It is a matter of common notoriety that while economists, in this country at least, have during the last three-quarters of a century achieved a series of great successes, the science of Political Economy itself, or Economics as it may more aptly, and is now becoming more usually termed, is in a most unsatisfactory state; and, indeed, a very large number of persons deny that there is any intelligible science of Economics at all.

As a matter of fact, economists throughout the world are divided into two camps - one division holds that it is the science which treats of the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth; but the other division, which is now enlisting new adherents every day, and is gradually gaining the ascendency throughout the world, defines it as the science of commerce or exchanges.

I shall show you a little further on that these two expressions originally meant exactly the same thing, and the main question which I shall submit for your determination is, which of these two expressions is the more suitable for the science in its state of development at the present day?

It is very commonly supposed that Adam Smith was the founder of political economy. A once-prominent politician is reported to have said that political economy and free trade sprang complete from the head of Adam Smith, as Minerva did from the head of Jupiter; but such ideas are wholly erroneous. Political economy was founded by a series of illustrious philosophers in France, in the middle of the last century, and it was they who devised the expression, Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth; and I shall show you that the present deplorable state of the science is due to modern writers having entirely misapprehended its original meaning.

But, at all events, all economists are agreed that their science treats exclusively about wealth, and that it is the science of wealth. We have then to inquire, What is a science? and what is the science of wealth?

What, then, is a science? A science is a body of phenomena or facts, all based upon some single general idea or quality; and it is a fundamental law of natural philosophy that all quantities whatever which possess that quality, however diverse they may be in other respects, must be included in that science; and the object of the science is to discover and ascertain the laws which govern the phenomena, or govern the relations of the quantities of which the science consists.

If, then, economics is the science of wealth, the first thing to be done is to determine what that single general quality is which constitutes things wealth, then to discover all the various kinds of quantities which possess that single quality, and then to determine the laws which govern the relations of all these various quantities.