénomination; toutes ces qualités les ont rendu propres à devenir la mésure commune des valeurs.”—Prospectus d’un Nouveau Dictionnaire de Commerce, p. 121.

The following extract from Park’s Travels gives an example of a similar kind:—“In the early intercourse of the Mandingoes with the Europeans, the article that attracted most notice was iron. Its utility in forming the instruments of war and husbandry made it preferable to all others; and iron soon became the measure (standard) by which the value of all other commodities was ascertained. Thus a certain quantity of goods, of whatever denomination, appearing to be equal to a bar of iron, constituted, in the trader’s phraseology, a bar of that particular merchandise. Twenty leaves of tobacco, for instance, were considered as a bar of tobacco; and a gallon of spirits (or rather half spirits and half water) as a bar of rum; a bar of one commodity being reckoned equal in value to a bar of another commodity. As, however, it must unavoidably happen that, according to the plenty or scarcity of goods at market, in proportion to the demand, the relative value would be subject to continual fluctuation, greater precision has been found necessary; and, at this time, the current value of a single bar of any kind is fixed by the whites at two shillings sterling. Thus, a slave, whose price is L.15, is said to be worth 150 bars.”—Travels in the Interior of Africa, 8vo. edit., vol. i. p. 39.

Farther Considerations concerning Raising the Value of Money. Locke’s Works, ii. 94. 4to. 1777.

Ulloa, Voyage de l’Amerique, i. 379, Amsterdam, 1752.

Nouvelle Espagne, liv. ii. cap. 7, edit. 1825.

Hume’s Essay on Money.

Seignorage, strictly speaking, means only the clear revenue derived by the state from the coinage. But it is now commonly used to express every deduction made from the bullion brought to the mint to be coined, whether on account of duty to the state, or of the expense of coinage (properly brassage). We always use the phrase in its more enlarged sense.

Le Blanc, Traité Historique des Monnoyes de France, p. 90, ed. Amst. 1692.

Mr Tooke read a very able paper on seignorage before the Lords’ Committee of 1819, on the resumption of cash-payments. It is printed in the appendix to their report.

Minutes of Evidence, p. 207.

Chevalier de la Monnaie (p. 110). This work forms the third volume of Chevalier’s “Cours d’Economie Politique.”

Storch. tom. vi. p. 74.

Annals of the British Coinage, vol. i. p. 179, 4to edition.

Those who wish for a farther elucidation of this subject, may refer to Mr Mushet’s evidence in the Appendix to the Lords’ Report “on the Expediency of the Banks resuming Cash-payments,” where it is discussed at great length, and in a very able manner.

In the tables annexed to this article, the reader will find a detailed account of the amount of the seignorage and its fluctuations in different periods.

At present (1852), this demand is greater than usual, in consequence of the large exports of coin to Australia.

Ruding’s Annals of the Coinage, vol. i. p. 185. When the right of seignorage was abolished, there was a pension, payable out of the profits derived from it, granted under the great seal, for twenty-one years, to Dame Barbara Villiers, which the legislature ordered to be made good out of the coinage duties imposed by that act. (See Ruding, in loco citato, and Leake’s Historical Account of English Money, 2d edit., p. 356.)

Le Blanc, p. 87.

Necker, “Administration des Finances” (tom. iii. p. 8).—Dr Smith has stated (“Wealth of Nations,” p. 21), on the authority of the “Dictionnaire des Monnoies,” of Abot de Bazinghen, that the seignorage on French silver coins, in 1775, amounted to about eight per cent. The error of Bazinghen has been pointed out by Garnier, in his translation of the “Wealth of Nations.”

Chevalier de la Monnaie, p. 326.

Ricardo, “Proposals for an Economical and Secure Currency,” p. 87.

Principles of Political Economy, p. 511.

Liverpool on Coins, pp. 68-85.

Being intended as an experiment, this act was limited to the 1st May 1776. But not being found to be productive of any inconvenience, it was prolonged by other temporary acts. It was, however, suffered accidentally to expire in 1783, and was not renewed till fifteen years after, in 1798. And yet, despite the extremely degraded state of the silver coin, very few instances occurred during this lengthened period of its being offered in payment of any considerable sum.

Principles of Political Economy, p. 520.

Say, i. p. 393.

Treatise on Taxation. Part II. c. 11.

The carat is a bean, the fruit of an Abyssinian tree, called Kuara. This bean, from the time of its being gathered, varies very little in its weight, and seems to have been in the earliest ages, a weight for gold in Africa. In India it is used as a weight for diamonds, &c. (Bruce’s Travels, vol. v. p. 66.)

Liverpool on Coins, p. 27.

For an account of the money of the Greeks, and of the ancients generally, the reader is referred to Raper’s “Inquiry into the Value of the Ancient Greek and Roman Money” in the Transactions of the Royal Society for 1771; Pinkerton “On Medals;” Hussey “On Ancient Weights and Money;” and to the various articles on the same subject in Smith’s “Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.”

“Servius rex primus signavitæs. Antea rudi usos Romæ Remeus tradit. Signatum est nota pecudum unde et pecunia appellata. . . . . Argentum signatum est anno urbis DLXXXV. Q. Fabio Cos. quinque annos ante primum bellum Punicum. Et placuit denarius prox. libris æris, quinarius pro quinque, sestertium pro dipondio ac semisse. Libræ autem pondus æris imminutum bello Punico primo cum impensis resp. non sufficeret, constitutumque ut asses sextentario pondere ferirentur. Ita quinque partes factæ lucri, dissolutumque æs alienum. . . . . Postea, Annibale urgente, Q. Fabio Maximo Dictatore, asses unciales facti: placuitque denarium xvi. assibus permutari, quinarium octonis, sestertium quaternis. Ita resp. dimidium lucrata est. Mox lege Papyria semunciales asses facti.” Plinii, “Hist. Nat.,” lib. xxxiij. cap. 3. Lugd. Bat. 1669.

Decline and Fall, vol. iii. p. 89.

This is, indeed, decisively proved by a passage in Celsus: “Sed et antea sciri volo in uncia pondus denariorum esse septem.”—Cels. lib. xv. cap. 17.

Essay on Medals, vol. i. p. 162, edit. 1808.

Greaves’ Works, i. 262. The weight of the denarius, as given by other authorities, may be seen in p. 135 of Hussey’s excellent “Treatise on Ancient Weights and Money.”

Greaves, vol. i. p. 331. Gibbon’s Miscellaneous Works, vol. v. p. 71.

Pliny Hist. Nat., lib. xxxiij. cap. 3, previously quoted.

Bazinghen, “Dictionnaire des Monnoies,” tom. ii. p. 64.

Essay on Medals, vol. i. p. 183.

Vitruvius, Lib. iii. cap. 1.

Writers on ancient coins, with the exception of Pinkerton, agree in supposing the sestertius to have been originally, and to have always continued to be, a silver coin. Pinkerton, however, has denied this opinion; and, on the authority of the following passage of Pliny, contends that the sestertius was, at the time when Pliny wrote, whatever it might have been before, a brass coin. “Summa gloria æris nunc in Marianum conversa, quod et Cordubense dicitur. Hoc a Liviano cadmiam maxime sorbet, et orichalci bonitatem imitatur in sestertiis, dupondiariisque, Cyprio suo assibus contentis.”—(Lib. xxxiv. cap. 2.) That is, literally, “The greatest glory of brass is now due to the Marian, also called that of Cordova. This, after the Livian, absorbs the greatest quantity of lapis calaminaris, and imitates the goodness of orichalcum (yellow brass) in our sestertii and dupondiarii, the asses being contented with the Cyprian (brass).” [Pliny had previously observed that the Cyprian was the least valuable brass.] This passage is, we think, decisive in favour of Pinkerton’s hypothesis. But, in the absence of positive testimony, the small value of the sestertius might be relied on as a pretty sufficient proof that it could not be silver. When the denarius weighed 62 grains, the sestertius must have weighed 15½, and been worth 2⅛d.; but a coin of so small a size as to be scarcely equal to one-third part of one of our sixpences, would have been extremely apt to be lost, and could not have been struck by the rude methods used in the Roman mint with anything approaching to even tolerable precision. It is, therefore, more reasonable to suppose that it was of brass.

