is was, therefore, one
of the earliest, as it was far the most influential, of a series of
books which represent the changes in ideas correlative to the changes
in actual life already described. It has been described as having for
its main object "to demonstrate that the most effectual plan for
advancing a people to greatness is to maintain that order of things
which nature has pointed out, by allowing every man, as long as he
observes the rules of justice, to pursue his own interests in his own
way, and to bring both his industry and his capital into the freest
competition with those of his fellow-citizens." But the most distinct
influence exercised by the writings of Adam Smith and his successors
was not so much in pointing out that it was unjust or unwise to
interfere with men's natural liberty in the pursuit of their
interests, as in showing, as it was believed, that there were natural
laws which made all interference incapable of reaching the ends it
aimed at. A series of works were published in the latter years of the
eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century by Malthus,
Ricardo, Macculloch, James Mill, and others, in which principles were
enunciated and laws formulated which were believed to explain why all
interference with free competition was useless or worse. Not only was
the whole subject of economic relations clarified, much that had been
regarded as wise brought into doubt, and much that had been only
doubted shown to be absurd, but the attainment of many objects
previously sought for was, apparently, shown to be impossible, and to
lie outside of the realm of human control.

It was pointed out, for instance, that because of the limited amount
of capital in existence at any one time, "a demand for commodities is
not a demand for labor;" and therefore a law like that which required
burial in a woollen shroud did not give added occupation to the
people, but only diverted them from one occupation to another. Ricardo
developed a law of wages to the effect that they always tend to the
amount "necessary to enable the laborer to subsist, and to perpetuate
his race without either increase or diminution," and that any
artificial raising or lowering of wages is impossible, or else causes
an increase or diminution in their number which, through competition,
soon brings back the old rate. Rent was also explained by Ricardo as
arising from the differences of quality between different pieces of
land, and