PREFACE ΤΟ THE SECOND EDITION. IN publishing the Second Edition of my Guide, corrected and enlarged, more particularly in the later chapters, it is with much pleasure that I acknowledge the valuable suggestions and advice which have lightened my labours. Still more grateful am I for the services rendered by my excellent colleague, Professor Mariano Mariani, and by my distinguished pupil and friend, Dr. Feruccio Nicolini. The former took upon himself the task of correcting the manuscript and proofs, both of this and other works of mine, and the latter compiled the accurate Alphabetical Index of Authors, which makes the book much more useful to those who wish to study, side by side with the Historical Part, the original writings and sources of information pointed out in the text. PAVIA, December 2, 1877. L. C. GUIDE ΤΟ THE STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. CHAPTER I. DEFINITION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. IN common language economy sometimes means frugality or thrift, sometimes a well-ordered system of things. This is the case, for instance, in such phrases as the economy of the universe, the economy of the human body. The name as thus used always implies the conception of order, proportion, harmony. On the other hand, the etymological meaning of economy (from oikos, house, and vóuoc, law) is the law of the house, the government of the family, or else, though in a subjective sense, the science or art that treats of these matters. Again, in a somewhat more restricted sense economy may mean the management of the patrimony or of the wealth of the family. And when the adjective political (from ós, city or state) is added to the substantive, economy comes to mean the direction of the state, B |