A Treatise on Political Economy

by Say,Jean-Baptiste

• ISBN13: 9780765806536
• ISBN10: 0765806533
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-03-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) has been described as a revolutionary, an author of scholarly books and popular tracts, a social philosopher, a successful entrepreneur -- a remarkable Renaissance man. He is best known as author of the law of markets, known as Say's law, and as the first to coin the term "entrepreneur". Say's concern with the average interested citizen and his zeal for economic education for the masses is most apparent in his classic work, A Treatise on Political Economy.Readers will see that Say is without doubt a luminary of classical economics. He single-handedly revived the study of political economy from its decline and kept it alive during a difficult period of opposition to liberal ideas. Say had a missionary belief that society will be best served if the principles of political economy are widely disseminated and understood by the citizenry. His organization of the Treatise's subject matter -- production, distribution, and consumption of wealth -- continues to guide authors of economic textbooks to this day. His treatment of the role of the entrepreneur as a contributor to production different from that of either the manager or the capitalist was the most advanced of his times.In their new introduction, Quddus and Rashid note that present-day readers of this volume will benefit from the remarkable freshness of Say's ideas. The longevity of this volume proves that good ideas can successfully withstand the test of time. The role played by the Treatise in spreading liberal economic ideas and especially laissez-faire and free trade in France, the rest of Europe, and in the newly independent United States must also be appreciated. One suspects Say would have likednothing better than to have his Treatise attract entrepreneurs, managers, and other non-specialist readers to economics. Given the emphasis on capitalism, free markets and unrestricted global trade republication of this gre

Author Biography

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) taught at the Conservatoire des Arts and Metiers and College de France.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Transaction Edition	p. vii
Preface to the Sixth Edition	p. 5
Preface to the Fifth Edition	p. 8
Introduction	p. 15
Of the Production of Wealth
Of what is to be understood by the term production	p. 61
Of the different kinds of industry, and the mode in which they concur in production	p. 63
Of the nature of capital, and the mode in which it concurs in the business of production	p. 71
Of natural agents, that assist in the production of wealth, and specially of land	p. 74
On the mode in which industry, capital, and natural agents unite in production	p. 77
Of operations alike common to all branches of industry	p. 79
Of the labour of mankind, of nature, and of machinery respectively	p. 85
Of the advantages and disadvantages resulting from division of labour; and of the extent to which it may be carried	p. 90
Of the different methods of employing commercial industry, and the mode in which they concur in production	p. 99
Of the transformations undergone by capital, in the progress of production	p. 105
Of the formation and multiplication of capital	p. 109
Of unproductive capital	p. 118
Of immaterial products, or values consumed at the moment of production	p. 119
Of the right of property	p. 127
Of the demand or market for products	p. 132
Of the benefits resulting from the quick circulation of money and commodities	p. 140
Of the effect of governments, intended to influence production	p. 143
Effect of regulations prescribing the nature of products	p. 143
Digression--Upon what is called the balance of trade	p. 148
Of the effect of regulations, fixing the manner of production	p. 175
Of privileged trading companies	p. 183
Of regulations affecting the corn trade	p. 189
Of the effect upon national wealth, resulting from the productive efforts of public authority	p. 199
Of colonies and their products	p. 203
Of temporary and permanent emigration, considered in reference to national wealth	p. 213
Of the nature and uses of money
General remarks	p. 217
Of the material of money	p. 220
Of the accession of value a commodity receives, by being vested with the character of money	p. 224
Of the utility of coinage; and of the charge of its execution	p. 228
Of alterations of the standard-money	p. 234
Of the reason why money is neither a sign nor a measure	p. 240
Of a peculiarity, that should be attended to, in estimating the sums mentioned in history	p. 248
Of the absence of any fixed ratio of value between one metal and another	p. 254
Of money as it ought to be	p. 256
Of a copper and brass metal coinage	p. 261
Of the preferable form of coined money	p. 262
Of the party on whom the loss of coin by wear should properly fall	p. 263
Of signs or representatives of money
Of bills of exchange and letters of credit	p. 265
Of banks of deposite	p. 268
Of banks of circulation or discount, and of bank notes, or convertible paper	p. 270
Of paper-money	p. 280
Of the Distribution of Wealth
Of the basis of value, and of supply and demand	p. 284
Of the sources of revenue	p. 292
Of real and relative variation of price	p. 297
Of nominal variation of price, and of the peculiar value of bullion and of coin	p. 306
Of the manner in which revenue is distributed amongst society	p. 314
Of what branches of production yield the most liberal recompense to productive agency	p. 321
Of the revenue of industry
Of the profits of industry in general	p. 324
Of the profits of the man of science	p. 228
Of the profits of the master-agent or adventurer in industry	p. 229
Of the profits of the operative labourer	p. 332
Of the independence accruing to the moderns from the advancement of industry	p. 340
Of the revenue of capital
Of loans at interest	p. 343
Of the profit of capital	p. 354
Of the employments of capital most beneficial to society	p. 357
Of the revenue of land:
Of the profit of landed property	p. 359
Of rent	p. 365
Of the effect of revenue derived by one nation from another	p. 368
Of the mode in which the quantity of the product affects population
Of population, as connected with political economy	p. 371
Of the influence of the quality of a national product upon the local distribution of the population	p. 381
Of the Consumption of Wealth
Of the different kinds of consumption	p. 387
Of the effect of consumption in general	p. 391
Of the effect of productive consumption	p. 393
Of the effect of unproductive consumption in general	p. 396
Of individual consumption, its motives and its effects	p. 401
On public consumption
Of the nature and general effect of public consumption	p. 412
Of the principal objects of national expenditure	p. 421
Of the charge of civil and judicious administration	p. 425
Of charges, military and naval	p. 429
Of the charges of public instruction	p. 432
Of the charges of public benevolent institutions	p. 438
Of the charges of public edifices and works	p. 441
Of the actual contributors to public consumption	p. 444
Of taxation
Of the effect of all kinds of taxation in general	p. 446
Of the different modes of assessment, and the classes they press upon respectively	p. 468
Of taxation in kind	p. 473
Of the territorial or land-tax of England	p. 476
Of national debt
Of the contracting debt by national authority, and of its general effect	p. 477
Of public credit, its basis, and the circumstances that endanger its solidity	p. 482
Appendix	p. 488
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