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DERELICT-DESCENT OF PROPERTY

rent and upon wages, they would not have tried the patience of his students in the way they have done." Had De Quincey pursued his mathematical studies further, and applied the conceptions of the infinitesimal calculus to the theory of value, he would have escaped his capital error of having confused integral (or TOTAL, q.v.), with differential (or final) utility. If he had worked with dU, instead of U, he might have anticipated Jevons.

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All the works which have been referred to will presumably be included in The Collected Writings of De Quincey, by Professor Masson, 1890. the American edition of 1877, called the Riverside edition, all are to be found except the letter in reply to Hazlitt (London Magazine, December 1823), and the éloge of Ricardo (ibid. March 1824). These are reprinted in De Quincey's Uncollected Writings by J. Hogg, 1890. The Edinburgh edition of De Quincey's works in sixteen vols., completed 1871, omits also the Logic of Political Economy. Earlier collections are still more incomplete.

F. Y. E.

DERELICT. The legal quality of derelict was recognised by the Roman Law (Dig. i. xlvij. Tit. ij. De Furtis). Anything wilfully cast away either on sea or land. Goods thrown out of a ship, to lighten the same in case of distress, are not derelict for want of intention (Just. Inst. II. 1. 48). If a ship made jettison without hope of recovering the goods they were derelict to the finder (Rolle of Olayron, 32, 34). Derelict lands suddenly left by the sea belong to the crown, except in case of an arm of the sea belonging to a subject, but if the sea recede slowly, by imperceptible degrees, the land thus gained goes to the owner of the adjacent soil. This was ascertained by commission, and is a subject for a jury. Boats or other vessels forsaken or found on the seas without any person in them are called derelict. Of these the admiralty has the custody and the owner can recover within a year and a day.

[Moore on Foreshore.-Black Book of Admiralty (Rolls).-Fleta, III. 2.-Hale, De jure Maris.]

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DE SANCTIS, MARCO ANTONIO, lived in the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th. Toppi (Biblioteca napoletana, Napoli, 1678, p. 204) says he was born at Nocera dei Pagani, but gives no other biographical indications. Two dissertations of De Sanctis are extant; their scientific value is less than their historical importance, because Antonio Serra would probably never have written his famous Breve trattato delle cause che possono fare abbondare i regni d'oro e d'argento (1613), if it had not been for the writings of De Sanctis, which he undertook to refute. The two pamphlets of De Sanctis bear the titles: Discorso di Marc' Antonio

De Sanctis intorno alli effetti che fa il cambio in Regno, in Napoli, appresso Costantino Vitale. 1605; and Secondo discorso di Marc' Antonio De Sanctis, intorno alli effetti che fa il cambio in Regno sopra una risposta che è stata fatta adverso del primo; in Napoli, nella stamperia di Felice Stigliola, a Porta Reale, 1605. De Sanctis endeavours to prove, in the first Discorso, that the only remedy against the scarcity of money which was felt in his days in the realm of Naples, would be an act of the government called Prammatica, by which the value of foreign coin should be fixed in the money of the country, and heavy penalties prescribed to enforce the established ratio in the payment of all bills of exchange and to prevent any other attempt to give money a value different from that which the prammatica prescribed. His advice was followed, but given up two years later, when the effects of the prammatica had made people wiser. The first pamphlet of De Sanctis was answered by an anonymous Genoese author to whom he replies in the second one.

[Sir T. Twiss, View of the Progress of Pol. Econ. in Europe, 1847, Lect. I.]

M. P.

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death, which was formed by the fusion of the rules of inheritance contained in the venerable Twelve Tables with the equity of the Prætor's Edict: two streams of law profoundly influenced at their source as no reader of M. Fustel de Coulanges can doubt by the worship of ancestors" (Maine). In the Principles of the Law of Succession to Deceased Persons, by T. R. Potts, London, 1888, will be found a brief sketch of the history of the law of descent in England. Kenny and Laurence, in their Essays on the Law of Primogeniture, Cambridge, 1878, trace the history of primogeniture in England. Succession Laws of Christian Countries, by Eyre Lloyd, London, 1877, contains a summary of the law of descent in the principal European countries. In France, Belgium, Prussia, Austria, and other continental states, on an intestacy all children take equally, no distinction being drawn between males and females or between real and personal property. England, and in countries that have adopted English common law as the basis of their legislation, the eldest son as a rule succeeds to real property to the exclusion of all other children, whilst the personalty is divided between the widow and the children. Two

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DESIGNS-DESMARETS

important changes have been recently introduced in England and in Ireland. By the 53 & 54 Vict. c. 29, if there are no issue, and the net value of the realty and the personalty does not exceed £500, then the whole estate goes to the widow: if the net value exceeds £500 then the widow is to have £500, whilst by the 54 & 55 Vict. c. 66, § 84, any real estate registered under the act is on the death of the owner intestate to devolve on the personal representatives as if it were personal property.

