Essays in Political Economy (Theoretical an Applied Aspects) Chapter 7. Political Economy and laissez-faire

In this chapter the author examines the status of political economy as a science. At first he discusses the reasons for the fall of interest in the study of political economy in the UK, and oddly enough in London, especially among the educated strata of society. This decline is associated with a reduction in the importance of the principle of laissez-faire, the chief achievement of political economy of the previous years. According to the author, the principle of laissez-faire does not have any scientific basis, but is at best merely a convenient rule of production, rule of thumb, not a scientific doctrine generally robust, but like most other sensible practice having numerous exceptions. Political economy is something more than laissez-faire doctrine, it is the fundamental science, along with astronomy, dynamics, chemistry, physiology etc. The subject of economic science is the phenomena of wealth, while the latter emphasize the phenomena of the material world, but its methods, its purpose, the nature of the conclusions are the same as those sciences.