Excerpt from National Finance: A Review of the Policy of the Last Two Parliaments, and of the Results of Modern Fiscal Legislation If men had always been secured in person and property, and left at full liberty to employ both as they saw fit; and had merely been precluded from unjust interference with each other - had the most perfect freedom of intercourse between all mankind been always allowed - had there never been any wars - nor (which in that case would have easily been avoided) any taxation - then, though every exchange that took place would have been one of the phenomena of which Political Economy takes cognizance, all would have proceeded so smoothly, that probably no attention would ever have been called to the subject. The transactions of society would have been like the play of the lungs, the contraction of the muscles, and the circulation of the blood, in a healthy person; who scarcely knows that these functions exist. Whately's Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, 1831. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.