Introductory

We have seen that economics is, on the one side, a Science of Wealth; and, on the other, that part of the Social Science of man’s action in society, which deals with his Efforts to satisfy his Wants, in so far as the efforts and wants are capable of being measured in terms of wealth, or its general representative, i.e. money. We shall be occupied during the greater part of this volume with these wants and efforts; and with the causes by which the prices that measure the wants are brought into equilibrium with those that measure the efforts. For this purpose we shall have to study in Book III wealth in relation to the diversity of man’s wants, which it has to satisfy; and in Book IV wealth in relation to the diversity of man’s efforts by which it is produced.