[As to the economic effects of the English as compared with the continental law, see G. C. Brodrick, English Land and English Landlords, London, 1881.-Systems of Land Tenure in Various Countries, Cobden Club Essays, London, 1870 (see BEQUEST, POWER OF; LAND LAWS).]

J. E. C. M.

DESIGNS, COPYRIGHT IN. By laws passed in 1737 and 1744 France recognised a right of property in designs applied to silks. In 1787 England by the 29 Geo. III. c. 38 gave protection to the first inventor of a design for linen or cotton cloth. Subsequent acts extended protection to mixtures of flax and cotton, and to animal substances. By the 46 & 47 Vict. c. 57 a new or original design may be registered by its proprietor for a particular class or classes of goods, and by such registration the proprietor obtains copyright in the design, i.e. the exclusive right to apply the design to any article of manufacture or substance for five years.

[W. N. Lawson, Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks, London, 1889 (see COPYRIGHT).]

J. E. C. M.

DESMARETS, NICOLAS (1648-1721), controller-general of finance under Louis XIV. between 1708 and 1715, was a nephew of Colbert, who gave him a post in his bureau. He rose to be maître des requêtes, and on the death of his uncle in 1683 was made intendant des finances, an office he held but a short time. Lepelletier, who hated his predecessor Colbert and all connected with him, brought a charge against Desmarets of making illicit profit from the coining, and he was forced to retire to an estate at Maillebois. In 1703 Chamillart spoke in favour of the disgraced man to the king, who nominated him one of the two recently appointed directors of finance (Saint Simon, Mémoires, iv. 183). His financial and administrative abilities were of great service to Chamillart, on whose resignation the king gave the controllership of his finances to Desmarets, 20th February 1708. "Il était tout à fait l'homme de la situation," says Vührer, who describes him as possessing une remarquable sagacité, une intelligence vive et profonde à la fois, beaucoup de justice et de rectitude dans les idées .. une fécondité, une abondance d'imagination inépuisable (La Dette Publique, i. 128). The condition of affairs was most alarming, with an increased expendi- |

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ture and a diminished revenue. The income from taxation had fallen from 112 to 75 millions of livres, and the total yearly expenses had risen from 119 millions to 220 millions. The debt was 2 milliards. Arrears to the amount of 36 millions were due to the army, and the revenue of five years had been spent in anticipation. Desmarets commenced by repealing the decree of Chamillart which permitted payments in specie or paper. He allowed the capitation tax to be commuted by a payment of six years in advance. He doubled tollduties and contracted with Samuel Bernard and others loans extending to 230 millions. These expedients enabled him to get through 1708, but the troubles of the next year began with a winter of unusual severity. To meet the famine which followed he brought wheat from all parts of Europe, enforced a special tax on the rich, sold the undergrowth of the state forests, and effected a recoinage. received the dignity of minister from Louis.

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The king did not accept the onerous conditions offered by the allies in 1709. To meet the enormous charges of the campaign Desmarets proposed a war tax of a dixième on all property and incomes. Even the clergy and nobility were not exempted. The new tax produced 25 millions. He also borrowed 15 millions from some merchants. In 1711 he commenced a more regular system and converted into 5 per cent rentes all the various state loans. The energy and ability of Desmarets in putting in order the financial embarrassments of the kingdom were of great help to Louis XIV. "Si nos gens de guerre avaient le courage et le génie de Desmarets nous gagnerions toutes les batailles," said Madame de Maintenon. In the seven years of his administration the net produce of the ordinary revenues did not exceed 269 millions, and during this time he was obliged to find 1300 millions of extraordinary resources, and even then he left over 300 millions unpaid (A. Vuitry, Le désordre des Finances, p. 25). He hoped in 1715 to produce a properly-balanced budget if the king lived to bestow his favour for two years. Louis died, however, 1st September 1715, and Desmarets was dismissed by the regent. He retired to Maillebois, where he died 4th May 1721. Saint Simon, who was ill-disposed towards Desmarets, draws his character as that of a man "qui avoit plus de sens que d'esprit, et qui montroit plus de sens qu'il n'en avoit en effet; quelque chose de lourd et de lent, parlant bien et avec agrément, dur, emporté" Mémoires, xviii. 157). His son, the Marquis Desmarets de Maillebois, marshal of France, is famous for his Italian campaigns.

