CORRECTED AND IMPROVED, AND ADAPTED TO THE USE OF SCHOOLS. BY REV. J. L. BLAKE, A. M. BOSTON, BOWLES & DEARBORN, 72 WASHINGTON STREET. 1828. 2. DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: District Clerk's Office. BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the thirty first day of May, A. D. 1828, in the fiftysecond year of the Independence of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Bowles and Dearborn, of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: Conversations on Political Economy; in which the elements of that science are familiarly explained. By the author of Conversations on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. Corrected and improved, and adapted to the use of schools. By Rev. J. L. BLAKE, A. M." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, } Clerk of the District of BOSTON, Press of L. R. Butts & Co. » PREFACE. IN offering to the public this small work, in which it is attempted to bring within the reach of young persons a science which no English writer has yet presented in an easy and familiar form, the author is far from inferring from the unexpected success of a former elementary work, on the subject of chemistry, that the present attempt is likely to be received with equal favor. Political economy, though so immediately connected with the happiness and improvement of mankind, and the object of so much controversy and speculation among men of knowledge, is not yet become a popular science, and is not generally considered as a study essential to early education. This work, therefore, independently of all its defects, will have to contend against the novelty of the pursuit with young persons of either sex, for the instruction of whom it is especially intended. If, however, it should be found useful, and if, upon the whole, the doctrines it contains should appear sound and sufficiently |