第72章 Ricardo(13)

His Principles of Political Economy 58became a text-book,to be finally superseded by John Stuart Mill.Other works statistical and bibliographical showed great industry,and have still their value.He was so much the typical economist of the day that he has been identified with Carlyle's M'Crowdy,the apostle of the dismal science.59He writes,however,with enough vivacity and fervour of belief in his creed to redeem him from the charge of absolute dulness.An abler thinker was Colonel (Robert)Torrens (1780-1864).60He had served with distinction in the war;but retired on half-pay,and was drawn by some natural idiosyncrasy into the dry paths of economic discussion.He was already confuting the French economists in 1808;and was writing upon the Bank-charter Act and the Ten Hours'Bill in 1844.Torrens held himself,apparently with justice,to be rather an independent ally than a disciple of Ricardo,His chief works were an essay upon the 'External Corn-trade'(1815)61and an 'Essay on the Production of Wealth'(1821).Ricardo pronounced his arguments upon the Corn-trade to be 'unanswered and unanswerable,'62and he himself claimed to be an independent discoverer of the true theory of rent.63He was certainly a man of considerable acuteness and originality.In these writings we find the most sanguine expressions of the belief that political economy was not only a potential,but on the verge of becoming an actual,science.Torrens observes that all sciences have to pass through a period of controversy;but thinks that economists are emerging from this stage,and rapidly approaching unanimity.In twenty years,says this hopeful prophet,there will scarcely exist a 'doubt of its'(Political Economy's)'fundamental principles.'64Torrens thinks that Ricardo has generalised too much,and Malthus too little;but proposes,with proper professions of modesty,to take the true via media,and weld the sound principles into a harmonious whole by a due combination of observation and theory.The science,he thinks,is 'analogous to the mixed mathematics.'65As from the laws of motion we can deduce the theory of dynamics,so from certain simple axioms about human nature we can deduce the science of Political Economy.M'Culloch,at starting,insists in edifying terms upon the necessity of a careful and comprehensive induction,and of the study of industrial phenomena in different times and places,and under varying institutions.66This,however,does not prevent him from adopting the same methods of reasoning,'induction'soon does its office,and supplies a few simple principles.from which we may make a leap to our conclusions by a rapid,deductive process.

The problems appear to be too simple to require long preliminary investigations of fact.Torrens speaks of proving by 'strictly demonstrative evidence'or of 'proceeding to demonstrate'by strict analysis.67This is generally the preface to one of those characteristic arithmetical illustrations to which Ricardo's practice gave a sanction.We are always starting an imaginary capitalist with so many quarters of corn and suits of clothes,which he can transmute into any kind of product,and taking for granted that he represents a typical case.This gives a certain mathematical air to the reasoning,and too often hides from the reasoner that he may be begging the question in more ways than one by the arrangement of his imaginary case.One of the offenders in this kind was Nassau Senior (1790-1864),a man of remarkable good sense,and fully aware of the necessity of caution in applying his theories to facts.He was the first professor of Political Economy at Oxford (1825-1830),and his treatise 68lays down the general assumption of his orthodox contemporaries clearly and briefly.

The science,he tells us,is deducible from four elementary propositions;the first of which asserts that every 'man desires to obtain additional wealth with as little sacrifice as possible;while the others state the first principles embodied in Malthus's theory of population,and in the laws corresponding to the increasing facility of manufacturing and the decreasing facility of agricultural industry.69As these propositions include no reference to the particular institutions or historical development of the social structure,they virtually imply that a science might be constructed equally applicable in all times and places;and that,having obtained them.

We need not trouble ourselves any further with inductions.Hence it follows that we can at once get from the abstract 'man'to the industrial order.

We may,it would seem,abstract from history in general.This corresponds to the postdate explicitly stated by M'Culloch.'A state,'he tells us,'is nothing more than an aggregate of individuals':men,that is,who 'inhabit a certain tract of country.'70He infers that 'whatever is most advantageous to them'(the individuals)'is most advantageous to the state.'

Self-interest,therefore,the individual's desire of adding to his 'fortune,'is the mainspring or causa causans of all improvement.71This is,of course,part of the familiar system,which applies equally in ethics and politics,M'Culloch is simply generalising Adam Smith's congenial doctrine that statesmen are guilty of absurd presumption when they try to interfere with a man's management of his own property.72This theory,again,is expressed by the familiar maxim pas trop gouverner,which is common to the whole school,and often accepted explicitly.73It will be quite enough to notice one or two characteristic results.The most important concern the relation between the labourer and the capitalist.Malthus gives the starting-point.