possession, and otherwise by him jointly with the tenant for life-confers rights nearly as complete. An estate for the life of the tenant, or for the life or lives of another person or other persons, gives the tenant the privileges of ownership during his life or during the life or lives of such other person or persons; but a tenant for life-unless the estate is conferred upon him "without impeachment of waste' is not allowed to pull down buildings, cut timber, or open mines. An estate for the life of another person is called an estate pur autre vie." Estates in fee or in tail, and estates for life, are called "freehold" estates, estates for a definite number of years, however large the number may be, are 'leasehold," also called "less than freehold" (see LEASEHOLDS). The word estate is also used as a comprehensive name for the assets of a bankrupt or of a deceased person. In the latter case a distinction is made between freehold land and houses (real estate) and other property (personal estate).

66

E. S. ESTATE DUTY. See DEATH DUTIES. ESTCOURT, THOMAS (end of 18th and early 19th century). Thomas Estcourt sat in parliament as member for Cricklade from 1784 to 1806. In 1804 he published An account of an Effort to Better the Condition of the Poor in a Country Village (Long Newton) and some Regulations suggested by which the same might be extended to other parishes of a similar description. The work was printed by the board of agriculture. Estcourt states that in 1800 arrangements were made for letting to any cottager a small quantity of land at a rent of £1:12s. an acre, the land to be forfeited if not properly cultivated, or on the receipt of parish relief other than medical. He states that the offer was largely accepted, and that the scheme greatly decreased the poor-rate in the village.

C. G. C.

ESTERNO, PHIL., COMTE D' (1805-1883), born at Dijon, died at Paris. Esterno's life was mainly devoted to agriculture and to political economy. The first work of his

which caused him to be known as an economist was entitled, Des banques départementales en France, 1 vol. in 8vo, 1838. In this Esterno argued in favour of departmental banks, to be established in a good many towns, and at Dijon in particular. This was at a time when the government, urged on by a spirit of centralisation, were hostile to institutions of this description.

In 1840 Esterno took part in a discussion instituted by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, on the signs and causes of poverty in different countries. BURET (q.v.) won the prize. Esterno's paper was rejected because, according to the report, "it was not an economic essay which was wanted." This work, printed in 1842, under the title of La misère ;

755

de ses causes, de ses effets, in 8vo, reflected the ideas of Malthus, while Buret, on the other hand, had allowed sentiment to overpower

reason.

During the same year (1842) Esterno assisted as secretary, in conjunction with P. Rossi, who was president, in founding at Paris a society for promoting political economy (Société d'économie politique), an association which only lasted a few months, but was a forerunner of the society now known under the same name.

In 1867-68 Esterno published another work, Des privilégiés de l'ancien régime en France et des privilégiés du nouveau, 2 vols. in 8vo. In this work the author argued, in a brisk and original style, in favour of agriculture, which was put too much on one side by the privileged persons under the new regime, the moneyed classes, as distinguished from the landed proprietors, notwithstanding the untrustworthy titles of some of their institutions, Le Crédit agricole, for example. Before this date (18671868), and later on, Esterno strove, on behalf of the agricultural interest, against those artificial monopolies which, even to this day, have arrested the development of agriculture in France. He thus became deeply interested in works of irrigation, and it is to him and to his energy, though he never allowed his name to appear, that the adoption of the regulations of 29th April 1845 and 11th July 1847 (lois d'Angeville) is due.

Esterno's mental activity led him to occupy himself with other subjects with which we are not concerned here. His intelligence, his energy, and his scientific devotion enabled him to render them interesting to others. He was a vice-president of the second Société d'économie politique. A. C. f.

ESTIMO. The revenue of Florence in the flourishing days of the republic was mainly derived from indirect taxes, which produced some 300,000 florins a year. But in times of war, which became frequent in the 14th century, this income was insufficient, and it was supplemented either by direct taxes or by compulsory loans (prestanze). Both taxes and loans were supposed to be based upon an estimo, or government valuation of property, and hence the term estimo comes to be applied to the exactions themselves. The earliest estimo was formed in 1288, and seems to have referred only to real property. Another assessment took place in 1327, when a foreign judge was appointed to determine the wealth of each individual by the secret testimony of seven of his neighbours. But the attempt to provide a regular basis for direct taxation proved a failure in the 14th century. An estimo soon became obsolete as property rapidly changed hands, and a charge upon real property alone pressed heavily upon the noble families and the peasants of the country, while the wealthy burghers escaped.

