JB_017_251.xml

Title: [nd [wm 1800] + B Ch. 2. Leading]

Description: nd [wm 1800]

+ B

Ch. 2. Leading Features.

'.2. Wealth. 2. Non Agenda

3

1

6

46

'.{2}/3/. {I. Wealth - 2.} Non Agenda.

1. Whatever is Sponte actum on the part of individuals falls thereby into the

class of Non Agenda on the part of Government. Coercion - the inseparable

accompaniment, precedent, concomitant, or subsequent, of every act of

government, is in itself an evil: to be any thing better than a pure evil, it

requires to be followed by some more than equivalent good. Spontaneous action

excludes it: action, on the part of Government, and by impulse from Government,

supposes it.

{2. Rule for judging of the utility of any measure of Government, in this line

or any other, for the execution of which money is required. Compare the expected

benefit of it with the mischief of the vexation, attached to the levying of the

sum in question by the most vexatious Tax: for, by giving up the projected

measure, the vexation from the Tax may be saved or done away.}

JB_017_309.xml

Title: [[...?] March[?] 1804 Polit. Economy]

Description: [...?] March[?] 1804

Polit. Economy

Sponte acta

{ Ch. 2. Leading Features

' 5. Wealth I. Sponte acta

The national wealth is the sum of the particular masses of the matter of wealth belonging respectively to the several individuals of whom the political community - the nation - is composed. Every atom of that matter added by any such individual to his own stock without being taken from that of any other individual is so much added to the stock of national wealth.

To add to his own particular stock and to add in such period of time more than use or otherwise is taken from it in that same portion of time is with a very few exceptions, is the constant aim and occupation of every individual in every civilized nation. Enjoyment is the offspring of wealth; wealth of labour. What men want from government is - not incitement to labour, but security against disturbance: - security to each for his portion of the matter of wealth, while labouring to acquire it or occupied in enjoying it. For the purpose of encreasing wealth, individuals require neither to be forced to labour nor allured. The want of that which is not to be had without labour, is sufficient force: the assurance of being able to enjoy it is sufficient allurement. Leave men to themselves, each man is occupied either in the acquisition of wealth (the instrument of enjoyment) or in some actual enjoyment which in the eyes of the only competent[?] judge, is of more value. If idleness is to be discouraged, it is not because it is the non-acquisition of wealth, but because it is the source of crimes.

Whoever takes upon him to add to national wealth by coercive and thence vexatious measures stands engaged to make out two propositions: 1. that more wealth will be produced by the coercion than would have been without it: 2. that the comfort flowing from the extra wealth thus produced, is more than equivalent to whatever vexation may be found attached to the measure by which it was produced.}

{If Non agenda have been acta, the doing away of these malá acta may form so many additions to the catalogue of Agenda.}

JB_017_219a.xml

Title: [10 Mar 1804 Political Economy]

Description: 10 Mar 1804

Political Economy

+ Note

Note

Ch 1

Method

I Wealth II Non Agenda

Note

Among these several classes - Agenda, Sponte acta and Non Agenda - the

distribution of the imaginable stock of institutions will differ in a very

considerable degree according to the different circumstances of the several

political communities. In regard to defalcations from general opulence for the

security of subsistence, a sacrifice /an arrangement/ of that sort which in one

country may be at once needful and practicable, may in another be either not

needful, or what is more apt to be the case not practicable. The greater the

degree of opulence, the greater the list of Sponte Acta - the less therefore

that of Agenda. In Great Britain /England/ abundance of useful things are done

by individuals, which in other countries are done either by government, or not

at all. Docks, Harbours, Canals, Roads - Offices for Insurance {from}

/Institutions for relief against/ misfortune - in a variety of shapes, and a

variety of causes: Bodily affliction, death of friends, Fire - hostile capture

criminal depredation. In Russia, under Peter the great, the list of Sponte Acta

being a blank, that of Agenda was proportionally abundant.