Gibbon, vol. i. p. 209, edit. 1838.

Paucton, “Traité des Mésures, Poids,” etc., p. 693.

Le Blanc, p. 212.

Ibid. Introduction, p. 20.

Ibid. p. 93.

Liverpool on Coins, p. 107.

Peuchet, “Statistique Elémentaire de la France,” p. 538.

Essay on Medals, vol. ii. p. 124.

Preface to Anderson’s “Diplomata,” p. 176.

Originally printed at Dublin in 1749, in 4to, and reprinted with some additions in 1810.

Annals of the Coinage, Preface, vol. i. p. 11. The work of Mr Lindsay on Irish Coins (4to, Cork, 1839), may also be advantageously consulted.

Liverpool on Coins, p. 111.

Lamp. “Vita Alex. Severi,” cap. 39. Perhaps Heliogabalus took the hint from Licinius, a freedman of Julius Cæsar, who, in his government of the Gauls under Augustus, divided the year into fourteen months instead of twelve, because the Gauls paid a certain monthly tribute.—Dion Cassius, lib. 72.

Traité Historique des Monnoyes de France, p. 190.

Introduction, p. 30.

Folkes’s “Table of English Coins,” p. 34.

Harris on Coins, part ii. p. 3.

Wealth of Nations, p. 423.

There is, in the last volume of the “Cours d’Economie Politique” of M. Storch, a very instructive account of the paper money of the different continental states.

See annexed Table No. V.

On Money and Coins, part ii. p. 108.

In mercantile phraseology, the person who draws a bill is termed the drawer; the person in whose favour it is drawn, the remitter; the person on whom it is drawn, the drawee, and after he has accepted, the acceptor. Those persons into whose hands the bill may pass previously to its being paid, are, from their writing their names on the back, termed indorsers; and the person in whose possession the bill is at any given period, is termed the holder or possessor.

Supposing every country to be in possession of its proper supply of bullion, the exchange may be said to be nominally affected by the amount of the difference between the market and mint price of bullion, and to be really affected by any deviation from par exceeding or falling short of that difference.

Ricardo, “Principles of Political Economy,” etc., 1st ed. p. 175.

Bullion Report, p. 22, 8vo. ed.

Wealth of Nations, p. 190.

All restraints on the exportation of the precious metals were abolished in Great Britain in 1819. Their effect for many years previously could not be estimated at above one-fourth per cent.

It is necessary to observe, that it is here supposed that the clipped or degraded money exists in such a degree of abundance as only to pass current at its bullion value. If the quantity of clipped money were sufficiently limited, it might, notwithstanding the diminution of weight, pass current at its mint value; and then the par would have to be estimated, not by its relative weight to foreign money, but by the mint price of bullion. This principle must be constantly kept in view.

Wealth of Nations, p. 210.

An Inquiry into the Effects produced on the National Currency by the Bank Restriction Bill, etc., 2d edit., p. 94.

Ante, p. 26.

Previously to 1817, no seignorage had for a very long period been deducted from either the gold or silver coins of Great Britain; but in the great recoinage of that year, the value of silver was raised from 5s. 2d. to 5s. 6d. an ounce, or nearly in the proportion of 6½ per cent. The gold coins, however, are still coined free of expense, and no variation has been made in their standard. The proportion of silver to gold in the coins is now as 14287/1000 to 1; but their proportion to each other according to their mint valuation, is as 15209/1000 to 1.

By a proclamation of James II. The arrangement was continued by the revolutionary government, and was confirmed by proclamation, 29th September 1737. But in 1825 the currencies of Great Britain and Ireland were assimilated.

“Account of Ireland,” vol. ii. p. 171.

Farther information on this subject may be obtained from the Report, 1804, of the Committee of the House of Commons upon the state of the circulating paper in Ireland, its specie, etc.; from Sir Henry Parnell’s pamphlet on the same subject; and from the pamphlets of Lord King, Huskisson, etc.

Paris, 1823, 4 vols. 8vo.

Observations, etc., p. 48.

Such was always the case till the late extraordinary export of gold from California.

Pitkin on the Commerce of the United States, 2d ed. p. 280.

Prohibition Act, 1st William and Mary.

See “Reply to Mr Bosanquet’s Observations on the Report of the Bullion Committee,” p. 17.

Wheatley “On the Theory of Money,” p. 219.

The real exchange might, probably, be affected to the extent of one or two per cent.

Comparative Estimate, etc.

Edinburgh Review, vol. xxvi. p. 154.

Observations, etc., p. 91.

De Pauw, “Recherches sur les Grècs,” i. 258.

Epist. ad Atticum, xii. 24.

Epist. ad Atticum, xii. 27. “De Cicerone, ut scribis, ita faciam: ipsi permittam de tempore: nummorum quantum opus erit ut permutetur tu videbis.” In his notes on a parallel passage, Grævius remarks, “Permutatio est quod nunc barbare cambium dicitur.”—Epist. ad Atticum, xi. 24.

Annals of Commerce, i. 405.

Hume’s England, cap. 12.

Harris on Coins, part i. p. 108.

Interêt; loyer d’un capital preté; ou bien, en termes plus exacts, achat des services productifs que peut rendre un capital.—(Say, tome ii. p. 480, ed. 4me.

First by Mr Joseph Massie in a tract published in 1750, entitled “An Essay on the Governing Causes of the Rate of Interest;” and, second, and with better effect, in Hume’s “Essay on Interest,” in 1752.

See the statement of Ricardo on this subject, ante, p. 40.

Considerations on the State of the Currency, 2d edit. p. 12.

It is not, of course, any part of our business to inquire into the methods most proper to be taken to enforce payment of debts. But, how paradoxical soever it may appear, we believe it would not be difficult to show that the putting of most descriptions of small debts, or of debts under £30 or £40, out of the pale of the law, would be advantageous. It would tend to prevent the abuse of credit by the lower classes, to whom it is extremely pernicious, and to make habits of economy and punctuality more valuable than at present.

Bocckh’s “Public Economy of Athens,” i. pp. 164-191.

Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, ii. 336. English translation. It is a remarkable fact that the famous reformer Calvin was one of the first to emancipate himself from the prejudices formerly so prevalent, especially among religious people, against taking interest. He comments as follows on the statement of Aristotle, that as money did not produce money, no return could be equitably claimed by the lender:—“Pecunia non parit pecuniam. Quid mare? quid domus, ex cujus locatione pensionem percipio? An ex tectis et parietibus argentum propriè nascitur? Sed et terra producit, et mari advehitur quod pecuniam deindè producat, et habitationis commoditas cum certâ pecuniâ parari commutarive solet. Quod si igitur plus ex negotiatione lucri percipi possit, quam ex fundi cujusvis proventu: an feretur qui fundem sterilem fortassè colono locaverit ex quo mercedem vel proventum recipiat sibi, qui ex pecuniâ fructum aliquem perceperit, non feretur? et qui pecunia fundum acquirit, annon pecunia illa generat alteram annuam pecuniam? Unde vero mercatores lucrum? Ex ipsius, inquies, diligentiâ atque industriâ. Quis dubitet pecuniam vacuam inutilem omnino esse? neque qui à me mutuam rogat, vacuam apud se habere à me acceptam cogitat. Non erga ex pecuniâ illâ lucrum accedit, sed ex proventu. Illæ igitur rationes subtiles quidem sunt, et speciem quandam habent, sed ubi propius expenduntur, seipsa concidunt. Nunc igitur concludo judicandum de usuris esse, non ex particulari aliquo Scripturæ Ioco, sed tantum ex æquitatis regulâ.”—Quoted by Dugald Stewart in his Notes to his Preliminary Dissertation to the Encyclopœdia Britannica.