For the most part the forced loans were arbitrarily assessed by the existing government, and one great reason for the Florentine greed for office, which introduced the system of lot, was the desire to escape taxation. When the CIOMPI (q.v.) rose in revolt in 1378, one of their demands was that no loan should be levied without an estimo, but their subsequent defeat prevented any change being made. The discontent excited by arbitrary and unfair assessment forced the government in 1427 to introduce the CATASTO (q.v.), which was only a new name for a thorough estimo of real and personal property including income. But this great reform was abandoned by Cosimo de Medici in 1441, when the old arbitrary assessments, formerly maintained to favour the wealthy burghers, were revived to relieve and conciliate the poorer classes. The Medici from this time introduced the principle of progressive taxation, and, as Guicciardini says, used the taxes instead of the dagger to ruin their opponents.

[Canestrini, La Scienza e l'Arte di Stato desunta dagli Atti officiali della Repubblica Fiorentina e dei Medici (only one volume of this great work was published).-Napier, Florentine History, vol. iii. p. 117.-Perrens, Histoire de Florence.] R. L.

ESTOPPEL. A term used in connection with the rule of law, according to which a person who, by statements or conduct, causes another person to believe in the truth of a certain matter of fact, with the intention of inducing him to act upon it, cannot, in any dispute concerning the matter in question, be allowed to assert that the state of things which he represented to be in existence, did not, in fact, exist; thus, for instance, a person, by accepting a bill of exchange, induces the holders to assume that the drawer was of full age, and otherwise capable to draw a bill, and he is therefore "estopped" from denying the drawer's capacity (Bill of Exchange Act, § 54 [2]). Estoppel by conduct is in certain cases also called "estoppel by negligence," e.g. if a person by the careless filling in of a cheque enables a fraudulent holder to alter the amount, he is estopped from denying that he drew the cheque for the full amount, as by his negligence he has allowed the banker to think that he has done so. Estoppel by statement or conduct is in the older law books called "estoppel by matter in pais," and distinguished from "estoppel by deed" and "estoppel by record." "Estoppel by deed" prevents a party to a deed from denying any fact mentioned in the same by way of recital or otherwise. Estoppel by record" precludes a party to an action, or his successor in title, from denying any fact established by the decision in the action. The fullest statement on the law of estoppel is contained in the notes to the Duchess of Kingston's case in Smith's Leading Cases, vol. ii.

E. S.

ESTOVERS (derived from the same root as the old French word estovoir to be necessary), also called "Bote," is the right of a tenant for life, unless restrained by agreement, to take the necessary wood from the estate for the use or furniture of a house or farm. "Common of Estovers" is the right of a commoner to cut wood (see COMMONS).

E. S.

ÉTATS GÉNÉRAUX, THE, or States General of France, were, under the old monarchy, the national representative assembly of the kingdom, composed of elected members of the three orders, the noblesse, the clergy, and the third order or state (Tiers État or bourgeoisie), but no fixed rule was ever followed for their election and assembling. Their first authentic meeting was summoned, 1302, by King Philippe le Bel, to assist him in his struggle against Pope Bonifacius VIII.; after this date they were convoked at irregular and often very protracted intervals, whenever the royal finances were in a state of extreme distress. In 1857, during the captivity of King John in England, they vainly tried to give a constitution to the kingdom. The Etats Généraux, which must not be confounded with the Assemblées des Notables, were at all times steady and consistent upholders of the theory that no tax could be valid without their assent; the monarchy never contested this doctrine, but never followed it in practice. The États Généraux of 1614 were the last before the revolution of 1789.

[Toussaint Quinet, Recueil des États tenus en France, 1651, 1 vol.-Paulin, Grandes chroniques de France (vol. vi. 1350-1382, Paris, 1838).-Jean Masselin, Journal des États Généraux de 1484 (in Latin, translated into French by Bernier in 1835). Rathery, Histoire des États Généraux en France (1845).- Bouillée, Histoire complète des États Généraux et autres assemblées représentatives de 1302 à 1626 (Paris, 1845, 2 vols.).—Augustin Thierry, Histoire du Tiers État.-The most recent works are M. Jallifier's Histoire des États Généraux (1 vol. Paris, 1888), and M. Georges Picot's exhaustive Histoire des États Généraux considérés au point de vue de leur influence sur le gouvernement de la France (1355-1614).]

ETHEL. See ALOD.

E. Ca.

EVANS, DAVID MORIER (1819-1874), was born in Wales. He treated economic subjects from a journalistic point of view, aiming rather at giving an accurate narrative of the successive phases of economic crises and the like than at tracing their hidden causes.

