ADAM SMITH AND THE WEALTH OF NATIONS 593
economic. There was no positive political ideal which ap- AD is
pealed to the various elements of the population alike and
which they were anxious to realise. The simplest scheme
for preventing the recurrence of economic mischiefs in
Ireland, and in regard to its relations to England, seemed
to be the absorption of both countries under the control of a
single Parliament, in which both were represented and which
should treat both alike.
240. The break-down of Parliamentary Colbertism, om
through the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the plied a
changed policy adopted towards Ireland in 1779, syn- ff ”
chronised with the diffusion of certain new ideas of economic thischange;
policy which were inconsistent with the reconstruction of
the Mercantile System in any form. In 1776 Adam Smith
published the Wealth of Nations, and the argument of that
epoch-making book went to show that the principles, on
which all systems of national economy had rested, were in
themselves untenable. It is not necessary to follow out the
interesting investigations which have recently taken place
as to the obligations of Adam Smith to other writers, or as
to the manner in which his opinions took shape in his
own mind®; we are merely concerned to note their extraordinary
 practical importance in sapping the foundations of
the economic policy which had been in vogue, in our own
and other lands, for some centuries.
Till his time the main object, which publicists who dealt by treating
with economic topics had had before their minds, was the Wont
power of the country; they set themselves to discuss the
particular aspects of industry and commerce which would
conduce to this end, according to the circumstances of
different countries. The requirements of the State had
been the first consideration of seventeenth century writers,
and they had worked back to the funds in the possession of
the people from which these requirements could be supplied.
Adam Smith approached the subject from the other end.
The first object of political economy, as he understood it,
was “to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the

1 See the introduction to his edition of Adam Smith's Lectures on Justice,
Revenue and Arms, by E. Cannan.