Desmarets presented to the Regent Mémoire sur l'administration des finances depuis le 20 Février 1708 jusqu'au 1er Septembre 1715 [Paris, 1716] 8vo, (also reprinted about 1789, and in the An

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DESTUTT DE TRACY-DEVELOPMENT

nales Politiques (1757) of the Abbé Castel de St. Pierre) "Très-curieux," says Lenglet du Fresnoy, "il vient de main de maître, mais il n'a pas tout dit" (Méthode pour étudier l'Histoire, xii. 337). In the opinion of Voltaire "ce mémoire prouve qu'il avait des talens, une grande modestie et des intentions droites" (Siècle de Louis XIV., 1819, i. 38; see also ii. 31).

[Saint Simon, Mémoires, 1856, etc., tomes ii., iv., vi., vii., ix., xi., xiii., xviii.-Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Économie Politique, 1890, i. 669-701. -F. V. de Forbonnais, Recherches et considérations sur les Finances de France, Basle, 1758, 2 vols. 4to.-A. Vuitry, Le désordre des Finances à la fin du règne de Louis XIV., Paris, 1885, 8vo.R. Stourm, Les Finances de l'Ancien Régime, Paris, 1885, 2 vols. 8vo.-A. Vührer, Histoire de la Dette Publique en France, Paris, 1886, 2 vols. 8vo.-Monthyon, Particularités sur les Ministres des Finances, Paris, 1812, 8vo.]

H. R. T.

DESTUTT DE TRACY, ANTOINE LOUIS CLAUDE, Comte (1754-1836), born in the Bourbonnais, died at Paris. He was a member of the constituent assembly, and was arrested and imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. He was set at liberty after the 9th Thermidor, 27th July 1794. Although he became a senator under the empire, and subsequently a peer of France under the Bourbon restoration, he retained throughout his early sympathies with liberty. From the year 1808 he had been a member of the French Academy. When, in 1832, the Academy of Moral and Political Science was re-established, he was invited to join the section of moral science. As a philosopher he was one of the last survivors of the école sensualiste, a school whose method of thought may best be defined in the words of one of their members, "Penser c'est sentir, rien que cela," and he was also an economist of great distinction. As early as 1798 he wrote, at the request of the well-known Jefferson, his Commentaires sur l'Esprit des Lois de Montesquieu (1 vol. 8vo, 1819). In this work he corrected some of the economic errors into which that able thinker had fallen. In 1804 he published his Traité de la volonté, part of his Eléments d'Idéologie, the larger part of which formed a treatise on political economy. This work was reprinted, without any modification, under the title of a Traité d'économie politique, in 1823 (1 vol. in 18mo). In these two works, the commentary and the treatise, Destutt de Tracy shows that he had attained a higher level than the majority of his contemporaries. He has obtained a popularity equal to his deserts, notwithstanding the somewhat metaphysical form with which he had invested his subjects. Bonaparte had him in view when he inveighed against the "Idéologues."

A. C. f. DESTUTT DE TRACY and RICARDO. A reference to M. de Tracy will be found in Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

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ed. 1852, note p. 171. He says with respect to the Eléments d'Idéologie, "In this work M. de Tracy has given a useful and an able treatise on the general principles of political economy, and I am sorry to be obliged to add, that he supports, by his authority the definitions which M. Say has given of the words 'value,' 'riches,' and 'utility.' In the text Ricardo observes, "I cannot agree with M. Say in estimating the value of a commodity by the abundance of other commodities for which it I am of the opinion of a very will exchange; distinguished writer, M. Destutt de Tracy, who says, that 'To measure any other thing is to compare it with a determinate quantity of that same thing which we take for a standard of comparison for unity. To measure, then, to ascertain a length, a weight, a value, is to find how many times they contain metres, grammes, francs, in a word, unities of the same description.' An interesting account of Ricardo's meeting with De Tracy is given in the Letters of Ricardo to Malthus, No. lxxxii., edited by J. Bonar, p. 211, ed. 1887.

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DETRACTION, DROIT DE. In France, before the Revolution, the right of aliens to inherit property was limited by the droit de détraction, which enabled the state to confiscate part of any bequest or inheritance falling to an alien. For the history of its abolition see AUBAINE, DROIT D'. It need only be remarked here that at the present time, should the laws of another country impose any tax of this kind on a share of an inheritance left to a Frenchman, the French law will, where possible, compensate the person so damnified out of any share of the inheritance falling to an alien resident in France. In England and other countries, especially Russia, the right of aliens to inherit land is either entirely denied or severely restricted; but these rules, though analogous to the droit de détraction, have a political not a financial aim.

