SECTION III.. Further Reaction Against the Mercantile System.

FURTHER REACTION AGAINST THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM.

Simultaneously with this opposition, the theory of the international balance of trade underwent important refinements, a new and improved edition, so to speak, of old Colbertism.[A2-3-1] Each school is wont to estimate the favorableness of the balance according to the preponderance of that which they consider the most important element in a nation's economy. Thus the population-enthusiasts, after the middle of the 18th century, distinguished the "balance of advantage" from the "merely numerical:" the former is favorable to the country which, by means of its exports, employs and feeds the greatest number of men; the latter to the country with a preponderating importation of money. And they call the former much more important than the latter.[A2-3-2] The great advance which this view constitutes over the old system lies chiefly in two points: that the number and employment of men are evidently, so far as the whole national economy and national life are concerned, a much more important element than the quantity of money in a country; and further, that now, at least, the possibility of a simultaneous profit on both sides is admitted.[A2-3-3] The best writer in this direction, Jos. Tucker, is among the great-grand-parents of the Manchester theory of to-day!

A further advance was made by men who introduced the higher notions of nationality and of the stages of civilization into the theory of international trade. Thus, at about the same time, the socialistic J. G. Fichte, with his shut-in commercial state, and the romantic reactionary, Ad. Müller, with his organic whole of national economy.[A2-3-4] Finally, Fr. List,[A2-3-5] with his "National system of Political Economy," and his severe subordination of the mere "agricultural state" to the "agricultural, manufacturing and commercial state," acknowledges the favorableness of the balance in the nation which by means of the exportation of manufactured articles, the importation of the means of subsistence and of articles to be manufactured, demonstrates and promotes its higher stage of civilization.[A2-3-6]