Hume's Political Discourses

Chapter 6: NOTES, INTRODUCTION.

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About This Book

The collection gathers concise, empirically minded essays that analyze economic mechanisms—commerce, money, interest, trade balances, taxation, and public credit—alongside reflections on population and customary practices. It also turns to political theory, questioning foundations of government, the doctrine of passive obedience, party coalitions, succession, and the idea of a perfect commonwealth. Arguments rely on historical examples and philosophical reasoning to trace causes and consequences and to propose practical policy inferences. The tone is analytical and accessible, combining moral philosophy with economic observation to illuminate how institutions, laws, and fiscal arrangements shape national prosperity and stability.

NOTES, INTRODUCTION.

1 Life of Adam Smith, “Great Writers” series.

2 Life and Correspondence of David Hume, 1846.

3 See Foundations of Political Economy, The Walter Scott Publishing Company, Limited.

4 His Treatise of Human Nature, regarding the publication of which he wrote in 1751 to Sir Gilbert Elliot, of Minto—“I was carried away by the heat of youth and invention to publish too precipitately. So vast an undertaking, planned before I was one-and-twenty, and composed before I was twenty-five, must necessarily be very defective. I have repented my haste a hundred and a hundred times.”

5 Haldane, Life of Adam Smith, “Great Writers” series.

6 Hume’s view is the juster here.