Esprit des Loix, liv. xxii. c. 21.

Esprit des Loix, liv. xxi. c. 19.

Deuteronomy, cap. xxiii. v. 20.

Madox’s History of the Exchequer, i. pp. 221-261. 4to. 1769.

At Verona, in 1228, the interest of money was fixed by law at 12½ per cent. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, the republic of Genoa paid only from 7 to 10 per cent. to her creditors; and the average discount on good bills at Barcelona, in 1435, is stated to have been about 10 per cent. But whilst interest in Italy and Catalonia, where a considerable degree of freedom was allowed to the parties bargaining for a loan, was thus comparatively moderate, it was, despite its total prohibition, incomparably higher in France and England. Matthew Paris mentions that, in the reign of Henry III., the debtor paid 10 per cent. every two months. And this, though impossible as a general practice, may not have been very far from the average interest charged on the few loans that were then contracted for.—Hallam’s “Middle Ages,” iii. 402.

Storch, “Traité d’Economie Politique,” tome iii. p. 187.

A second edition, very greatly enlarged, was published in 1690.

On the 18th of December 1752, the three per cents. brought the highest price they have hitherto reached, namely, 106⅜ per cent. On the 20th of September 1797, the day on which the failure of Lord Malmesbury’s attempt to negotiate with the French republic transpired, consols fell to 47⅝, being the lowest price at which they have ever been sold.

“Considerations on the Rate of Interest,” by E. B. Sugden, Esq.—Pamphleteer, vol. viii. p. 278.

“Considerations of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money, 1691.”—Works, ii. 7. 4to, 1777.

Strictly speaking, this applies only to the state of Holland previously to the Revolution in 1795. The enactments of the Code Napoleon were subsequently introduced; but it appears, from the Report of the Parliamentary Committee on the Usury Laws, that they have not been acted upon.

Storch, “Economie Politique,” tome iii. p. 187.

Report on Usury Laws, p. 46.

Ibid. and Storch, tome iii. p. 207.

Such instances do, however, occasionally occur; and were they not sufficiently well known, some very gross and not very distant ones might be specified.

See, for a striking illustration of the mischievous effects of this system, Mr Caird’s “Account of the Duke of Cleveland’s Estate in Durham.” It is, and always has been, very low rented. The tenants are very rarely displaced; and some of them have held their farms, in a regular series from father to son, since the reign of Elizabeth. And yet, as might have been anticipated, the agriculture of the estate has been neglected, the tenants have not made money, and its too beneficent proprietor is complained of because he does not reduce the present inadequate rental.—Caird’s “English Agriculture,” p. 349.

Sismondi, Nouveaux Principes d’Economie Politique, tome i. p. 196.

Young’s “Travels in France,” etc., 2d edit. vol. ii. p. 216.

Tome i. p. 192-194.

Discussione Economica sul Dipartimento d’Olona, p. 54.

Tableau de l’Agriculture Toscane. Geneve, 1801.

Letter from Italy.

We quote from Rigby’s translation, p. 78.

Ibid. p. 46.

De Re Rusticâ, § 137.

Husbandry of the Ancients, vol. i. p. 60.

Dickson’s “Husbandry of the Ancients,” vol. i. p. 74.

It might be effected in the easiest and most unobjectionable manner, by means of duties, to which there could be no good objection.

Account of Denmark in the year 1692. 4th ed. p. 54.

Travels in Hungary, etc., i. 297, etc.

Mr Paget has set the wretched effects of this system in a striking light; i. 306.

It increased from 10,169,899 in 1816, to 16,285,013 in 1849.

Wealth of Nations, p. 374.

Essays on Husbandry, 2d edit. p. 160.

On the Tenancy of Land in Great Britain, 2d edit. p. 145.

Reynier, “Recherches sur l’Economie Publique des Grecs,” p. 247. Muller’s Dorians, ii. 32., Eng. Trans.

Id. p. 377.

Given by Boeckh in his work on ancient inscriptions, vol. i. p. 132, published at Berlin, at the expense of the Academy.

Vol. ii. p. 15, Eng. Trans.

Lib. i. cap. 8.

“Restibilis ager,” he observes, “dicitur qui biennio continuo seritur farreo spico, id est aristato; quod ne fiat, solent qui prædia locânt, excipere.” See Recherches Historiques sur l’Agriculture chez les Romains, p. 82.

See for a striking example of this, “Caird on English Agriculture,” p. 25.

“Six Months’ Tour in the North of England,” iv. 343.

“English Agriculture” in 1850-51, p. 477, the best work on the subject which has appeared since the “Tours” of Arthur Young. Mr Davis, in his “Agriculture of South Wales,” mentions an instance of a gentleman who expended £20,000 in improving the lands of his tenants, without charging them a sixpence of additional rent. He died; and his successor being of a different cast, left off improving, and tried what might be done by doubling rents! And Mr Davis says, that however painful to relate, this advance of rent, though considered oppressive in the first instance, did more to promote improvement and the interest of all parties, than all the benevolence of the preceding proprietor. “The tenants were now compelled to do themselves what another did for them before.”—Agriculture of South Wales, i. 165.

Practice of Tenantry, Introduction, p. 16.

Practice of Tenantry, p. 250.

Ibid, Introduction, p. 16; and see post on the “Tenant’s Right” in Ireland.

English Agriculture in 1850-51, p. 328.

Wealth of Nations, p. 374.

Occupation of Land Commission, i. 1483.

It is to be carefully observed, that this discussion refers only to the spending of income, or to its outlay and consumption in housekeeping, and the expenses necessarily connected therewith. It must not be mixed up or confounded with anything else.

It is singular how the palpable contradiction and absurdity of statements like the above did not make them be scouted by all reasonable persons, and awaken suspicions in regard to the alleged disastrous influence of absenteeism. But, instead of this, they were appealed to for a lengthened series of years, as if their authority had been unquestionable. In 1729, Mr Thomas Prior, the friend and correspondent of Bishop Berkeley and the Earl of Chesterfield, and a gentleman in other respects of great candour and good sense, published his treatise on “Irish Absentees.” Among other matters, it contains a list of the absentees, with an estimate of the sums annually remitted to each, the aggregate being £627,799, which, he says, is entirely sent to them in treasure; and then he adds, “This is so great a burden upon us, that, I believe, there is not in history an instance of any one country paying so large a yearly tribute (!) to another.”—(P. 20.) Mr Prior next goes on to show, that “the most sanguine do not reckon that we have £400,000 of cash now remaining (amongst us); and if so,” he reasonably enough concludes, “’tis impossible to subsist much longer under such a drain.”—(Loc. cit.) A sixth edition of this tract was published, with notes, in 1782, more than half a century after it had first appeared. And yet, notwithstanding the cash in circulation in Ireland had increased, in the interval, and in the teeth of this alleged drain of £628,000 a-year, from £400,000 to above £2,000,000, the statements put forward by Prior in the earliest editions are repeated, with a eulogy on their correctness, and on his sagacity and foresight! It would really seem, that in this, as in some other things, the universality and intensity of belief, have been directly as the folly and falsehood of the thing believed. Even so late as 1829, a right hon. gentleman was kind and considerate enough to commiserate the “discredit” we had “done to our logical powers,” by endeavouring to show the degree of weight to be attached to the statements of Prior, Swift, and others.

Page 586.

Vol. i. p. 274.

Vol. i. p. 299.

Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Lords, on the state of Ireland, 14th April 1825, p. 59.

First Report, 1825, Minutes of Evidence, p. 39.

Minutes of Evidence before Irish Committee, p. 302.

