Political Economy

(po-lite-kal-.) [From Gr. politikos, belonging to the state.) The science which treats of the administration of the revenues of a nation; or the management and regulation of its resources, and productive property and labor. It is a term of very comprehensive meaning, and includes all the measures by which property and labor are directed in the best manner to the succe of individual industry and enterprise, and to the public prosperity. P. E. considers the production and distribution not of those things which are merely useful, but of those things which are of value. The air is very useful, but it commands no price; bread is useful, but its utility and its value are two different things. The wealth of a country, which forms the subject of P. E., consists in what is capable of appropriation. A thing maybe very useful, but it may be attainable by every one -thus, the light of day. Labor is the only source of wealth, since it is the only source of value; it does not create matter, but it makes it suitable to our wants; and is required generally in a variety of ways to appropriate the material, to convey it from place to place, and most usually to give it some peculiar form. As wealth depends on labor, everything that facilitates labor adds to the wealth of a country. But this is effected by a proper division of employments and a judicious application of capital. [s. 720]