Principles of Political Economy
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 5 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~260,000 words · 1,243 passages
Cite this work
- APAJohn Stuart Mill. (n.d.). Principles of Political Economy. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-stuart-mill/principles-of-political-economy
- MLAJohn Stuart Mill. Principles of Political Economy. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-stuart-mill/principles-of-political-economy.
- ChicagoJohn Stuart Mill. Principles of Political Economy. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-stuart-mill/principles-of-political-economy.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Mill's treatise on economics: production, distribution, exchange, and a final book on what government should and should not do.
Context and history
Published in 1848, it was the economics textbook of a whole generation. The distinction that makes it matter is between the laws of production, which Mill takes to be natural, and those of distribution, which he takes to be human institutions and therefore alterable: that separation is the door through which all later argument about reform enters. He revised successive editions in an increasingly socialist direction, so it is useful to know which edition one has.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
laws of the Romans were all summed up in the idea of enriching the metropolis at the expense of the dependencies. During the middle ages no systematic study was undertaken, and the nature of economic laws was not even suspected. It is worth notice that the first glimmerings of political economy came to be seen through the discussions on money, and the extraordinary movements of gold and silver. About the time of Charles V, the young study was born, accompanied by the revival of learning, the Reformation, the discovery of America, and the great fall in the value of gold and silver. Modern society was just beginning, and had already brought manufactures into existence—woolens in England, silks in France, Genoa, and Florence; Venice had become the great commercial city of the world; the Hanseatic League was carrying goods from the Mediterranean to the Baltic; and the Jews of Lombardy had by that time brought into use the bill of exchange. While the supply of the precious metals had been tolerably constant hitherto, the steady increase of business brought about a fall of prices. From the middle of the fourteenth to the end of the fifteenth century the purchasing power of money increased in the ratio of four to ten. Then into this situation came the great influx of gold and silver from the New World. Prices rose unequally; the trading and manufacturing classes were flourishing, while others were depressed. In the sixteenth century the price of wheat tripled, but wages only doubled; the laboring-classes of England deteriorated, while others were enriched, producing profound social changes and the well-known flood of pauperism, together with the rise of the mercantile classes. Then new channels of trade were opened to the East and West. Of course, men saw but dimly the operation of these economic causes; although the books now began to hint at the right understanding of the movements and the true laws of money.…