We are glad to have to state, that the law with regard to the occupancy of land in Ireland is now, and has been for a lengthened period, in a much more satisfactory state than in 1825. Subletting, unless by consent of the landlord, is now illegal, and may be summarily punished; and no subtenant, provided he have not been surreptitiously introduced, can be called upon to pay rent to the landlord, which he has already paid to the party from whom he holds.

Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee on the State of Ireland, printed 11th February 1825, p. 67.

Ibid.

Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee on the State of Ireland, p. 151.

Wealth of Nations, p. 9.

Jackson, in his account of Morocco, mentions that, in 1805, a caravan proceeding from Timbuctoo to Tafilet, being disappointed in not finding water at one of the usual watering places, the whole persons belonging to it, about 2,000 in number, with about 1,800 camels, perished miserably of thirst.—P. 339.

Chronologie d’Hérodote, cap. ii. p. 131.

Strabo, lib. xvi. § 16.

In Idumæa, the capital of the Nabatheans.

Heeren’s “Asiatic Nations,” vol. i., caps. on Phœnicians passim.

Mons Calpe and Mons Abyla, the Gibraltar and Ceuta of modern times.

De l’Etat et du Sort des Anciennes Colonies, p. 14.

Huét, “Commerce des Anciens,” cap. 8.

Borlase on the Scilly Islands, pp. 72-78.

St Croix, p. 20.

The Carthaginians are said to have fitted out, during the most flourishing period of the republic (Carthaginis potentia florente, Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii. cap. 67), an expedition, under a commander of the illustrious name of Hanno, for making discoveries and founding settlements along the coast of Africa, southwards from the Pillars of Hercules. A brief account of this voyage is extant in Greek, being apparently a version from the original Punic, which is said to have been preserved in the temple of Saturn or Chronos. This version has been translated into English and commented on by Falconer, who has endeavoured to repel the arguments of Dodwell and others against its authenticity.—(“The Voyage of Hanno,” etc., by Thomas Falconer, A.M. London, 1797.) It has also been translated into Spanish, and its authenticity vindicated, by Campomanes (small 4to, Madrid, 1756); and into French by Bougainville, in the Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tome xxvi. and tome xxviii. See also Rennell’s “Geography of Herodotus,” ii. pp. 409-443.

There is, in Dr Vincent’s “Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean,” vol. ii. pp. 624-652, an elaborate and (like the other parts of that work) prolix commentary on this chapter of Ezekiel, in which most part of the things and places mentioned are satisfactorily explained. See also “Heeren on the Phœnicians,” cap. iv.

Lib. xvi. § 16.

Scheffer, “De Militia Navali Veterum,” lib. i. cap. 2.; Goguet, “Sur L’Origine des Loix,” etc., Eng. Trans., i. 296, and ii. pp. 95-100. See also Heeren on the “Manufactures, etc., of the Phœnicians.”

The authenticity of this treatise has been denied, but probably on no good grounds; at all events it has not been copied from the Mosaic cosmogony.

Ancient Universal History, vol. ii. p. 325; Gibbon, cap. 17.

Herod., lib. iv., cap. 42.

Recherches sur la Géographie Systématique et Positive des Anciens, tome i. pp. 204-217.

Hérodote, tome iii. pp. 458-464, edit. 1802.

Geography of Herodotus, ii. pp. 348-402, 8vo edit.

This canal, after having been for some ages filled up, was re-opened by the late Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, and is once more become the channel of communication between the Nile and the city.

L’esclavage n’était pas seulement l’instrument, mais pour ainsi dire, la force motrice du travail antique. Ce que font les machines aujourdhui, ce que faisaient les chevaux avant nos machines, s’accomplissait, dans les limites ou ce travail était naturellement renfermé, par les bras des esclaves.—Wallon, “Histoire de l’Esclavage dans l’Antiquité,” i. 246.

Arist. Politica, lib. vii. cap. 2, § 7, and lib. iii. cap. 3, § 2. See also a decisive statement in Herod. lib. ii. cap. 167.

If they became bankrupt, though without any imputation of fraud, they were enslaved.

On the Revenue of Athens.—By this means, says he, you will increase the number of aliens, and the amount of the duty on aliens, (12 drachmas per annum for a man, and 6 for a woman), the noblest branch of the public revenue.

Lib. vi. § 44.

Herod. lib. xii. § 24. Herodotus says that the cutting of the canal was a work of ostentation, as the vessels might, without much difficulty, have been conveyed across the isthmus.

Lib. viii. cap. vii. § 1.

Lib. viii. cap. 132.

Boeckh, i. p. 111.

Ibid, i. p. 119, etc.

Public Economy of Athens, i. 66.

The medimnus is equal to 1·426 bushel.

Clarke’s “Connection of the Roman, Saxon, and English Coins,” pp. 53-66.

Chios was the next great insular slave market.

Strabo, lib. xiv. cap. 5.

Tournefort, “Voyage du Levant,” i. pp. 290-325.

Boeckh, book i. passim.

See some statements with respect to it, ante, p. 144.

Boeckh, i. p. 170.

Aristotle appears to have been fully imbued with these prejudices. Politica, Lib. i. cap. iii. § 23.

Herod, lib. ii. cap. 167.

Voyage d’Anacharsis, cap. 37.

Hor. Epist. i. 17, v. 36.

None, however, but Grecians could contend in the games.

The famous colossus is said to have stood on these rocks, but the statement does not appear to rest on any good foundation. See Geog. Dict. art. “Rhodes.”

Polybius, lib. i. cap. 9.

Strabo, lib. xiv. cap. 2, § 5.

See post, Essay on Maritime Law.

See Schomberg’s “Treatise on the Maritime Laws of Rhodes,” passim; and the learned Dissertation of Pastoret, “Sur les Loix Rhodiennes.” Paris, 1784.

The early Greeks appear to have acted on the principle laid down by Hobbes, who says, “Est enim nihil aliud prædatio quam quod parvis copiis geritur bellum.”

Odyssey, lib. iv. v. 90.

Livy, lib. xxi. cap. 63.

Les citoyens Romains regardoient le Commerce et les Arts comme des occupations d’esclaves; ils ne les exercoient point.—Montesquieu “Grandeur et Decadence des Romains,” cap. 10.

Dion. Halic. lib. ii. cap. 28. Sallust. Cat. cap. 7.

Æneid, lib. vi. lin. 848.

And yet Cicero does not scruple to inquire, An quis amplissimus Galliæ cum infimo civi Romano, comparandus est? Pro Marco Fonteio.

Lugent omnes, quæruntur omnes liberi Populi: regna denique jam omnia de nostris cupiditatibus et injuriis expostulant: Locus intra oceanum jam nullus est, neque tam longinquus, neque tam reconditus quò non, per hæc tempora, nostrorum hominum libido, iniquitasque pervaserit.—Cicero in Verr, lib. iii.

Tantumque se (Mithridatem) avida expectat Asia ut etiam vocibus vocet. Adeo illis odium Romanorum incussit rapacitas Proconsulum, sectio Publicanorum, calumniæ litium.—Justin, lib. xxviii. cap. 7.

Qui mare tenet, eum necesse est rerum potiri.—Cicero ad Att., lib. x. Ep. 7.

Polybius, lib. vi. ex. 2. Marius was among the first to disregard this limitation, and to recruit from all classes.

Huet, “Commerce des Anciens,” cap. 30.

Liv. lib. xxx. cap. 43.

Cicero pro Lege Manilia; Huet, “Commerce des Anciens,” cap. 36.

Gibbon, “Decline and Fall,” cap. i.

Vegetius de Re Militari, lib. iv. cap. 31; Adam’s “Antiquities;” Campbell in “Harris’ Voyages,” i. 426, ed. 1764.

