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Manual of Political Science: Arranged in Chapters, with Questions at the End of Each, and Preceded by an Introductiory Chapter
Manual of Political Science Arranged in Chapters with Questions at the End of Each and Preceded by an Introductiory Chapter Author:Edward Rupert Humphreys General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1855 Subjects: History / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select ... more »from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 12 CHAPTER II. WEALTH. As political economy has been denned above to be the science which treats of the various phenomena of wealth, and as wealth is defined to be, " all those things which are acquired by labour, and possess value (i. e. which are transferable or exchangeable, either for limited or indefinite periods) and are limited in supply ; " and as there can be no exchanges -- no buying or selling -- without division of labour; the consideration of the several theories relating to wealth naturally constitutes the next. department of the subject. The propriety of including in the definition of wealth the quality of being limited in supply will become evident when we recollect that there are many things of incalculable value to man, things which not only supply him with the highest enjoyments, but are in some cases, indispensable to his physical existence, which do not, however, come under the denomination of wealth ; because Providence has mercifully and beneficently supplied them to all creatures without reserve or distinction; so that they can never belong to any one human being more than to all others, and can never be made the subject of traffic or exchange, and have, therefore,' no commercial value. These are, of course, the light and heat of the sun, the atmosphere which supports all animal and vegetable life, feeds combustion, and transmits light, sound, and odours ; the waters of seas and rivers, with some exceptions, and the privilege of contemplating the manifold beauties and wonders of creation, artificial imitations of which, such as figures and models,...« less