第23章 Chapter IV(10)

Money may exist in excess,as well as in defect,in a country;and the quantity of it required for the purposes of trade willvary with circumstances;its ebb and flow will regulate themselves spontaneously.It is a mistake to suppose that stagnationof trade arises from want of money;it must arise either from a glut of the home market,or from a disturbance of foreigncommerce,or from diminished consumption caused by poverty.The export of money in the course of traffic,instead ofdiminishing,increases the national wealth,trade being only an exchange of superfluities.Nations are economically related tothe world just in the same way as cities to the state or as families to the city.North emphasises more than his predecessorsthe value of the home trade.With respect to the interest of capital,he maintains that it depends,the the price of anycommodity,on the proportion of demand and supply,and that a low rate is a result of the relative increase of capital,andcannot be brought about by arbitrary regulations,as had been proposed by Child and others.In arguing the question of freetrade,he urges that individuals often take their private interest as the measure of good and evil,and would for its sake debarothers from their equal right of buying and selling,but that every advantage given to one interest or branch of trade overanother is injurious to the public.No trade is unprofitable to the public;if it were,it would be given up;when trades thrive,so does the public,of which they form a part.Prices must determine themselves,and cannot be fixed by law;and all forcibleinterference with them does harm instead of good.No people can become rich by state regulations,--only by peace,industry,freedom,and unimpeded economic activity.It will be seen how closely North's view of things approaches to thatembodied some eighty years later in Adam Smith's great work.(12)Locke is represented by Roscher as,along with Petty and North,making up the "triumvirate"of eminent British economistsof this period who laid the foundations of a new and more rational doctrine than that of the mercantilists.But this view ofhis claims seems capable of being accepted only with considerable deductions.His specially economic writings are Considerations of the lowering of Interest and raising the value of Money ,1691,and Further Considerations ,1695.