This, however, has been excessively exaggerated. The influence which importations of corn have over the agriculture of the country into which they are brought, depends wholly on their magnitude. Supposing the total importation of corn into Rome under the emperors to have amounted to 1,000,000 or 1,200,000 quarters, there is no ground for thinking that it would have been reduced so low as 500,000 or 600,000 quarters had it been imported under a free system, as in England. But without insisting on this consideration, it is quite futile to suppose that an importation of 1,000,000 or 1,200,000 quarters could have inflicted any serious, or indeed sensible, injury on the agriculture of so great and so fertile a country as Italy. Its decay must be sought for in other causes than this. In the depopulation occasioned by the civil wars and the proscriptions; and still more, perhaps, in the extension of pasturage, and in the conversion of small into large estates principally cultivated by slaves, which it was cheaper to import than to breed. The beggarly population of Rome, the misera ac jejuna plebecula, as Cicero called it, could not support itself. It had to be supported by others. And it surely was more for the advantage of Italy that it should be supported by the provinces than by itself.

Frumentariam legem C. Gracchus ferebat. Jucunda res plebi Romanæ: victus enim suppeditabatur large sine labore. Repugnabant boni quod et ab industria plebem ad desidiam avocari putabant, et ærarium exhauriri videbant. Pro Sextio, cap. 48.

Lucan, lib. iii. v. 55, etc.

A modius is nearly, but not quite, ¼th part of a bushel, being 1·902 imperial gallons.

“Frumentum publicum tam fur quam perjurus et adulter accipit, et sine delectu morum quisquis civis est.”—Seneca, De Benef. iv. 28.

This is Gibbon’s estimate. Dureau de la Malle estimates it at only 562,000; while later authorities carry it up to above 2,000,000, or to about the population of London within the extended bills of mortality. But though the estimate of Dureau de la Malle be supposed to be a good deal within the mark, we have not the least doubt that it is much nearer to it than the latter, which is quite extravagant.

See the learned article on the Frumentariæ Leges, in Smith’s “Dictionary of Antiquities,” and the valuable treatise on the Corn Trade of Athens and Rome, in No. 168 of the “Edinburgh Review.” The texts of the ancient writers bearing on the subject are collected in the treatise of Contarenus, “De Frumentaria Romanorum Largitione.” 12mo. Vesaliæ, 1669.

Suetonius, “Vit. Tib. Claudii,” cap. 20, ed. Pitisci. Bergier, “Hist. des Grands Chemins,” ii. 341; 4to, Bruxelles, 1736.

Plin. Epistolæ, lib. vi. Ep. 31.

If we may rely on the authority of Aurelius Victor, these precautions were not taken before they were necessary. He states that, on one occasion, during the reign of Augustus, there was only a three days’ supply of corn in the city; and that the emperor had determined to take poison unless the corn fleets arrived in the interval! Luckily they did arrive; and the safety of the people was ascribed to the good fortune of Augustus.—Aur. Victor, Epit. de Vita et Morib. Imperatorum, cap. i. p. 22, ed. Pitisci.

Senecæ Epist. No. 77; Bilhon, “Commerce des Romains,” p. 73; Huet, “Commerce des Anciens,” cap. 48, etc.

Taylor’s “Elements of Civil Law,” pp. 501, 505; and the numerous authorities there referred to. The importers of corn were early formed into a corporate body.—See Dig. lib. iii. tit. 4, de Naviculariis.

Huet, “Commerce des Anciens,” cap. 49.

Disquisition on India, p. 43, 4to ed.

Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xi. cap. 23; Robertson’s India, p. 49, 4to ed.

Sharpe’s “Hist. of Egypt,” p. 374, ed. 1846.

Strabo, lib. ii. cap. 4, § 5, and lib. xxii. cap. 1, § 7.

Epist. lib. i.; Ep. 1, line 45.

Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xii. cap. 18.

Ibid. lib. xii. cap. 25.

Ibid. lib. ix. cap. 35.

See ante, p. 58.

Sueton. Vit. Jul. Cæsar, cap. 47.

Tacit. Agricola, cap. 12; Gough’s “Camden,” iii. 189, edit. 1806.

Hist. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 35. The father of Lollia, Marcus Lollius, acquired his immense wealth by abusing the powers entrusted to him in the East.

Sueton. lib. ii. c. 71.

Lib. xxxvii. c. 2.

Lib. iv. Elig. 5, line 26.

Mémoires de L’Academie, tom. xliii.

Robertson’s “Disquisition on India,” note 39.

Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, vol. ii. p. 723.

Robertson’s “India,” p. 55, 4to ed.

Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. c. 33.

Lib. xviii. c. 6.

Gibbon, “Decline and Fall,” cap. 40.

India mittit ebur. Virg. Georg. lib. i. lin. 57.

Lib. iii. cap. 106.

Hist. Ind. cap. 16.

Strabo, lib. xv. cap. i. § 10. In the same paragraph, Strabo says that silks were produced, somewhat after the manner of cottons, from thread or wool obtained from the bark of certain trees.

Hist. Nat. lib. xix. cap. 50.

Lib. iii. 1. 237.

Sylv. lib. i. v. 15.

Lib. xii. cap. 8.

“Treatise on Sugar,” 2d edit. pp. 66-71.

See the Dissertation on the Commerce of the Euxine, annexed to Falconer’s Translation of Arrian’s Periplus of that sea, p. 116, etc., and the authorities there referred to.

Tacit. Annal. lib. iii. cap. 53.

“Digna res, nullo anno imperii nostri minus H. S. quingenties exhauriente India, et merces remittente, quæ apud nos centuplicato veneant.”—Hist. Nat. lib. vi. cap. 23.

“Minimâque computatione millies centena millia sestertium annis omnibus, India et Seres, peninsulaque illa (Arabia) imperio nostro adimunt. Tanto nobis deliciæ et fœminæ constant.”—Ibid. lib. xii. cap. 18.

“Del Commercio De Romani,” p. 220, etc., ed. Milano 1802.

“Decline and Fall,” cap. 2.

Gibbon, “Decline and Fall,” cap. 2.

Dig. lib. xxxix., tit. iv. cap. 16, de Publicanis et Vectigalibus.

“Essai sur l’Impot du vingtieme sur les successions,” etc., pp. 399-450.

Rutilii Itin. lib. i.

Gibbon, “Decline and Fall,” cap. 2.

The ancient Byzantium was included within the ample circumference of the imperial city.

Le commerce fut aussi arrêté par les entraves que lui mirent les droits et les peages. Ils etoient en grande quantité; et les rois, avec toute leur puissance, ne pouvoient s’y opposer. Quelqu’ ingenieux que soit notre siecle pour inventer une multitude d’impôts onéreux, les grands de ce temps là l’etoient bien davantage encore, et ils obligeoient les marchands que passoient des marchandises sur leurs terres, de leur payer des droits dont nous pourrons a peine comprendre les noms tels sont, par example, ceux de Rodaticum, Pulveraticum, Cispitaticum, etc. Schmidt “Histoire d’Allemagne,” ii. 145.

Robertson’s “Introduction to Charles V.,” Note 29.

Incredible as it may seem, this practice was continued down to a comparatively recent epoch. “Cependant il y a encore en Allemagne des pays où la coutume de confisquer les biens naufragés n’est point encore abolie. Il y a même des endroits on les ministres prédicateurs ne font pas difficulté de prier Dieu en chaire qu’il se fasse bien des naufrages sur leurs côtes. Et ces prieres, Thomasius à entrepris sérieusement de les justifier; mais par des raisons si singulieres, qu’elles ne valoient pas la peine que Barbeyrac a prise de les refuter.”—Valin, Commentaire sur l’Ordonnance de 1681, ii. 586, 4to, 1776. See also Puffendorff, “Droit de la Nature et des Gens,” par Barbeyrac, ii. 706, 4to, 1734.

Gibbon, iv. 302, ed. 1838.

