ABSTRACT
The constitutional democracies to which Europe seems to be inclined today, appear, to the contrary, among all governments, the least frugal, because the obligation to provide for expenses has been separated from the desire to spend. The excutive power, alone charged with foreign relations, what is called the honor of the nation, its defense, finds it much easier and safer to accomplish everything with plenty of money. Private claims, just like the public claims, are a part of individual wealth, and are nevertheless in no way a part of national wealth, since they do not increase the annual income of the nation, but change only its distribution. The nation owns all its material wealth, plus the claims of one part of its citizenry on the others, minus the same claims the latter owe to the former; and two equal quantities, positive and negative, being offset one by the other, nothing remains but material wealth.
