Hume, who considered the town as the proper scene for a man of letters, made many ineffectual attempts to prevail upon him to leave his retirement. During this residence of Dr Smith at Kirkaldy, he was engaged chiefly in maturing his
speculations upon Economical Science. At length, in 1776, the "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," made its appearance: a
work which holds nearly the same rank in political economy, that Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding does in the philosophy of the inind, or the Principia of Newton in astronomy.
Our limits prevent us from giving anything like a particular analysis of this great work, but we shall endeavour to give some brief account of it. We shall notice very shortly the state of the science at the time when Dr Smith wrote the different leading principles which the illustrious author endeavours to establish, and the principal merits and defects of the work.
The object of political economy is to point out the means by which the industry of man may be rendered most productive of the necessaries, conveniencies, and luxuries of life; and to ascertain the laws which regulate the distribution of the various products which constitute wealth among the different classes of society. Though these inquiries be in the highest degree interesting and important, the science of political economy is comparatively of recent origin. Il was not to be expected that, among the Greeks and Romans, who considered it degrading to be engaged in manufactures or commerce, and among whom such employments were left to slaves—where moralists considered the indulgence of luxury to be an evil of the first magnitude; that the science which treats of the best methods of acquiring wealth, should be much attended to. At the revival of letters, these ancient prejudices still maintained a powerful influence, and, combined with other causes, long prevented philosophers from turning their attention to the subject.
Ihe first inquirers in political economy were led away by a prejudice, which is, perhaps, one of the most deeply rooted in the human mind; namely, that wealth consists solely in gold and silver. From this mistake grew up that system of commercial policy, which has been denominated the mercantile system, according to the principles laid down, in which the commerce of Europe was, in a great measure, regulated at the time when Dr Smith's work appeared. The leading doctrine of the commercial system was, that the policy of a country should be directed solely to the multiplication of the precious metals. Hence the internal commerce of a nation came to be entirely overlooked, or viewed only as subsidiary to the foreign: and the advantage derived from foreign trade was estimated by the excess of the value of the goods exported, above that of those which were imported; it being supposed that the balance must be brought to the country in specie. To the radical mistake upon which the mercantile system was founded, may be traced those restrictions upon the importation, and the encouragement given to the exportation of manufactures, which, till lately, distinguished the commercial policy of all the nations in Europe. It was imagined that, by such regulations, the excess of the value of exports over imports, to be paid in gold, would be increased.
During the seventeenth, and the earlier part of the eighteenth century, various pamphlets had appeared, in which some of the fundamental principles of political economy were distinctly enough laid down, and which had a tendency to show the futility of the mercantile theory. For a particular account of these publications, and their various merits, we must refer to Mr M'Culloch's able Introductory Discourse to the last edition of the "Wealth of Nations." We shall here only remark, that though several of these treatises contain the germs of some of the truths to be found in the "Wealth of Nations;" yet
