BY THE SAME AUTHOR. SIX CENTURIES OF WORK AND WAGES. The History of English Labor (1250-1883). Octavo, pp. 591 $3.00 "The author supports his argument by so many strong considerations, that he is entitled to the patient study of all who are interested in economic subjects."-N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. "The volume that lies before us is certainly the most important work issued by an English economist since the publication of Tooke's great work on prices and Mill's résumé of English political economy."-N. Y. Herald. THE ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY (LECTURES DELIVERED IN BY JAMES E. THOROLD ROGERS PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD AND NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN MDCCCLXXXVIII PREFACEЕ. THE lectures contained in this volume were delivered in the hall of the author's College (Worcester, Oxford) in his capacity as lecturer in Political Economy to that Society. They were open to all members of the university, and were very numerously attended. I mention this, because, being printed as they were read, the fact may explain or excuse the various local allusions which they contain, and the occasional repetitions of statement which will be found in them. The business of a lecturer is to teach as best he can. I should be the last person to deny that there are economical generalities which are as universal in their application as they are true. Such, for example, are those which affirm that the individual has an inalienable right to lay out his money, or the produce of his labour to the best advantage, and that any interference with that right is an abuse of power, for which no valid excuse whatever has been, or can be, alleged. In other words, there is no answer to the claim of free exchange. Of course I am well aware that an answer has been attempted, and that civil, government constantly invades the right. The invasion is brigandage under the forms of law. Other illustrations can be given, as that the police of society must always regulate the trade in instruments of credit, that certain services are part of the function of government, that the satisfaction of contracts, under an equitable interpretation, must be guaranteed, that the only honest rule in taxation is equality of sacrifice, with what such a rule implies or involves, and so on. It is very likely that in practice government violates these economical principles, and gives more or less plausible reasons for its misconduct. And as wrongs done by government have an enduring effect, it is difficult, if not impossible, to interpret any problem in political economy, without taking into account those historical circumstances of which the present problem is frequently the result, and occasionally to examine the present political situation. In brief, any theory of political economy which does not take facts into account is pretty sure to land the student in practical fallacies of the grossest, and in the hands of ignorant, but influential people, of the most mischievous kind. I could quote these fallacies by the dozen. Some have been over and over again refuted; others still possess vitality. Some are slowly losing their hold, especially in practical politics, which is becoming every day more economical. Many of these errors die hard, especially when they assume the form of a vested interest; sometimes they are maintained as part of the continuity of policy; sometimes they are defended by bold and baseless assertions. In time, they become the subjects of parliamentary compromise, at last they are swept away and repudiated. Any student of the economical laws which can be found in the historical statute book, will constantly find that the wisdom of one generation is the folly of another. Many years ago I began to suspect that much of the political economy which was currently in authority was a collection of logomachies, which had but little relation to the facts of social life. Accident, and some rare local opportunities, led me to study these facts in the social life of our forefathers, facts of which the existence was entirely unsuspected. I began to collect materials, chiefly in the form of prices, and at first of the necessaries of life. But I soon widened my research, and included in my inquiry everything which would inform me as to the social condition of Englishmen, six centuries ago and onwards: Gradually, I came to see how Englishmen lived through these ages, and to learn, what, perhaps, I can never tell fully, the continuous history of social life in this country, up to nearly recent times; or at least till that time in which the modern conditions of our experience had been almost stereotyped. By this study, I began to discover that much which popular economists believe to be natural is highly artificial; that what they call laws are too often hasty, inconsiderate, and inaccurate inductions; and that much which they consider to be |