In the course of time the government of Venice fell entirely into the hands of the aristocracy, and was ultimately formed into the most jealous, vigilant, and relentless despotism that has ever existed. No individual dared to express, and hardly even to entertain, an opinion on public matters. The highest functionaries of the state, as well as the meanest of the people, were equally subject to the tyranny of its inquisitorial and secret tribunals. But, however unrelenting, this despotism had at least the merit of maintaining public tranquillity. And, while the other states were torn by intestine factions, few events occurred that could affect or ruffle the torpid and even tenor of Venetian life. But, as Mr Hallam has truly stated, “the wildest excesses of faction are less dishonouring than the stillness and moral degradation of servitude.”—Middle Ages, i. 483.

The bronze horses in St Mark’s Place.

Sismondi, “Republiques Italiennes,” i. 298, ed. 1818.

Schmidt, “Histoire d’Allemagne,” ii. 146. He adds, “Et afin de rendre les esclaves plus beaux, on avoit déjà la coutume horrible d’en chatrer plusieurs.”

Marin, “Storia del Commercio,” ii. p. 52, and p. 163.

Forster’s “Mahometanism Unveiled,” ii. 235, etc.

Coryat says that Sannazarius received a douceur of 600 crowns for these lines, a liberal certainly, if not an extravagant, reward.—Coryat’s Crudities, i. p. 197, ed. 1776.

“Decline and Fall,” vii. p. 225, ed. 1838.

“Republiques Italiennes,” i. 242, ed. 1818.

See post, Essay on the Origin of the Compass.

Schomberg’s “Historical View of the Roman Law,” pp. 197-204; Pardessus Lois Maritimes, i. 140.

See post, Essay on Maritime Law.

A small island about 10 miles S.S.W. from the mouth of the Arno.

Sismondi, “Republiques Italiennes,” iv. p. 23.

Anderson’s “Chron. History of Commerce,” under the years 1316, 1323, and 1325; Henry’s “Hist. of Great Britain,” viii. 323, etc., ed. 1800.

The analogy between the Athenians at Syracuse, and the Genoese at Chiozza, is too striking to require to be pointed out.

Daru, “Histoire de Venese,” cap. 10.

The native authorities say 16,000; but there can be no doubt that this is a gross exaggeration.

Daru, tome ii. p. 189, etc.

Daru, iii. 153.

Ibid. p. 161.

Ibid. tome iii. p. 150.

See post, Essay on Maritime Law.

We may take this opportunity of stating that the work of Capmany, entitled “Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina, Comercio, y Artes de Barcelona,” 4 vols. 4to, Madrid, 1779-91, comprises a larger body of important and well-digested information in regard to the early commerce and commercial institutions of Barcelona, and the Mediterranean ports generally, than is elsewhere to be found.

These statements have been collected and condensed, in so far as regards Milan, in the “Memorie Storiche di Verri sulla Economia Publica di Milano.”

Cosmo de Medici was the father of a line of princes, whose name and age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning. His credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books were often imported in the same vessel.—Gibbon, “Decline and Fall,” cap. 66.

See Essay on Interest, passim.

We quote the translation given by Roscoe, in his “Life of Lorenzo de Medici,” p. 235, ed. 1846.

Hallam’s “Middle Ages,” i. 358.

Born in 1441.

Robertson has given an admirable account of this famous voyage in the History of America, Book ii. Burke has noticed it in the most masterly manner, in his account of the European Settlements in America, vol. i. cap. 1. And it has exercised the pens of Irving and a host of others.

One of the earliest and most efficient promoters of Portuguese discovery.

Taxation no Tyranny.

We may truly say wild, for the horse, the ox, the sheep, and the hog have all been carried to America.

Vattel, § 209.

It has sometimes been attempted to acquire an indisputable title to lands in America and elsewhere by purchasing them from the natives. But no just title can be obtained in this way unless both parties be fully aware of what they are about; and this is never the case with the parties to the transactions in question. When the Indians of America or of the islands in the Pacific Ocean engage to exchange large tracts of land for a few gallons of rum or pounds of tobacco, they have no clear idea of what they are pledging themselves to give away. In fact, they are in great measure strangers to the right of property in land. The whites are fully aware of this; and the transaction is, on their part, a mere fraud; a pettifogging trick by which they hope to gloss over proceedings which they believe to be unjustifiable.

Prescott’s “Mexico,” i. pp. 57, 65, 491, etc., ed. 1849. The Mexicans were in so far cannibals that they devoured the flesh of the human victims offered in sacrifice. And it really matters little (though Mr Prescott be of a different opinion) whether they did this to gratify a brutish appetite or in obedience to their religion.

Prescott’s “Peru,” i. p. 30, ed. 1848.

Richesse de la Hollande, i. 26.

But, despite its extent and importance, the magnitude of the Dutch herring-fishery has been grossly exaggerated. According to the statements in the treatise on “Trade and Commerce” (Birch’s edition, ii. 130), ascribed to Sir Walter Raleigh, and in the “True Interest of Holland,” (Eng. Trans. p. 24), it would appear as if more than a half of the full-grown male inhabitants of Holland had been engaged in the herring trade! And yet these statements, which carry absurdity on their face, have been copied over and over again by writers of authority, as if their accuracy could not be questioned. We may observe that the “True Interest of Holland,” now referred to, was not written, as is commonly supposed, by the eminent statesman, John de Witt, but by his friend, M. Delacourt. It originally appeared in 1667.—See Literature of Political Economy, p. 353.

From smeeren, to melt, and berg, a mountain.

Bernard de Reste, “Histoire des Pêches,” i. pp. 39-61.

Rymer’s “Fœdera,” iii. 771.

The antiquity of the houses of Bourbon, Hapsburgh, and Brunswick, is perhaps equal to that of the house of Orange, and they are greatly superior to it in the magnitude of their dominions; but in every other respect they are its inferiors. To have been the principal instruments in rescuing Holland from the despotism of Old Spain, and in the deliverance of England from the tyranny of the Stuarts, is the peculiar distinction of the princes of the house of Orange, and reflects more true glory upon them than they could have derived from the most extensive conquests. There is no single family to whom the civilised world is so largely indebted.

See Essay on the History of the Hanseatic League.

Descrizzione di Paesi Basse. Antwerp, 1567, folio.

“Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollander.”—Miscel. Works, vol. ii. p. 117, Birch’s ed.

Tome i. p. 376.

Commerce de la Hollande, tom. i. p. 212.

Macpherson’s Annals of Commerce, anno 1701.

The Dissertation was translated into English, and published at London in 1751. We have quoted from the translation, pp. 12-15.

Dissertation, pp. 27, 28.

Dictionnaire de l’Economie Politique, tom. iii. p. 720.

Tom. ii. p. 292.

Encyclopédie Méthodique, Commerce, t. ii. p. 650.

Eastern Archipelago, vol. iii. p. 388. See also Temminck, “Possessions Neerlandaises dans l’Inde Archipelagique,” iii. pp. 202-211, where the enormities of the system are pointed out more in detail.

Temminck, iii. 209, etc.

Sometimes to effect this object, they destroyed large quantities of spice.

Crawfurd’s “Eastern Archipelago,” vol. iii. p. 363.

“True Interest of Holland,” p. 27. Lond. 1745.

Crawfurd’s “Eastern Archipelago,” vol. iii. p. 259.

For an account of the constitution, etc., of the Dutch East India Company, see Ricard, “Traité General du Commerce,” i. pp. 37-50, 4to, 1781.

Page 132.

See the interesting work, entitled “Histoire des Peches, etc., dans les Mers du Nord,” tom. i. cap. 24.

Vindication of Commerce and the Arts, p. 90.

Catteau, “Tableau de la Mer Baltique,” tom. ii. p. 175.

L’Art de vérifier les Dates, 3me partie, tom. viii. p. 204.

