This last, of course, most economists in practice constantly try to do. Present day discussions of practical economic problems are rich in data of a non-economic sort. In practice the economist recognizes that his mission is, not to see how far a few abstract factors will go in the explanation of economic life, but rather, to _explain_ that economic life by any means in his power, though he ransack heaven and earth in the process.
Of course, it is but a commonplace to add that the economist, in practice, does try to take account of the extent to which his assumptions as to the legal and social "framework" hold: how far there is real freedom of competition, how far real "intelligent self-interest," how far mobility of labor and of capital, how far monopoly privilege, etc. Or, at least, he usually tries to make himself think that he has done so. It still remains lamentably true that a great deal of reasoning even on practical problems is an effort to apply theories without any adequate understanding of the extent to which the theories grow out of abstractions made for purposes of study, or any effort to put back the concrete facts from which the abstraction was made. The practical business man knows how these various forces operate on values. He studies them, tries to estimate their force in quantitative price terms, and adjusts his plans to them. If a religious wave sweeps over a large section of the country, the wholesaler sends in larger orders for Bibles, and smaller orders for playing cards. If a rate-reduction agitation is going on, the manufacturer of steel rails and railroad supplies plans to cut down his output. If trades-unionism grows strong, employers of labor recognize that they must readjust their budgets.
[198] _Cf._ Davenport, _op. cit._, pp. 296-97.
[199] _Theory of Prosperity_, New York, 1902, pp. 16-17, 89.
[200] "On the Concept of Social Value," _Quar. Jour. Econ._, Feb., 1909, pp. 226-27.
[201] See _Wealth of Nations_, introductory part of chap. VIII of bk. I (pp. 66-67 of the Cannan ed.) For Ricardo, see _Works_, McCulloch ed., London, 1852, p. 15. Adam Smith seems occasionally to use value in the relative sense, as on p. 183 of vol. II of the Cannan ed. Ricardo, though indicating that he is concerned only with relative values on the page cited _supra_, still speaks of values as simultaneously falling, in ch. XX, on "Value and Riches," which, of course, is impossible on the basis of the relative concept. There is no point to torturing these passages unduly, however, in the effort to find our distinctions in them.