V. IMMEDIATE REMEDIES PROPOSED BY PORARIES TO SOLVE THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS CREATED BY THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
I. Economic Liberalism.— The first great type of reform proposed to meet the new conditions was that which has been designated by recent economic historians as "economic liberalism," but which is more generally known as the economic doctrine of laissez-faire, or the political theory of individualism. This body of doctrine cannot be properly appraised un less the historical circumstances surrounding its origin and diffusion are taken into con sideration. It began before the Industrial Revolution as an attack upon the archaic legis lative restrictions which had grown up as a part of the Mercantilistic commercial and colonial doctrine, and, in so far as it helped to clear away these obstructions, it contrib uted to the coming of modern industrial so ciety. After the Industrial Revolution had come, however, its later adherents utilized the laissez-faire concepts to defend the new capi talistic order and to prevent, as far as possible, the solution of the grave evils it created through remedial legislation.
The founders of economic liberalism were the group of French writers in the middle of the 18th century, known as the Physiocrats from the work of one of their adherents, Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, entitled
among the Physiocrats was Francois Quesnay (1694-1774), who was ably seconded by Gournay, Mirabeau, Dupont de Nemours, Mercier de la Riviere, Badeau and La Trosne, The general notions of the Physiocrats con cerning individualism and state inactivity, ex cept in the field of abolishing restrictive legis lation, received the support of the distinguished French economist and statesman, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-81) and of the first great systematic writer on political economy, the Scotchman, Adam Smith (1723 90). The chief significance of Adam Smith for the history of social reform is that he embodied the laissez-faire thesis in a notable work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations' (1776), which re ceived so wide a circulation and attracted so extensive a following for Smith's doctrines that the historian Buckle, nearly a century later, regarded this book as the most influential and beneficial one ever written. Aside from his acceptance of the general Physiocratic position on the proper functions of the state, Smith abandoned to a considerable degree the ex cessive Physiocratic laudation of agriculture and emphasized the value of commerce and manufacturing industry. Especially did he re vive the Platonic doctrine of the importance of the division of labor in increasing and im proving productivity, and his emphasis upon the part played by labor in production paved the way for the later views of Ricardo and the Socialists respecting the °labor theory of value." Smith, however, died before the Industrial Revolution had fully developed even in Eng land, and there is good evidence for holding that he did not even foresee the course of this transformation, much less stand out as an apologist of the new capitalist class. But his doctrines were of a sort which fitted in ad mirably with the policy of non-interference which the capitalist manufacturers desired to have prevail, in order that they, if not their employees, might enjoy the "blessings of the perfect freedom of contract.° Therefore, his notions were expanded and utilized by the middle class and sympathetic economists to furnish an authoritative theoretical opposition to social legislation designed to advance the interests of the industrial proletariat.