A series of resolutions were unanimously agreed to by the merchants frequenting the port of Wisby, one of the principal emporiums of the League, in 1287, providing for the restoration of shipwrecked property to its original owners, and threatening to eject from the “consodalitate mercatorum” any city that did not act conformably to the regulations laid down.

Coxe’s “Travels in the North of Europe,” vol. ii. p. 80.

Anderson’s Hist. Com. Anno 1474, etc.

Hist. of America, vol. i. p. 47, 8vo ed. Sismondi has adopted the same theory, ante, p. 316.

Macpherson’s Annals of Commerce, anno 1200; Rees’s “Cyclopædia,” art. “Compass,” etc. Capmany, p. 89, etc.

Questiones Criticas, p. 73-132.

De Contemplatione.

See the authorities already referred to, and Azuni, “Dissertation sur l’Origine de la Boussole,” pp. 134-143.

Storia della Letteratura Italiana, iv. 209, 4to, 1788.

Andres, Progressi, etc., d’Ogni Letteratura, i. pp. 237-246, 4to, 1808. Capmany has animadverted on his statements in the “Questiones Criticas,” pp. 79-82.

Davis’s Chinese, p. 277, ed. 1840.

Capmany, p. 76, etc. The learned Mr Forster, who is anything but disinclined to underrate the obligations we are under to the Arabs, admits that they were ignorant of the compass.—Mahometanism Unveiled, etc., ii. 223.

Azuni, “De la Boussole,” pp. 118-122.

Annals of Commerce, i. 366.

Cicero pro Lege Manilia; Strab. lib. xiv.

Lib. xiv. tit. 2.

Storia Civile del Regno di Napoli, lib. i. cap. 4.

Republiques Italiennes, i. 264.

Lois Maritimes, v. 223.

It is given by Pardessus, in his “Lois Maritimes,” v. pp. 237-251.

Antigua Comercio de Barcelona, tome i. pp. 170-183.

Codigo de las Costumbres Maritimas de Barcelona,” 2 vols. 4to, Discurso Preliminar, pp. xii.-xxv.

It is entitled “Des Lois du Consulat de la Mer,” and is contained in his work on Maritime Law, “Droit Maritime de l’Europe,” i. pp. 390-439. But though learned and able, it confers but little credit on Azuni, by whom it has been literally translated, without a word of acknowledgment, from a work by Jorio, a Neapolitan lawyer, in 4 vols. 4to, printed in 1781. (Pardessus, i. 9.) This work, of which the impression was limited to twenty-five copies, taken at the expense of government, comprises a projected code of maritime law, with historical notices of the previous laws, etc. Jorio is also the author of a “History of Commerce and Navigation” (Storia Del Commercio e Della Navigazione), in 4 vols. 4to, Napoli, 1778-83. It comprises only the commerce and navigation of the ancients; and, though learned, is tedious and uninteresting.

Tome ii. p. 24.

Hubner, in his famous treatise, “De la Saisie Des Batimens Neutres” (2 vols. 12mo, 1759), exaggerates these defects, and speaks much too depreciatingly of the Consolato,—i. p. xi.

Disc. 213, n. 12.

The “Jugements d’Oleron” were published, with a learned commentary by Cleirac, in 1647, in the work entitled “Us et Coutumes de la Mer,” reprinted in 1671.

Sir Leoline Jenkins, “Charge to the Cinque Ports.”

De Jure Maritimo et Navali, Introd.

Pardessus, “Collection,” etc., i. pp. 425-462.

De Jure Belli, lib. ii. cap. 3.

A translation of the Laws of Oleron, Wisby, and the Hanse Towns, is given in the third edition of Malyne’s “Lex Mercatoria.” But it is discreditable to this country that we have no good, or even respectable, edition of these and other maritime laws. The collection of M. Pardessus is, both as regards completeness and critical accuracy, infinitely superior to every other.

But the best edition is that of La Rochelle, 1776, 2 vols. 4to.

See the masterly account of Lord Mansfield in Campbell’s “Lives of the Chief Justices,” ii. 402.

On Insurance, Prelim. Disc.

P. 4.

Heeren’s “Ancient History,” p. 160. Eng. Trans.

Hampton’s Polybius, i. p. 311, ed. 1772.

This is the date given to it by Barbeyrac, “Histoire des Anciens Traitez,” i. 222.

Barron on the “Colonisation of the Free States of Antiquity,” p. 14; Brougham’s “Colonial Policy,” i. 21.

See the Essay on the Origin and Privileges of Ancient Colonies, in Heyne’s “Opuscula Academica,” i. pp. 204-227.

Bougainville, Sur les Colonies, p. 84, etc.

Afterwards Dyrachium, and now Durazzo.

Lib. i.

Annal. lib. xi. cap. 24. Cicero is equally decisive:—“Illud vero sine ulla dubitatione maxime nostrum fundavit imperium, et populi Romani nomen auxit, quod princeps ille, creator hujus urbis, Romulus, fœdere Sabino doeuit, etiam hostibus recipiendis augeri hanc civitatem opportere; cujus auctoritate et exemplo nunquam est intermissa a majoribus nostris largitio et communicatio civitatis.”—Pro Balbo, cap. 13.

Lib. xxii. cap. 13.

Agrar. ii. cap. 27.

Niebuhr, ii. p. 48. Eng. Trans.

On the suppression of the final revolt of the Latins, Velitræ was very severely dealt with. Its walls were pulled down, its lands confiscated, and its inhabitants banished beyond the Tiber. (Liv. lib. viii. cap. 14.) During Hannibal’s invasion of Italy, some of the Roman colonies declined, on pretence of inability, to furnish farther supplies of men and money. This indifference to the common cause was overlooked at the time. But after the defeat of Hannibal, the offending cities were glad, by promptly furnishing the increased supplies which were then demanded, to avert the severe castigation with which they would otherwise have been sure to be visited. (Liv. lib. xxix. cap. 15.)

Decline and Fall, cap. ii.

Beaufort, “Republique Romaine,” ii. 238, 4to.

Smith’s “Dictionary of Antiquities,” art. “Colonia.”

“Effigies parva simulacraque populi Romani.”—Gellius, lib. xvi. cap. 13.

Barron’s “Colonisation of Free States,” pp. 84, 85.

Ad. Att., lib. ii. Ep. 16.

Aix, and Narbonne, both in Gaul.

Lib. ii. cap. 15.

Beaufort, ii. 258.

Ecl. i. lin. 71.

It is stated in the Eloge Historique of Quesnay, in the “Memoires de l’Academie des Sciences” for 1774, that he was the son of an advocat en Parlement, who practised at Montfort, and that he was born at Merey. But it is difficult to suppose, had his father been in such a station, that his education should have been so entirely neglected. In the brief but interesting notice of Quesnay, given by Mr Crawfurd, in a note to the Journal of Madame du Hausset, waiting-maid of Madame Pompadour, and chere amie of Quesnay, in the “Melanges d’Histoire et de Literature” (p. 276), he is said to have been the son of a labourer. This is also the statement of the “Encyclopedie Methodique.” According to the notice prefixed by Dupont to the Eloge of M. Gournay in the third volume of the “Œuvres de Turgot,” Quesnay was the son of a peasant-proprietor.

This incident is related by Crawfurd, “Melanges,” p. 276, and is referred to by Marmontel.

Dr Thomson’s “Lectures on Inflammation,” p. 502.

The “Ephemerides du Citoyen” was begun in 1767, and was, for a few months, conducted by the Abbé Baudeau, and then by Dupont. It was published monthly, and two numbers make a considerable duodecimo volume. The authors were all disciples of Quesnay, and zealous economists. Their discussions embraced only the moral and political sciences; many branches of which they have treated with much ability and acuteness. There is a valuable Eloge of Quesnay in one of the numbers for 1775, written by the Comte d’Albon. The following extract from the approbation given by the Censor to the third number for 1770 is curious: “J’exhorte de nouveau les auteurs de ce Journal, à resister à la tentation de critiquer. Le bonheur du citoyen tient à sa confiance. On peut et l’on doit quelquefois avertir en secret ceux qui sont preposès à l’administration. Mais on ne doit prêcher aux particuliers que leur propre reforme, et non celle de l’etat.”

