To interest the reader in home problems, twenty-four charts have been scattered throughout the volume, which bear upon our own conditions, with the expectation, also, that the different methods of graphic representation here presented would lead students to apply them to other questions. They are mainly such as I have employed in my class-room. The use and preparation of such charts ought to be encouraged. The earlier pages of the volume have been given up to a "Sketch of the History of Political Economy," which aims to give the story of how we have arrived at our present knowledge of economic laws. The student who has completed Mill will then have a very considerable bibliography of the various schools and writers from which to select further reading, and to select this reading so that it may not fall wholly within the range of one class of writers. But, for the time that Mill is being first studied, I have added a list of the most important books for consultation. I have also collected, in Appendix I, some brief bibliographies on the Tariff, on Bimetallism, and on American Shipping, which may be of use to those who may not have the means of inquiring for authorities, and in Appendix II a number of questions and problems for the teacher's use. In some cases I have omitted Mr. Mill's statement entirely, and put in its stead a simpler form of the same exposition which I believed would be more easily grasped by a student. Of such cases, the argument to show that Demand for Commodities is not Demand for Labor, the Doctrine of International Values, and the Effect of the Prog ress of Society on wages, profits, and rent, are examples. Whether I have succeeded or not, must be left for the experience of the teacher to determine. Many small figures and diagrams have been used throughout the text, in order to suggest the concrete means of getting a clear grasp of a principle. In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to several friends for assistance in the preparation of this volume, among whom are Professor Charles F. Dunbar, Dr. F. W. Taussig, Dr. A. B. Hart, and Mr. Edward Atkinson. J. LAURENCE LAUGHLIN. HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, September, 1884. CONTENTS. § 2. Productive and Unproductive Consumption. § 3. Distinction between labor for the supply of Productive Consumption § 1. Capital is wealth appropriated to reproductive employment. § 2. More capital devoted to production than actually employed in it. §3. Examination of cases illustrative of the idea of capital 75 § 3. Capital is the result of saving, and all Capital is consumed. § 4. Capital is kept up by perpetual reproduction, as shown by the recovery CHAPTER V.-Of Circulating and Fixed Capital. § 1. Fixed and Circulating Capital, what § 2. Increase of fixed capital, when, at the Expense of Circulating, might be 99 CHAPTER VI.-Of Causes affecting the Efficiency of Production. § 1. General causes of superior productiveness . § 2. Combination and division of labor increase productiveness. §3. Advantages of division of labor. § 4. Froduction on a large and production on a small scale CHAPTER VII. Of the Law of the Increase of Labor. § 1. The law of the increase of production depends on those of three ele- § 1. Means for saving in the surplus above necessaries § 4. Examples of excess of this desire CHAPTER IX.-Of the Law of the Increase of Production from Land. §1. The law of production from the soil, a law of diminishing return in proportion to the increased application of labor and capital CHAPTER X.-Consequences of the Foregoing Laws. §1. Remedies for weakness of the principle of accumulation §2. Even where the desire to accumulate is strong, population must be § 1. Individual Property and its opponents . 155 § 4. Of various minor schemes, Communistic and Socialistic § 5. The Socialist objections to the present order of Society examined § 1. Of Competition and Custom 2. The Wages-fund, and the objections to it considered § 3. Examination of some popular opinions respecting wages §4. Certain rare circumstances excepted, high wages imply restraints on § 5. Due restriction of population the only safeguard of a laboring-class CHAPTER III.-Of Remedies for Low Wages. § 1. A legal or customary minimum of wages, with a guarantee of employ- §3. Allowances in aid of wages and the standard of living §4. Grounds for expecting improvement in public opinion on the subject § 5. Twofold means of elevating the habits of the laboring-people; by edu- |