economy," considering the private, domestic, and corporate problems
only insomuch as they are connected with those of the nation or of
the community as a whole. Our field comprises the problems of national
wealth and of communal welfare.

What then are our politico-economic problems in America? They are
problems that are economic in nature because they concern the way that
wealth shall be used and that citizens are enabled to make a living;
but that are likewise political, because they can be solved only
collectively by political action.

§ 2. #American economic problems in the past.# With the first
settlements of colonists on this continent politico-economic problems
appeared. Take, for example, the land policy. Each group of colonists
and each proprietary landholder had to adopt some method of land
tenure whether by free grant or by sale of separate holdings or by
leasing to settlers. In one way and another these questions were
answered, but rapidly changing conditions soon forced upon men the
reconsideration of the problem as the old solution ceased to be
satisfactory.

In large part our political history is but the reflection of the
economic motives and economic changes in the national life. Thus
the American Revolution arose out of resistance to England's trade
regulations, commercial restrictions, and attempted taxation of the
colonies. The War of 1812 was brought on by interference with American
commerce on the high seas. The Mexican War was the result of the
colonization of Texan territory by American settlers and the desire
of powerful interests to extend the area of land open to slavery. The
Civil War arose more immediately out of a difference of opinion as to