The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Preface.
• Advertisement.
• Letters, &c.
• Letter I.
• Letter II.
• Letter III.
• Letter IV.
• Letter V.
• Advertisement.
• Catechism of Political Economy; Or, Familiar Conversations On the Manner In Which Wealth Is Produced, Distributed, and Consumed.
• Chapter the First.: On the Composition of Wealth and the Use of Money.
• Chapter II.: On the Utility and Value of Products.
• Chapter III.: On Production.
• Chapter IV.: On the Operations Common to All the Species of Industry.
• Chapter V.: On Capital and Land.
• Chapter VI.: On the Formation of Capital.
• Chapter VII.: On the Manner In Which the Value of Products Is Established, and of the Charges of Production.
• Chapter VIII.: On the Profits of Industry, Capital, and Land; That Is, Income.
• Chapter IX.: On Wages, Interest, and Rent.
• Chapter X.: On Incomes Founded On Immaterial Products.
• Chapter XI.: On Consumption In General.
• Chapter XII.: On Private Consumption.
• Chapter XIII.: On Public Consumption.
• Chapter XIV.: On Public Property and Taxes.
• Chapter XV.: On Public Loans.
• Chapter XVI.: On Property, and the Nature of Riches.
• Chapter XVII.: On the Real and Nominal Price.
• Chapter XVIII.: On Money.
• Chapter XIX.: On Signs Representing Money.
• Chapter XX.: On Markets.
• Chapter XXI.: On Regulations Or Restraints of Industry.
• Chapter XXII.: On Importations, Duties, and Prohibitions.
• Chapter XXIII.: On Exportation.
• Chapter XXIV.: On Population.
• Chapter XXV.: On Colonies.
• Erratum.

ADVERTISEMENT.

This Work does not pretend to furnish the means of becoming rich: it professes only to point them out. Wealth cannot be produced from nothing, but a clock may be made with wheels; and, as men may be taught to make a clock, so they may be taught to make what is called Riches.

Many men have the materials within their reach who do not suspect it; and as for those who have them not, is it useless even to them to know where they are to be found, and how they may be employed?

Some men may be better able than others to profit by the perusal of this little Work; but I venture to assert, that there is no person who may not derive from it some advantage.

It has been asked, why I did not publish this Catechism, as being more elementary, before my “Traité d’Economie Politique.” The reason is evident. If I had not previously proved in a work of detail, by numerous examples and strict reasoning, that Political Economy, in the present state of the science, is only the exposition of what is passing every day; and that all the facts are so intimately connected together, that it has become easy to refer to their causes, and to deduce from them satisfactory results, every thing must have been taken upon my credit; and I am far from pretending to so much deference.

An elementary work is necessarily somewhat dogmatical. But when truths are not promulgated under the sanction of an acknowledged authority, it is not only necessary to be in the right, but to prove that one is so. And how could these proofs have been established in so small a compass, and at the same time have been rendered intelligible to the uninformed?

This task is however no longer requisite, as the proofs of every thing, which might appear to be mere assertion, are to be found in a more extensive work, which has been adopted by foreigners as well as the French, and strengthened by the approbation of men, the most versed, in Europe, in the practice as well as the theory of Values.

Those who possess the most elevated minds have generally most goodness of heart. They will feel what a happy influence the true principles of Political Economy, better understood, are capable of exerting on the lot of mankind; and perhaps they will judge, that my efforts to spread them are not unworthy of their sanction.

J. B. SAY.