An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations. - Designed To Shew How The Prosperity Of The British Empire - May Be Prolonged

William Playfair

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Political Economy

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• Publié par: movung
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 54
• Langue: English
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The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the
Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations., by William Playfair
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Title: An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations.
Designed To Shew How The Prosperity Of The British Empire
May Be Prolonged
Author: William Playfair
Release Date: August 21, 2005 [EBook #16575]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DECLINE AND FALL OF NATIONS ***
Produced by Robert W. Jones from an original print of the
1st edition held by The British Library, London. (Shelfmark:
432d12/432.d.12). The text was then compared against that
of an original print of the 2nd edition held by the Library
(Archives & Rare Books), London School of Economics and
Political Science.
This book was copy typed by R.W. Jones ([e-mail]) from an original print of the 1st edition held by
The British Library, London. (Shelfmark: 432d12/432.d.12).
The resultant text was then compared, using a text to speech player, against an original print of the 2nd edition
held by the Library (Archives & Rare Books), London School of Economics and Political Science. This e-text
incorporates the (very few) modifications included in the later edition.
Images of the four Charts are not included nor were they or the Indexes of the respective editions compared.
{Here appears before the fly-leaf the first chart, entitled

"Chart
of
Universal Commercial History,
from the year 1500 before the Christian Era
TO THE PRESENT YEAR 1805.
being a space of Three Thousand three hundred and four years,
by William Playfair.
Inventor of Linear Arithmetic"}




AN
INQUIRY
INTO THE
PERMANENT CAUSES
OF THE
DECLINE AND FALL
OF
POWERFUL AND WEALTHY NATIONS,


ILLUSTRATED BY FOUR ENGRAVED CHARTS.

---o0o---

By

WILLIAM PLAYFAIR,

AUTHOR OF NOTES AND CONTINUATION OF AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE
AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, BY ADAM SMITH, LL.D. AND
INVENTOR OF LINEAR ARITHMETIC, &C.

---o0o---


DESIGNED TO SHEW HOW THE
PROSPERITY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
MAY BE PROLONGED.

===========================


____________________
THE SECOND EDITION
____________________


LONDON:

PRINTED FOR GREENLAND AND NORRIS, BOOKSELLERS, FINSBURY-SQUARE.
1807.

W. Marchant, Printer, 3 Greville-Street, Holborn.

---o0o---




P R E F A C E.
---o0o---

IF it is of importance to study by what means a nation may acquire wealth and
power, it is not less so to discover by what means wealth and power, when once acquired, may
be preserved.

The latter inquiry is, perhaps, the more important of the two; for many nations have
remained, during a long period, virtuous and happy, without rising to wealth or greatness; but
there is no example of happiness or virtue residing amongst a fallen people.

In looking over the globe, if we fix our eyes on those places where wealth formerly
was accumulated, and where commerce flourished, we see them, at the present day, peculiarly
desolated and degraded.

From the borders of the Persian Gulf, to the shores of the Baltic Sea; from Babylon
and Palmyra, Egypt, Greece, and Italy; to Spain and Portugal, and the whole circle of the
Hanseatic League, we trace the same ruinous [end of page #iii] remains of ancient greatness,
presenting a melancholy contrast with the poverty, indolence, and ignorance, of the present race
of inhabitants, and an irresistible proof of the mutability of human affairs.

As in the hall, in which there has been a sumptuous banquet, we perceive the
fragments of a feast now become a prey to beggars and banditti; if, in some instances, the
spectacle is less wretched and disgusting; it is, because the banquet is not entirely over, and the
guests have not all yet risen from the table.

From this almost universal picture, we learn that the greatness of nations is but of
short duration. We learn, also, that the state of a fallen people is infinitely more wretched and
miserable than that of those who have never risen from their original state of poverty. It is then
well worth while to inquire into the causes of so terrible a reverse, that we may discover whetherthey are necessary, or only natural; and endeavour, if possible, to find the means by which
prosperity may be lengthened out, and the period of humiliation procrastinated to a distant day.

Though the career of prosperity must necessarily have a termination amongst every
people, yet there is some reason to think that the degradation, which naturally follows, and
which has always followed hitherto, may be [end of page #iv] averted; whether it may be, or
may not be so, is the subject of the following Inquiry; which, if it is of importance to any nation
on earth, must be peculiarly so to England; a nation that has risen, both in commerce and power,
so high above the natural level assigned to it by its population and extent. A nation that rises still,
but whose most earnest wish ought to be rather directed to preservation than extension; to
defending itself against adversity rather than seeking still farther to augment its power.

With regard to the importance of the Inquiry, there cannot be two opinions; but,
concerning its utility and success, opinions may be divided.

One of the most profound and ingenious writers of a late period, has made the
following interesting observation on the prosperity of nations. {1}

"In all speculations upon men and human affairs, it is of no small moment to
distinguish things of accident from permanent causes, and from effects that cannot be altered. I
am not quite of the mind of those speculators, who seem assured, that necessarily, and, by the
constitution of things, all states have the same period of infancy, manhood, and decrepitude, that
are found in the individuals who compose them. The objects which are


---
{1} Mr Burke.
-=-
[end of page #v]


attempted to be forced into an analogy are not founded in the same classes of existence.
Individuals are physical beings, subject to laws universal and invariable; but commonwealths are
not physical, but moral essences. They are artificial combinations, and, in their proximate
efficient cause, the arbitrary productions of the human mind.

We are not yet acquainted with the laws which necessarily influence that kind of
work, made by that kind of agent. There is not, in the physical order, a distinct cause by which
any of those fabrics must necessarily grow, flourish, and decay; nor, indeed, in my opinion, does
the moral world produce any thing more determinate on that subject than what may serve as an
amusement (liberal indeed, and ingenious, but still only an amusement) for speculative men. I
doubt whether the history of mankind is yet complete enough, if ever it can be so, to furnish
grounds for a sure theory on the internal causes, which necessarily affect the fortune of a state. I
am far from denying the operation of such causes, but they are infinitely uncertain, and much
more obscure, and much more difficult to trace than the foreign causes that tend to depress, and,
sometimes, overwhelm society."

The writer who has thus expressed his scepticism on this sort of inquiry, speaks, at
the same time, of the im- [end of page #vi] portance of distinguishing between accidental and
permanent causes. He doubts whether the history of mankind is complete enough, or, if ever it
can be so, to furnish grounds for a sure theory, on the internal causes which necessarily affect the
fortune of a state. Thus, he not only admits the existence of permanent causes, but says, clearly,
that it is from history they are discoverable, if ever their discovery can be accomplished. This is
going as far as we could wish, and, as for the sure theory, we join issue with him in despairing of
ever obtaining one that will deserve the name of sure.

The meaning of the word, sure, in this place, appears to be intended in a sense
peculiarly strict. It seems to imply a theory, that would be certain in its application to those
vicissitudes and fluctuations to which nations are liable, and not merely to explaining their rise
and decline. As to such fluctuations, it would be absurd to enter into any theory about them; they
depend on particular combinations of circumstances, too infinite, in variety, to be imagined, or
subjected to any general law, and of too momentary an operation to be foreseen.

That Mr. Burke alludes to such fluctuation is, however, evident, from what that
fanciful but deeply-read man says, imme