In his own words he was a man of "facts and figures."

Besides numerous contributions to the Bankers' Magazine, which he edited for some years, the Bullionist, and the Stock Exchange Gazette, Evans wrote The Commercial Crisis, 1847-48, London, 1848-49.-The Annual Commercial Register, London, 1850.-Fortune's Epitome of the Public Funds, London, 1851-56.-Facts, Failures, and Frauds, London, 1859.-The History of the Commercial Crisis, 1857-58, and of the Stock Exchange

EVERETT, ALEXANDER HILL (1792-1847), was born at Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated with the highest honours at Harvard; engaged in the diplomatic service, and from 1825 to 1829 served as U.S. minister to Spain; returned to Boston and became editor and proprietor of the North American Review; from 1830 to 1835 was in the Massachusetts Legislature; in 1840 undertook a diplomatic mission to Cuba; and in 1847 was engaged in a similar errand in China, when he died at Macao. His writings cover a wide range in history and literature. Of economic interest is the following: New Ideas on Population with Remarks upon the Theories of Malthus and Godwin, Boston, 1823, pp. 125 (translated into French). In opposition to the Malthusian theory Everett argues that an increase of population is a cause of abundance and not of scarcity, since it develops the new elements of skill by which the same quantity of labour is applied with greater effect. Although the population of Great Britain doubled in the 18th century, improvements in the mode of applying labour increased its productiveness probably a thousand times. Everett, by travel and intercourse with eminent men in Europe, enjoyed opportunities possessed by few of the earlier American writers on economic subjects. He had an interview with Malthus, carefully discussing the points at issue. latter suggested to Everett that his views were similar to those of Mr. S. Gray in the Happiness of States (1815). The Malthusian theory was also discussed in a correspondence between Everett and Prof. George Tucker in the Democratic Review, vol. xvii. pp. 297-310, 379-391, 438-444, and vol. xxi. pp. 397-410.

The

[For a summary of Everett's views, v. Dem. Rev., vol. x. p. 466, where there is a sketch of his life until 1840. To the North American Review he

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contributed many essays, among them "M'Culloch's Political Economy" (1827), xxv., 112; "Political Economy" (1829), xxviii., 368; "British Opinions on the Protecting System," xxx., 160; "American System," xxxii., 127; "Phillip's Manual of Political Economy," xxxii., 215; "The Laws of Population and Wages," xxxix., 68; "Rae's Political Economy," xl. 122. Everett was a protectionist; and in 1833, as chairman of a committee at the Tariff Convention in New York, prepared a memorial to Congress in reply to the memorial prepared by Gallatin for the Free Trade Convention at Philadelphia. He advocated reforms in the banking system in two articles on "The Currency" in Boston Quarterly Review, July 1839; January 1840.]

D. R. D.

EVERETT, GEORGE (A. 1693-1698), Shipwright, appears to have occupied some position of importance in the government dockyards. He was also employed by the commissioners of customs in the detection of smuggling. He published (1) The Pathway to Peace and Profit; or Truth in its Plain Dress, etc., London, 1694, 8vo. (2) Encouragement for Seamen and Mariners, in two parts, etc., London, 1695, 4to. The first of these pamphlets embodies certain proposals, which Everett laid before the lords of the admiralty in February 1694, for securing greater economy and efficiency in the dockyards. If they were adopted he promised an annual saving of £100,000. The second pamphlet was directed against the abuses of the system of impressment for the sea service. His object appears to have been to devise a system which should at the same time secure a constant supply of sailors for the royal navy and get rid of the expense to the government, and "injury to the subject," of the system then in vogue. Amongst his suggestions may be noticed the registration of all seamen and mariners, fixed pay days, abolition of the sale of all offices in the navy, and a strict application of the principle of promotion by merit, an additional allowance for seamen disabled in the public service, the payment to the family of the sailor of six months' wages for every nine months he should be at sea, etc. Everett's pamphlets are of no theoretical interest, but they throw much light on the conditions of labour in the dockyards and the sea service at the end of the 17th century.

[Watt's Bibl. Brit.-Cat. of Treasury Papers, xxxvi. 38; liv. 29.]

W. A. S. H.

EVELYN, JOHN, F.R.S. (1620-1706), the author of the famous Diary, published several works of economic interest. Amongst these may be mentioned (1) Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees and the Propagation of Timber, etc., London, 1664, fol., 5th ed. 1729. A new edition with notes by A. Hunter was published in 1776; 4th ed. 1812. (2) Navigation and Commerce, their Origin and Progress. taining a Succinct Account of Trafficke in General: its Benefits, etc., London, 1674, 8vo.

