ESSAYS ON SOME UNSETTLED QUESTIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

by

JOHN STUART MILL


1844




PREFACE.


Of these Essays, which were written in 1829 and 1830, the fifth alone
has been previously printed. The other four have hitherto remained in
manuscript, because, during the temporary suspension of public interest
in the species of discussion to which they belong, there was no
inducement to their publication.

They are now published (with a few merely verbal alterations) under the
impression, that the controversies excited by Colonel Torrens' _Budget_
have again called the attention of political economists to the
discussions of the abstract science: and from the additional
consideration, that the first paper relates expressly to the point upon
which the question at issue between Colonel Torrens and his antagonists
has principally turned.

From that paper it will be seen that opinions identical in principle