[Les Codes annotées de Sirey, édition entièrement refondue, par P. Gilbert, 1847.-Littré's French Dictionary, s.v.—Dictionnaire général de la Politique, par Maurice Block, 1873, s.v. Étranger."]

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C. G. C.

DEVELOPMENT, or evolution, as distinguished from mere change, means a growth, or the unfolding of qualities present, but at first latent, in the subject concerned. DARWINISM (q.v.) is therefore not a doctrine of development or evolution unless we regard animated nature collectively as one subject which remains the same throughout its changes. The idea of development applies to man and human societies, and especially to their science and culture, for there is present an identity of the subject (humanity) with continuity through the changes -e.g. from Greece, through Rome and the middle ages to modern civilisation-and preservation of the results of the past.

DE VIO-DEW

Economic evolution has been used in two senses (a) the growth of new forms of industrial organisation, keeping pace with new wants, new powers of science over nature, and new political relations, and (b) the growth of economic theories, which may or may not be in correspondence with (a). The name is best kept for the first of the two phenomena; and the latter may be called the evolution of economics. In both cases the use of the name evolution instead of change seems to imply that both the outward changes, say in European industry during the last hundred years, and the changes in theory, say from Adam Smith to J. S. Mill, have followed a course for which it is possible to discover some logical necessity. The term evolution was not unknown in the last century, and the idea became the ruling thought of Fichte and especially of Hegel and his followers. In England, the idea has gained currency through the writings of Spencer and Darwin; and evolution in the sense conceived by biology appears to be the essence of the popular philosophy of our day. Marx has applied the notion to economics, and the relation of the two is already a topic of controversy. The extreme left of the school of historical economists hold that there are as many forms of economics, all relatively true, as there are separate peoples and separate epochs; and they would not distinguish the development of economics from the general progress of historical change. The conception of economics as a body of doctrines of universal validity or absolute truth is no doubt discredited; but the conception of "economic categories" as a permanent basis of further development has gained ground; and seems indeed to be required by the very notion of development.

[For distinction of historical and economic categories, see A. Wagner, Lehrbuch der politischen Oekonomie, Grundlage, pp. 352 seq. and the references there given to Rodbertus and Schäffle.-For distinction of development from Darwinism see E. Caird, Philosophy of Kant, (2nd ed. 1889) vol. ii. pp. 539 seq. and S. Alexander, Moral Order and Progress (1889), pp. 139, 309, 382, etc.] J. B.

DE VIO, F. TOMMASO (1470-1534), born at Gaeta, and sometimes called Thomas de Vio Cajetan, was famous for his learning; at Ferrara, where he held disputations with Pico della Mirandola, he was made a Doctor honoris causa; he taught philosophy in the Ginnasio Romano, and was made Cardinal of S. Sisto by Leo X. He was consulted in all the weighty theological questions of his time. Amongst these was the question of Henry VIII.'s first marriage, which he declared valid. He was sent to Germany to controvert the opinions of Luther. He wrote a great many works of which a list can be found in A. Ciaconii: Vitæ et res gesto Pontificum romanorum et Cardinalium. Romæ. 1677, vol. iii. p. 390-394. Here only

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the more important concerning economical topics are mentioned:

De Usura, written in Milan, 1500; De Cambiis, written also in Milan, 1499; and De Monte Pietatis, written at Pavia, 1498, all published 1596 in Venice; F. Thomæ de Vio Caietani, ordinis Prædicatorum, Opuscula omnia. Venetiis, 1596, p. 168 et seq. In his pamphlet De Usura, De Vio does not discuss the argument ab ovo and exhaustively, intending rather to solve some special cases in which he thinks the current opinions of canonists wrong or exaggerated. In his pamphlet De Cambiis, he declares himself opposed to the profession of what then was called a cambist, recognising only the legitimacy and utility of the change of money against money. In his pamphlet De Monte Pietatis, he proves that these establishments for pawnbroking served simply to cover a species of usury. De Vio's pamphlets must, therefore, be considered as one single tract in which he discusses the same subject, viz. usury, under three different aspects, and in which he follows the opinions current in his time, although sometimes showing views somewhat broader than those of the canonists.

