AND CAPITAL BEING A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN 1853-4. BY GEORGE K. RICKARDS, M.A., PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. "La pensée qui mit L'HARMONIE dans le mouvement des corps LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1854. [The Author reserves to himself the right of translation of this Work.] 232.6.19. Lately published, by the same Author, price 2s. 6d., THREE INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. Delivered before the University of Oxford. LECTURE 1. The Harmonies of the Social Economy. LECTURE 2. The Operation of Self-Interest. LECTURE 3. The Operation of Competition. J. H. PARKER: Oxford, and Strand, London. LONDON: PREFACE. Ir will, perhaps, be deemed a sufficient apology for submitting these Lectures to the public, that the statute under which the Professorship is founded requires the publication of a part of those delivered in each year. Although the contents of this volume considerably exceed the statutory limit, I believe I shall incur no blame, in the eyes either of the Founder or of the University, in following in this respect the example of most of my predecessors in the Chair of Political Economy. The Lecture which stands first in the volume, "On the Nature and Functions of Capital," treats of matters which are, it is true, elementary in their nature, and familiar to all proficients in the science. But, although the subject is one on which the formation of clear and precise ideas is peculiarly needful, the notions held respecting it among persons of average intelligence and information are, to say the least, extremely vague and inaccurate. The opinions frequently advanced, and allowed to pass |