Preface

Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book I, Chapter I: Library of Economics and Liberty

Author: Title:

Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873)

Principles of Political Economy with some of their

Applications to Social Philosophy Published: London: Longmans, Green and Co., ed. William J. Ashley, 1909. Seventh edition. First published: 1848. For downloads and more, see the Card Catalog.

JohnStuart Mill

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Preface

[1848]
he appearance of a treatise like the present, on a subject on which so many works of merit already exist, may be thought to require some explanation.
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It might, perhaps, be sufficient to say, that no existing treatise on Political Economy contains the latest improvements which have been made in the theory of the subject. Many new ideas,and new applications of ideas, have been elicited by the discussions of the last few years, especially those on Currency, on Foreign Trade, and on the important topics connected more or less intimately with Colonization: and there seems reason that the field of Political Economy should be re-surveyed in its whole extent, if only for the purpose of incorporating the results of these speculations,and bringing them into harmony with the principles previously laid down by the best thinkers on the subject. To supply, however, these deficiencies in former treatises bearing a similar title, is not the sole, or even the principal object which the author has in view. The design of the book is different from that of any treatise on Political Economy which has been produced in England since the workof Adam Smith.

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http://www.econlib.org/library/Mill/mlP1.html (1 of 19)11/2/2004 10:19:41 AM

Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book I, Chapter I: Library of Economics and Liberty

The most characteristic quality of that work, and the one in which it most differs from some others which have equalled or even surpassed it as mere expositions of the general principles ofthe subject, is that it invariably associates the principles with their applications. This of itself implies a much wider range of ideas and of topics than are included in Political Economy, considered as a branch of abstract speculation. For practical purposes, Political Economy is inseparably intertwined with many other branches of Social Philosophy. Except on matters of mere detail, there areperhaps no practical questions, even among those which approach nearest to the character of purely economical questions, which admit of being decided on economical premises alone. And it is because Adam Smith never loses sight of this truth; because, in his applications of Political Economy, he perpetually appeals to other and often far larger considerations than pure Political Economy affords—thathe gives that well-grounded feeling of command over the principles of the subject for purposes of practice, owing to which the Wealth of Nations, alone among treatises on Political Economy has not only been popular with general readers, but has impressed itself strongly on the minds of men of the world and of legislators. It appears to the present writer that a work similar in its object andgeneral conception to that of Adam Smith, but adapted to the more extended knowledge and improved ideas of the present age, is the kind of contribution which Political Economy at present requires. The Wealth of Nations is in many parts obsolete, and in all, imperfect. Political Economy, properly so called, has grown up almost from infancy since the time of Adam Smith; and the philosophy of society, fromwhich practically that eminent thinker never separated his more peculiar theme, though still in a very early stage of its progress, has advanced many steps beyond the point at which he left it. No attempt, however, has yet been made to combine his practical mode of treating his subject with the increased knowledge since acquired of its theory, or to exhibit the economical phenomena of society...