M. P.

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DEW, THOMAS RODERICK (1802-1846), was born in Virginia and was educated at the College of William and Mary; in 1827 he was appointed professor of history, metaphysics, and political economy in the same institution, and in 1836 president; he died at Paris while travelling. Dew was a most thorough and earnest teacher of history, and exercised great influence throughout the south in upholding public opinion in the support of free trade and negro slavery. On strictly economic subjects he wrote: Lectures on the Restrictive System, Richmond, 1829 (pp. 195). In this Dew questioned the general advantage to be gained from manufactures, since they are liable to great fluctuations; and a factory population is not only unfavourable to liberty, but turbulent and of necessity dependent. He wrote an Essay on the Interest of Money and the Policy of Law against Usury, Shellbank, Va., 1834 (pp. 24); in which usury laws are regarded as influencing unfavourably the distribution and circulation of capital, and checking the natural division of employments and treating the question with special reference to the farming interest. He also wrote a Letter on the Financial Policy of the Administration and the Laws of Credit and Trade, Washington, 1840 (pp. 16), attributing the crisis of 1837 not to banks but to the course of trade; banks are the effect and not the cause of speculation. Dew opposed the subtreasury system inasmuch as it tended to unsound banking operations. For an interesting statement of his educational work and for

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DIAGRAMS. For the purpose of conveying readily to the mind the general facts contained in a table of figures, nothing seems better suited than some form of diagrammatic representation.

When the relative magnitudes of a number of disconnected quantities are simply concerned, a series of geometrical figures, circles, squares, or oblongs whose areas are proportional to those magnitudes, is commonly employed.

The delineation of the varying circumstances of the different parts of a country in respect to such matters as density of population, degree of poverty, etc., by colouring a map in different tints, which has been frequently employed (recently by Mr. Chas. Booth in Labour and Life of the People), is a method which is very readily understood.

The curves which record the readings of a barometer or thermometer are illustrations of another class of diagrams which are very largely used for economic purposes.

It requires a very special training to be prepared to grasp readily the salient points of complicated schedules of figures, which can, however, be exhibited very readily even to the untrained by means of such diagrams. This renders them of great service to the teacher of economics. But curves of similar construction are invaluable adjuncts in the study of economic theory, possessing all the general advantages of arithmetical illustrations, while they are less liable than these to admit the unwary assumption, in the data of illustrations, of the result which it is desired to establish by their help.

If we wish to draw a curve showing the variations in the price of some commodity (say iron) in the course of a number of years we proceed as follows. Along a line Ox (Fig. 1)

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to represent some convenient interval of time, an hour, day, year, or any other suitable interval. From the points O, n1, ng, etc. lines OP, P1, np2 etc., are drawn perpendicular to Ox and of such lengths as to be proportional to the price of iron at the epoch represented by the point from which the line is drawn. We might for example draw them on the scale of onetwentieth of an inch for each shilling of the price of a ton of iron, or on any other convenient scale. The points PpP...being connected by a broken or curved line, such a line will exhibit the variations of the price of iron with the progress of time, in a manner which is quite as accurate as the table of figures from which the curve is derived, and which is far more striking to the eye of even the most skilled statistician.

The manner in which the connection between time and price is thus shown may be employed to show the concurrent variations of any two connected quantities in economics.

If the abscissæ (the distances along Ox) represent the amounts produced in a given time, such as a month or year, the ordinates (nPi etc.) denoting the corresponding prices at which the goods could be profitably produced, the curve becomes the ordinary supply curve.

If the abscissæ denote the quantities which could find purchasers at the prices denoted by the ordinates, we obtained the demand curve (cp. DEMAND CURVE).

These curves cannot be drawn completely from records of experience, because actual experience covers in general but a small range of prices for any one commodity. No uncertainty is, however, owing to this cause, introduced into the arguments based on them, since the really important parts of them are those of which we have experience, and, in addition to this, the arguments commonly depend not so much on actual lengths of lines as on the general direction of the curve, whether upwards or downwards, and whether the slope of the curve be gradual or rapid.

It is the result of experience that except in such a case as that of a collector of rare specimens of some kind, when his collection may be doubled in value by the addition of a single specimen which renders it complete-people are not willing to pay so much for a given small addition to their store of any commodity when they already have a large amount of it, as when they have but little; this enables us to say at once that the demand curve must slope downwards throughout, whatever be its shape in other respects.

With regard to the supply curve, it is quite possible that its slope should be sometimes upwards, sometimes downwards, or that it may be horizontal throughout or for a portion of its length. If, however, we are considering only small changes in production, not involving a reorganisation of the industry concerned, an

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