Principles of Political Economy, Fourth Edition, p. 44, etc.; and Principles of Taxation, Second Edition, p. 50.

Ephemerides, du Citoyen, 1769, No. II. p. 13.

Qu’on maintienne l’entiere liberté du commerce; car la police du commerce intérieur et extérieur la plus sure, la plus exacte, la plus profitable, à la nation et à l’état, consiste dans la pleine liberté de la concurrence.—25th Maxim.

Chalmers affirms (Biographical Dictionary, Vol. xxv. Art. Quesnay), that the “Economists abused their influence by circulating democratical principles!” No statement could be more inaccurate. It would be quite as correct to say, that Locke and his followers abused their influence, by circulating despotical principles.

Journal de Madame du Hausset in the Melanges, etc., p. 277. A striking instance of the confidence placed by the most opposite parties in Quesnay is given in the first volume of Marmontel’s Memoirs.

His portrait, painted at the expense of the Duke of Villeroi, was admirably engraved by Wille.

“Melanges,” p. 343.

Mémoires d’un Pere, i. 286, ed. 1827.

“Wealth of Nations,” p. 307.

See “Sketch of the Life and Writings of Smith.”

He had been Intendant at Martinique, and published the work referred to in (2 vols. 12mo) 1767, after his return from that colony. It gives the best exposition of the system of the Economists. “Ce livre excellent,” says Dupont, “garde dans sa logique, à la fois eloquente et serrée, l’ordre même qu’il expose à ses lecteurs. Toujours evident pour les têtes fortes il a superieurement l’art de se rendre intelligible aux têtes foibles, en saisissant le côté par ou les vêrités les plus ignorés sont intimement liés aux vérités les plus connues: Il presente leur union avec une evidence si naive, que chacun s’imagine avoir pensé le premier des choses auxquelles il ne songea jamais.”—Origine et Progrès d’une Science Nouvelle, p. 15.

Author of a “Memoire sur les Effets de l’Impôt Indirect,” 12mo, 1768.

In his interesting Account of the Life and Writings of Smith.

Mr Stewart has justly applied to Smith what Lord Bacon said of Plato: “Illum, licet ad rempublicam non accessisset, tamen naturâ et inclinatione omnino ad res civiles propensum, vires eo præcipue intendisse; neque de Philosophia Naturali admodum sollicitum esse; nisi quatenus ad Philosophi nomen et celebritatem tuendum, et ad majestatem quandam moralibus et civilibus doctrinis addendam et aspergendam sufficeret.”

It is perhaps unnecessary to observe, that these remarks apply only to the state of education at Oxford at the period when it was attended by Smith. Latterly it has been very much improved; though the constitution of the University opposes formidable obstacles to the introduction of the best system.

Mr Stewart has not mentioned this circumstance, but it rests on the best authority.

“Theory of Moral Sentiments,” part iii. chap. 1.

“Brown’s Lectures,” vol. iv. p. 132, edit. 1824.

The paragraph which follows is extracted from the “Mémoires” of the Abbé Morellet, published in 1821. “J’avais connu Smith dans un voyage qu’il avait fait en France, vers 1762; il parlait fort mal notre langue; mais sa Théorie des Sentimens Moraux, publiée en 1759, m’avait donné une grande idée de sa sagacité et de sa profondeur. Et véritablement je le regarde encore aujourd’hui comme un des hommes qui a fait les observations et les analyses les plus complètes dans toutes les questions qu’il a traitées. M. Turgot, qui aimait ainsi que moi la métaphysique, estimait beaucoup son talent. Nous le vîmes plusieurs fois; il fut présenté chez Helvétius: nous parlâmes théorie commerciale, banque, crédit public, et de plusieurs points du grand ouvrage qu’il méditait. Il me fit présent d’un fort joli portefeuille anglais de poche, qui était à son usage, et dont je me suis servi vingt ans.”—Tome i. p. 237.

For a general view of its principal merits and defects, see the Introductory Discourse prefixed to the edition of the “Wealth of Nations,” by the author of this work.

Sir James Mackintosh has made the following just and discriminating remarks on the great works of Grotius, Locke, Montesquieu, and Smith:—“The ‘Treatise on the Law of War and Peace,’ the ‘Essay on the Human Understanding,’ the ‘Spirit of Laws,’ and the ‘Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations,’ are the works which have most directly influenced the general opinion of Europe during the two last centuries. They are also the most conspicuous landmarks in the progress of the sciences to which they relate. It is remarkable that the defects of all these great works are very similar. The leading notions of none of them can, in the strictest sense, be said to be original, though Locke and Smith in that respect surpass their illustrious rivals. All of them employ great care in ascertaining those laws which are immediately deduced from experience, or directly applicable to practice, but apply metaphysical and abstract principles with considerable negligence. None pursues the order of science, beginning with first elements, and advancing to more and more complicated conclusions; though Locke is, perhaps, less defective in method than the rest. All admit digressions which, though often intrinsically excellent, distract attention, and break the chain of thought. None of them are happy in the choice, or constant in the use, of technical terms; and in none do we find much of that rigorous precision which is the first beauty of philosophical language. Grotius and Montesquieu were imitators of Tacitus,—the first with more gravity, the second with more vivacity; but both were tempted to forsake the simple diction of science in pursuit of the poignant brevity which that great historian has carried to a vicious excess. Locke and Smith chose an easy, clear, and free, but somewhat loose and verbose, style,—more concise in Locke, more elegant in Smith,—in both exempt from pedantry, but not void of ambiguity and repetition. Perhaps all these apparent defects contributed, in some degree, to the specific usefulness of these great works; and, by rendering their contents more accessible and acceptable to the majority of readers, have more completely blended their principles with the common opinions of mankind.”—Article on Stewart’s View of the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Science, in the 71st Number of the Edinburgh Review.

In the copy of the letter now referred to, given by Stewart in his “Life of Smith,” the paragraph relating to rent is omitted. Another paragraph is also omitted, in which Hume expresses his belief that the statement in regard to the seignorage charged on coins in France could not be well-founded. And in this case too he was quite right.—See p. 21 of the Wealth of Nations, in one vol., by the author of this work.

See the concluding paragraph of the “Theory of Moral Sentiments.”

Smellie’s “Lives,” p. 296.

Mr Stewart states that all Hume’s works were written with his own hand; and that the last volumes of his history were printed from the original copy, with only a few marginal corrections.

Account of the Life and Writings of Robertson, p. 142.

Some instances of this sort have been specified in an article in the “Quarterly Review;” but of these some are said to be of doubtful authenticity, and they are all too evidently caricatured to warrant any confidence being placed in them.

Smith’s Works, vol. v. p. 261, edit. 1811.

See an Account of the Life of Mr Ricardo in the “Annual Obituary” for 1823, supposed to be written by one of his brothers.

First Letter to the Right Hon. Robert Peel, by one of his Constituents, p. 61.

The most disinterested and truly patriotic minister that this country has had since the Revolution.

Mr Ricardo made the first of his prominent appearances on the 24th of May 1819, in the debate on the resolutions proposed by Sir Robert Peel, respecting the resumption of cash payments. He did not rise until he was loudly called upon from all sides of the House.

Works, p. 493.

Dated 8th July 1821.

It is perhaps needless to say, that a thing may be expedient and necessary without being just. It may not only be expedient, but indispensable to the safety of a ship in a storm, to throw overboard some portion of the cargo; but it would be most unjust to allow a sacrifice incurred for the advantage of all, to fall exclusively on the owners of the ejected goods. And hence the practice, as old as the Rhodian law, but neglected in the case referred to, of average contributions.