or, by extraordinary restraints, to force from
a particular species of industry some share of
the capital which would otherwise be employed
in it, is, in reality subversive of the great
purpose which it means to promote. It retards,
instead of accelerating, the progress of
the society towards real wealth and greatness;
and diminishes, instead of increasing, the
real value of the annual produce of its land
and labour.
All systems, either of preference or of restraint,
therefore, being thus completely taken
away, the obvious and simple system of natural
liberty establishes itself of its own accord.
Every man, as long as he does not
violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly
free to pursue his own interest his own way,
and to bring both his industry and capital into
competition with those of any other man,
or order of men. The sovereign is completely
discharged from a duty, in the attempting
to perform which he must always be exposed
to innumerable delusions, and for the proper
performance of which, no human wisdom or
knowledge could ever be sufficient; the duty
of superintending the industry of private people,
and of directing it towards the employments
most suitable to the interest of the society.
According to the system of natural
liberty, the sovereign has only three duties to
attend to; three duties of great importance,
indeed, but plain and intelligible to common
understandings: first, the duty of protecting
the society from violence and invasion
of other independent societies; secondly, the
duty of protecting, as far as possible, every
member of the society from the injustice or
oppression of every other member of it, or
the duty of establishing an exact administration
of justice; and, thirdly, the duty of erecting
and maintaining certain public works,
and certain public institutions, which it can
never be for the interest of any individual,
or small number of individuals to erect and
maintain; because the profit could never repay
the expense to any individual, or small
number of individuals, though it may frequently
do much more than repay it to a
great society.
The proper performance of those several
duties of the sovereign necessarily supposes a
certain expense; and this expense again necessarily
requires a certain revenue to support
it. In the following book, therefore, I shall
endeavour to explain, first, what are the necessary
expenses of the sovereign or commonwealth;
and which of those expenses ought
to be defrayed by the general contribution of
the whole society; and which of them, by that
of some particular part only, or of some particular
members of the society; secondly,
what are the different methods in which the
whole society may be made to contribute towards
defraying the expenses incumbent on
the whole society; and what are the principal
advantages and inconveniences of each of
those methods; and thirdly, what are the reasons
and causes which have induced almost all
modern governments to mortgage some part
of this revenue, or to contract debts; and
what have been the effects of those debts upon
the real wealth, the annual produce of the
land and labour of the society. The following
book, therefore, will naturally be divided
into three chapters.