Principles Of Political Economy
- Автор: Mill John Stuart
- Год: 2022
- Язык: английский
- Год: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
- Жанр: Политика
Электронная книга - «Principles Of Political Economy». Краткое содержание книги:
Beside discussing descriptive issues such as which nations tended to benefit more in a system of trade based on comparative advantage (Mill's answer: those with more elastic demands for other countries' goods), the work also discussed normative issues such as ideal systems of political economy, critiquing proposed systems such as communism and socialism.
Along with A System of Logic, Principles of Political Economy established Mill's reputation as a leading public intellectual. Mill's sympathetic attitude in this work and in other essays toward contemporary socialism, particularly Fourierism, earned him esteem from the working class as one of their intellectual champions.
169. What is the part which instruments of credit, other than bank-notes, play in the exchange of commodities?
170. Mention some of the principal features of a credit crisis.
171. What are inconvertible notes? What objections are there to currency of this description?
172. Can an inconvertible currency be made to maintain the same value as a convertible currency, and, if so, how? Supposing that it can, what objections are there, nevertheless, to it?
173. “Nothing is subject to more variation than paper money, even when it is limited, and has no guarantees; for this simple reason, that, having no value of its own, it depends on the idea that each person forms of those guarantees.” Comment on this passage.
174. How is it that a bad dollar does the work of buying as well as a good one until it is found out? Is it that it makes no difference whether it is made of gold or not?
175. To what extent is a government capable of giving fictitious value to a paper or a metallic currency?
176. In a country with an inconvertible paper currency, how can it be determined whether the issues are excessive or not, and why?
177. What will be the effect if the circulating medium of a country is increased beyond its natural amount—
(1) when the medium is coin? (2) when it is coin and convertible paper? (3) when it is inconvertible paper?178. What is the error involved in the assumption, frequently made by writers and public speakers, that the currency of a country ought to increase in like ratio with its wealth and population?
179. On what does the desire to use credit depend? What connection exists between the amount of notes and coin in circulation and the use of credit?
180. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of a metallic and paper currency.
181. A member of Congress advocated expansion of the paper currency by the following argument: “Our currency, as well as everything else, must keep pace with our growth as a nation.... France has a circulation per capita of thirty dollars; England, of twenty-five; and we, with our extent of territory and improvements, certainly require more than either.” State your opinion of this argument.
182. Trace the effects, immediate and ultimate, on general prices of (a) an extended system of credit, (b) an enlarged issue of paper money, and (c) an addition to the stock of precious metals, respectively.
183. What is the error in the common notion that “a paper currency can not be issued in excess so long as every note represents property, or has a foundation of actual property to rest on”?
184. Explain the action of the check and clearing-house system, and state what is meant by the restoration of barter.
Over-Production.
185. State the relation between supply and demand as aggregates, e.g., between the aggregate supply of commodities in a given community and the aggregate demand for them, and show the bearing of the principle involved on the doctrine of “general over-production.”
186. Prove that the increase of capital and the extension of industry can not lead to a general over-production of commodities.
187. What is the error of those who believe in the danger of over-production?
188. Distinguish “excess of supply” from a “commercial crisis.”
189. Give the substance of Mill's examination of the theories of excess of supply.
190. “When production is fully equal to consumption, every discovery in the arts, or in mechanics, is a calamity, because it only adds to the enjoyment of consumers the opportunity of obtaining commodities at a cheaper rate, while it deprives the producers of even life itself.” Discuss this opinion of Sismondi.
191. Explain the difference in the theories of Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Mill on over-production, and the excess of supply.
Peculiar Cases of Value.
192. It costs as much to produce straw as to produce grain; how, then, do you explain the comparatively low value of straw?
193. Suppose a considerable rise in the price of wool to be foreseen, how should farmers expect the prices of mutton to be affected, and why?
194. Explain the operation of the laws of value by which the relative prices of wool and mutton are regulated.
International Trade and Values.
195. What is the meaning of the statement that “it is not a difference in the absolute cost of production which determines the interchange (of commodities between countries), but a difference in the comparative cost”?
196. What are the advantages which a country derives from foreign trade?
197. Explain clearly the following passage: “We may often, by trading with foreigners, obtain their commodities at a smaller expense of labor and capital than they cost to the foreigners themselves.”
198. Is there any essential difference between trade between country and country, and trade between county and county, or even between man and man? What is the real nature of trade in all cases?
199. Why is it necessary to make any different statement of the laws of value for foreign than for domestic products? What is the cause for the existence of any international trade?
200. How would a serious decline in the efficiency of England, as compared with other countries, in the production of manufactures affect the scale of money incomes and prices in England, and why?
201. Mr. Mill refers the value of home products to the “cost of production”; of foreign products to the “cost of acquisition.” Examine the truth of this distinction.
202. It is said that in the home market the value of commodities depends on the cost of production, in the foreign market on the cost of acquisition. Comment on this distinction.
203. Is the cost of production the regulator of international values?
204. Discuss the following statement: “International value is regulated just as inter-provincial or inter-parishional value is. Coals and hops are exchanged between Northumberland and Kent on absolutely the same principles as iron and wine between Lancashire and Spain.”—Ruskin, “Munera Pulveris,” p. 84.
205. What determines the value of imported commodities?
206. Why does cost of production fail to determine the value of commodities brought from a foreign country? Does it also fail in the case of commodities brought from distant parts of the same country?
207. It is on the matter of fact that there is not much migration of capital and labor from country to country that Mr. Mill has based his whole doctrine of “international trade and international values.” Explain and comment on the above statement.
208. What are the causes which determine for a nation the cost of its imports?
209. It follows from the theory of international values, as laid down by Mill, that the permanent residence of Americans in Europe may enhance the cost of foreign imports to Americans residing at home. Explain in what way.
210. Suppose two countries, A and B, isolated from the rest of the world, and a trade established between them. In consequence of the labor of A becoming less effective, the cost of production of every article which can be produced in that country is greatly increased, but so that the relation between the costs of any two articles remains the same. What, if any, will be the effect of the change on the trade between A and B? Does your answer depend upon your using the phrase “cost of production” in a sense different from that given to it by some economists?