ABSTRACT
Political economy is said to have strangled itself with definitions. Because economics is concerned with familiar phenomena of everyday life, and because of the precedent set by the great economic writers of the past, economists have for the most part to content themselves with terms that are already in current use in ordinary discourse. The main objects to be kept in view in discussing and framing definitions in political economy are—to make as distinct and precise as possible the conceptions that are fundamental in the science, to mark those distinctions between phenomena that are of chief economic importance. There remain to be considered some special difficulties that present themselves in the attempt to frame satisfactory economic definitions. A serious difficulty in the definition and use of economic terms results from the fact, that in different departments of economic enquiry, it may be convenient to vary the point at which distinctions are drawn.
