BOOK II. MODERN PHILOSOPHY. (I.) NATURAL LAW: CHAPTER VII. THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM AND THE PHYSIOCRATS.

The principles of the mercantile system were not taught by any school. The motive of governments in adopting the mercantile policy could hardly have been disinterestedly to benefit the merchants and manufacturers. The mercantile system was no immediate consequences of the decay of feudalism and the rise of powerful monarchies. The practical services of the physiocrats were not small. They gave an impulse to scientific agriculture both in and out of France. Their services to economic science can hardly be overestimated and their political philosophy had a greater influence than has always been recognized.