Lectures on Political Economy |
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able abundance advantage Bank Bank of England bankers become called capital Capitalist cent cheap colonies commercial Competition consumer corn Corn Laws cottier Crown Estates cultivation currency custom Debt demand desire Durham University duty economic Economists Emigration enactments England English English peasant estates evil expense exports farm farmer forced foreign fraction France freeholders gains give gold and silver Government Hence improvement increase Indirect Taxation industry interest Ireland J. S. Mill labour land landlord lecture less lessen limited loss luxuries manufacturers ment merchant métayer moral nation paid Parliament payment peasants permanent persons piastres political Poor Laws population principle private property produce Profits purchase rent result rich rience rise sell seller soil sold sumer suppose taxation theory things tion tithe town trade Turkey wages wealth whole workmen
Popular passages
Page 205 - ... the labour and capital which had been employed in producing with a view to exportation, would find employment in producing those desirable objects which were previously brought from abroad : or, if some of them could not be produced, in producing substitutes for them.
Page 338 - I have tried the plan for seventeen years, and have found it to answer much beyond my hopes ; inasmuch as it completely identifies the workmen with the success of the farm, besides giving me full liberty to travel on the Continent for a year at a time ; and on my return, I have always found that the farm had prospered more than when I was present.
Page 205 - The expression, surplus produce, seems to imply that a country is under some kind of necessity of producing the corn or cloth which it exports ; so that the portion which it does not itself consume, if not wanted and consumed elsewhere, would either be produced in sheer waste, or, if it were not produced, the corresponding portion of capital would remain idle, and the mass of productions in the country would be diminished by BO much.
Page 129 - Richard I., after selling some of them, and using the purchase money, — took back the lands himself, alleging that the sale had been essentially beyond his power. However, after the Abbey Lands had been distributed among the Aristocracy by Henry VIII., Parliament was dumb, so many having eaten the sop ; and the alienation of Crown Lands went on, until at last the whole taxation of the country, which ought now, as originally, to have been defrayed by rent of land, was shifted from land to trade...
Page 266 - ... fact remains that the national debt — now, in round numbers, about ^800,000,000 — is a mortgage laid upon taxes ; and this is a great evil, as also a great breach of the much boasted, but much violated English constitution; for it is the great privilege of each House of Commons in turn to exact taxes at pleasure, and no existing House has any right to engage that taxes shall be voted by its successor. " Our national debt is, therefore, a national evil, and has been fixed on us and posterity...
Page 92 - ... Ulster ? (10). 1855. — 1st February. MR. CHADWICK. — Under what circumstances are Governments justified in distributing the present charges of Wars, by loans payable by people who have not undertaken them ? (10). 1855.— 1st March. MR. MERIVALE. — Is there any foundation for the proposition that the Interest of money, after deducting what must be called allowance for risk, that is the portion of it which may be called insurance, must be equal all over the civilized world ? (14). o 2 1855.—...
Page 129 - The illegal alienation of the Crown Estates, partly by sale and partly by gift, is a scandalous chapter in English history ... a gigantic fraud on the nation.
Page 133 - ... chattels. We reply that the law is immoral and unjust, and that no one could sell what was not his own; and that no number of immoral sales can destroy the rights of man. All this equally applies to land. The land was not regarded as private property by our old law ; it is not to this day treated by the law on the same footing as movables ; and there are many other persons who have rights in a piece of land, besides him who gets rent from it. The lord of the manor has his dues, but this does...
Page 278 - It is well known that much waste land has been brought under culture for several years past This has been effected chiefly by allowing cottiers to take in a portion of the mountain side ; and when they had tilled it for a few years, and partially reclaimed it, calling on them either to give it up to the landlord, or to pay a rent In some cases they probably retained it, and became permanent tenants ; but in others, they gave it up, and commenced anew, not unfrequently...
Page 132 - Sutherland ever could have morally, or ever ought to have legally, a greater right over his estates than the King or Queen had, to whom his ancestor originally did homage for them. A baron, in his highest plenitude of power, has rather less right over the soil, than the King from whom he derived his right : and a king of England might as well claim to drive all his subjects into the sea, as a baron to empty his estates. We read how William the Conqueror burnt villages and ejected the people by hundreds,...