ABSTRACT
Modern political economy was created as part of a much larger venture: the shifting of the Heavenly City of mediaeval Christianity "to earthly foundations." This secular redefinition of the good life and the good society forced the leaders of the Enlightenment back to first principles and led them into philosophy, psychology, politics, sociology, and culture as well as economics. David Hume tripartite simplification consisted of "action," "pleasure," and "sympathy." He used his system as the basis for some propositions of considerable substance. As welfare economists, Hume and Smith inveighed, above all, against the domestic and international aspects of mercantilism. Their enemies were monopoly, war, and empire. In welfare terms their hope for all humanity, in David Hume, good phrase, was "liberty, industry, and good government." They wished to see all nations achieve their "full complement of riches" in peace.
