A HISTORY OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CON- CRITICAL DIGESTS OF LEADING DEBATES BY MARION MILLS MILLER, LITT.D. (PRINCETON) EDITOR OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN," AMERICAN HISTORY," ETC. GREAT DEBATES IN PART II THE LAND AND SLAVERY QUESTIONS 1607-1860 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS THE PREFACE HE controversies treated in Volume I., dealing with purely political or constitutional questions arising in sequence of time in our national development, invited and even compelled presentation in chronological order. The controversies in the present volume, being economic, were largely synchronous, both with each other and with the constitutional debates. So, while each controversy will be presented in chronological order, some other element than that of priority must be taken to decide precedence of subjects. Accordingly the author has gone to economic science to find in its fundamental principles a logical order of discussion. Political economy is the science which treats of the production and distribution of wealth. Production is application of energy to satisfy human desire. The energy outside of man, i. e., natural energy, is called land. The energy, manual and mental, within man, i. e., human energy, is called labor. Labor applied to land produces wealth. That part of wealth used to produce more wealth by economizing natural and human energy is called capital. The process of distribution is complementary to that of production in every part. To land is distributed, i. e., assigned as its share of production, rent; to labor, wages; to capital, 303003 |