Con

(3) Terra: A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, Relating to the Culture and Improvement of it for Vegetation, and the Propagation of Plants, etc., London, 1676. New edition, with notes by A. Hunter, 1778. (4) Numismata: A Discourse of Medals, Ancient and Modern, etc., London, 1697, fol. Evelyn also translated several French works on horticulture.

[M'Culloch's Literature of Pol. Econ., 146, 212. For a full account of Evelyn's life and writings see Dictionary of National Biography.]

EVOLUTION. See DEVELOPMENT. EVICTION. The recovery of possession of land whether by simple re-entry or by legal process is often termed eviction. Eviction is substantially the same as EJECTMENT. The term is rather popular than technical. F. C. M.

EX. ALL. A well-known phrase on the stock exchange, used to signify that a security quoted or dealt in conveys to the buyer no rights in the shape of dividends or drawings or issue of new stock or other contingent advantages. The word ex. is simply short for excluding (see Ex. DIVIDEND, Ex. DRAWING, Ex. NEW).

A. E.

EXAMPLES. Examples in economics, as elsewhere, are simply cases, real or fictitious, or partly both, supposed to embody a general principle. They may be classified as follows: (1) Real but general, as Ricardo's hunters (Principles, ch. i. § i.), and Ad. Smith's bricklayers, carpenters, and men of letters (Wealth of Nations, I. x.). The examples are taken from a known genus but not from known individuals. Where the genus is perfectly well known, no cavil is possible. Ad. Smith's illustration of division of labour could hardly have been improved by a reference to a particular pin-making establishment in a specified place. But, in exposition, the more concrete the genus the more telling the example; e.g. 'blacksmith' seems nearer life than 'workman.' (2) Real and particular, as in Cairnes's illustration of the theory of international trade from the Australian gold discoveries (see CAIRNES). Adam Smith, where he does not use the real and general, uses the real and particular, and falls back on fiction only for his similes (as "the highway," "the waggonway through the air," the "wings," and "the pond and the buckets," W. of N., II. ii.), or his metaphors ("wheel of circulation," "channel of circulation.") Ricardo and his immediate followers have preferred, as a rule, (3) Fictitious examples. These may be illustrations of which the com

ponent elements are generically well known, as even the favourite "man on the desert island," but the combining of the elements is the work of the writer, and is more or less arbitrary, as De Quincey's "man with the musical box on Lake Superior," and Bastiat's "plank and plane." There is also a risk that the construction of the example may involve a begging of the question to be proved. "Suppose that there are but two nations in the world living side by side, with a population of one million souls in each" (Barbour, Bimetallism). "My object was to elucidate principles, and to do this I imagined strong cases that I might show the operation of those principles" (Ricardo, Letters). There is no necessary fallacy in this method of exposition any more than in illustrating the law of gravitation by the action of bodies in vacuo. Concrete cases must necessarily exemplify much more than one principle, and, even if they suggested a particular generalisation, they may perhaps not clearly illustrate it without a fictitious simplification. The lawfulness of such a method of exposition or, it may be, of proof is discussed elsewhere (see DEDUCTIVE METHOD).

J. B.

EXCAMBION is the technical term used in Scotch law to designate the contract whereby one piece of land is exchanged for another. The persons effecting the exchange are known as excambers. Each party gives the other such a warranty of title that, if evicted from the land which he has received, he and his heirs can recover from the other party and his heirs the land which he originally gave. When lands burdened with debt are disponed in excambion, they are freed from that debt and are thenceforward burdened with the debts, if any, formerly affecting the land given in exchange. Tenants in tail have a statutory power of effecting such exchanges which now extends to one-fourth of the total value of the property entailed (see LAND).

[Bell's Dictionary and Digest of the Law of Scotland, edited by George Watson, Edinburgh, 1882, art. "Excambion, and the authorities therein cited.]

EXCHANGE.

F. C. M.

Exchange, p. 758; Exchange, Value in, 759; Exchange, Value in (History of Theory), p. 762; Exchange, Usury (see Usury), p. 767; Exchange (as Bourse), p. 767: Exchange, Stock, p. 768; Exchange, Provincial Stock, p. 770; Exchange, Foreign, p. 770; Exchange, Foreign (Practical Working of), p. 772; Exchange between Holland and Dutch India, p. 773; Exchange between Great Britain and British India, p. 776; Exchange, Internal, p. 777; Exchange of Notes (Scotland), p. 778; Exchange Broker, p. 778; Exchanger, p. 778.

