A Treatise on Political Economy

Antoine Louis Claude

[Sections from the 1817 book by A.L. Claude, edited by Thomas Jefferson]

The poor are formidable in a time of troubles, 'when the secret of their force is revealed to them, and they are excited to abuse it.'

We must observe, with M. Say, that a taste for superfluous expenses has its foundation in vanity … and thus it everywhere substitutes useless for useful expenses, and dries up the source of riches.

Powerful men are unwilling to acknowledge that their existence is an evil, and that their expense is as useless as their persons. …They endeavor to impose by pomp … that they render a great service to the state by swallowing up a great portion of the means of existence, and that there is much merit in knowing how to dissipate great riches. It is incredible to what length of illusion self-love leads, and induces one to exaggerate to himself his personal importance.

All the good of human society is in the good application of labor; all the evil in its loss. …

…the best (taxes are) … on the income of land. …If I prefer the tax on the income of land, …it is because I regard the proprietors of land as strangers to production.

… the most powerful encouragement that can be given to industry of every kind is to let it alone, and not to meddle with it. The human mind would advance very rapidly if only not restrained.

Powerful men are unwilling to acknowledge that their existence is an evil, and that their expense is as useless as their persons. …They endeavor to impose by pomp … that they render a great service to the state by swallowing up a great portion of the means of existence, and that there is much merit in knowing how to dissipate great riches. It is incredible to what length of illusion self-love leads, and induces one to exaggerate to himself his personal importance.

It was the ending of luxury and idleness which gave France her colossal power, after decades of awful catastrophes. Those revenues which previously went to support idle men, passed partly into the hands of the new government, and partly to the laborious class. There was scarcely in France a single idle citizen, or one occupied in useless labours. This is the secret of those prodigious resources always found in the body of a nation in a crisis so great. It then turns to profit all the force which in ordinary times it suffered to be lost, without being aware of it; and we are frightened at seeing now great it is.

Why does the United States double her riches every 25 years? It is because there is scarcely an idler among them, and the rich go to little superfluous expense.

In the ancient order of things, the government would continue to enrich favourites and make great expenditures in useless things, thus enervating the nation.