New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-07-14
NATIONAL ECONOMY.

NATIONAL ECONOMY.
Political economy so far its SUBJECTS are capa-
bic of scientific array, must necessarily be limited to
such abstract general principles as are common to all
nations, and to such conditions as are common to all
men, in all times and places. In the matter of inter
national commerce. has but little to teach beside the
necessity of exchanges between nations which dis
similar in their natural or acquired capabilities of pro-
duction-of all things in which they can be mutually
! Lelplu--n all complimentary reciprocities. II
teaches abstinence from war; the establishment Of in
ternatona law for the government of their intercourse
according to justice and amity, with freedom OF COM
munication as to all things that may promote their
moral and material interests. 1t may find authority
for such doctrines in the reason Of things fOrtfy them
by the history of the past, and interpret all its data
into rules for the guidance of the present toward the
| futures but further than the common law Of all ma
tons rules the well being Of particular nation, it
cannot go without losing its science and practical use
flness in a dreamy aud abstract philanthrophy.
But we seriously doubt the claim of political econ
omy to the title of a science in anything like the
sense that the term is applied to chemistry astronomy,
music or physiology. To these, first principles and
orderly and perfect while the affairs OF men in society
are variable dsordery and imperfect, aud, therefore,
their treatment is necessarily remedial and It's prnci.
pies and policy do not admit Of being thrown INTO
logical formula Of nyariabe and universal applica-
ton. This is not an undertaking. of the practice OF
medicine legislation, any Of the empirical forms of
charity required By the condition of things and well
adapted TO the service. We only wish TO escape the
tyranny ofwords which mean too much, and TO avoid
the imposture ofsystems more remarkable for sym
metry and seemings than for actual service.
A system of political economy to be Of any service
must be adapted to the special conditions of the peo-
pie with whose affairs it is concerned But there are
now existing in the world nations in the savage state
Others pastora; Others purely agricultural; Others
mixed agricultural and manufacturing, and Others
STILL who are agricultural, manufacturing and COM
1nercal; and all Of them yet further varied by
their respective degrees Of Advancement in each of
these Moreover, some of them occupy the frigid,
some the torrid, and the temperate zone, with
their capabilities and destinies inhexiby determined
or greatly influenced by climatic laws. Nor is ma
tonal character to be overlooked. They are not all
equally capable Of everything, all the races
Of men be treated as homogeneous equal in the
things with which economical systems are concerned.
Aor have we yet exhausted the diyersties of cond-
tons with which practical system is necessarily oc-
cuped; for the same people, if they are hvorably
situated in temperate climate, with sufficient ex-
tent of territory and variety of industrial agencies
mist in the progress of their fortunes, pass through
all the stages from the simplest agriculture up to the
most complete diyersifcation of productive industry
and international commerce Now, is apparent that
no code of doctrine and practical economy can be
true for all these differences of condition in which
States are actually found and that system will suit
the same people in circumstances materially changed.
The Esquimaux Of the Arctic region may have en-
inyarable public law simply because they need none
of any kind In the Torrid Zone there is such con-
stancy of physical condition. and such limitations of
industrial p.oductiyeness, and their communities are
so far removed from the class of progressive nations
that the primal laws Of nature need but little modlf-
cation for their political uses Peoples who cannot
considerable diversity their industries, and who de.
pend upon monopoly of their special products, have
their affairs well out OF the reach Of legislative inter-
ference For all such these, the let alone policy,
policy, is precisely the thing from the beginning
to the end Of their theory of their interests
is just what work on botany is TO the vegetable
world-descriptiye, but not in any sense directory
that is they can have logical and nyariable doc
trine Of industrial and commercial policy, because
they need none whatever as the planets held their
courses before astronomy was invented, and
had eclipses still occur exactly as though they
never been observed predicted. These are the
countries in which the maxim " buy cheap and sell
dear is the whole philosophy Of trade; there lie the
nations for which Adam Smiths summary philoso.
ply of political economy suiices. Light taxes, in
ternal order and general peace" is their system and
the whole of il. With them, exchangeable values is
everything, the growth Of national power nothing.
Only secure heir national independence, and unre-
strcted trade trade without law is their rule In
this, the extremes meet as in other hngs-the people
who have no industry to protect against foreign az
greson and those whose industrial supremacy makes
it their interest to practice aggression upon all the
world beside, are naturally enough outand.out free
traders
But nations in the temperate climates, we'll pro-
vided for progress, and with future before them,
have their fortunes to make or mar by their own man.
! agement Their destnies are not determined, nor
their conditions fixed by vertical sun in the heavens
continent of ice on the EARTH They are TO master
the elements, not submit to them; and that "natural
law or naturalness Of law, which rules wild ami.
mails and men who cannot materially modify their
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