EXCHANGE, the voluntary giving of one commodity or service on condition of receiving another, is to a great extent the basis of the existing system of PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION (q.v.). If there were no exchanges, each article of separate property could be used only by its owner, and, excluding gifts, slaveholding, and

communistic arrangements, each man would have to subsist on what he could produce directly for himself, using his own and no one else's instruments of production. As things are, however, separate property is used in the main by those who are most capable of using it, whether they are its owners or not, and no one lives only on what he has himself produced but each lives on what has been produced by a vast number of other persons (see Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, bk. i. ch. i. at end). This is the result of exchanges; owners of property allow others to use it because they can get commodities and services in exchange for the use of it, and men are able to devote themselves exclusively to one occupation because the products of that occupation can be exchanged for the products of other occupations. While production is thus largely dependent on exchanges, distribution, as the word is commonly understood, could not exist at all without them. The use of the word implies that the whole produce of all the workers is considered to be a joint or common produce which, after being produced, has to be divided or "distributed.' If each man lived on his own patch of ground, using his own instruments, and receiving no help from any one either in commodities or services, each man's produce or income would obviously be quite distinct from that of every other person, and the conception of a joint produce requiring to be distributed would never have been formed. Individuals' incomes would vary, but the variations would be questions of production only, since each man's income would depend entirely on the amount he produced. Exchange being practised, questions of "distribution" arise because each man's income depends not only on how much he produces but also on the value of what he has to sell, i.e. on how much of certain other things he can get in exchange for a given quantity of his work or of the use of his property.

Adam Smith showed a very fair appreciation of the importance of exchange with regard both to production and distribution. He rightly

attributed what he called the "division of labour," but what is now usually called the "division of employments," to the practice of exchange, and he did not treat of wages, profits, and rents, till he had discussed "the rules which men naturally observe in exchanging" goods (Wealth of Nations, bk. i. ch. iv.) Unfortunately, James Mill, to whom the common arrangement of English works on political economy is chiefly due, seems to have had no adequate conception of the importance of exchange. He spoke of it as if it were a mere incident which occasionally happens to commodities after they have been produced and distributed (Elements of Political Economy, Introduction), and when he endeavoured to improve upon J. B. Say's division of political

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economy into Production, Distribution, and Consumption, by inserting Exchange, or "Interchange" as he called it, he placed it not only after production, but after distribution also. M'Culloch returned to Say's arrangement, but J. S. Mill followed in his father's footsteps, treating exchange after distribution, and declaring distinctly that "exchange and money make no difference in the law of wages, in the law of rent, nor in the law of profits" (Principles, bk. iii. ch. xxvi., Contents). But so far is this from being the case that the very existence of wages, rent, and profits, including interest, is dependent upon exchange. The payment of any particular sum of wages, rent, or profits is a case of exchange, and every variation in wages, rent, and profits is a variation of value, wages being the value of work done, rent the value of the use of land, and profits, the value of the use of capital and of the capitalist's services (see Sidgwick, Principles of Political Economy, bk. ii. ch. i. § 2). Of writers since J. S. Mill, most have so far deviated from his arrangement as to place "exchange " before "distribution," e.g. Walker, |(Political Economy), or, with Profs. Sidgwick and Marshall, to treat exchange and distribution as too intimately connected to be treated separately (see DISTRIBUTION).

E. C.

EXCHANGE, VALUE IN. Value in exchange, or exchangeable value, denotes a ratio of exchange-"the ratio of the number of units of one commodity to the number of units of another commodity for which it exchanges"; as Jevons particularly clearly points out (Theory of Political Economy, ch. iv.), and most authorities admit. The unsettled question is: What are the circumstances which cause the ratio to be what it is? 66 'Utility and difficulty of attainment," answers Mill (bk. iii. ch. ii.), and similar terms are used by almost all economists, but in various shades of meaning, and with different emphasis on each of the two factors. confusion is aggravated by the not sufficiently noticed circumstance that the operation of the two causes, utility and difficulty, is different in different classes of transactions. It is proposed here to discriminate those essentially distinct cases; mapping out and partially exploring the ground, which may be more fully investigated under the head VALUE.

The

A convenient tripartite division-Two-sided monopoly, one-sided monopoly (or one-sided competition), two-sided competition-is based upon the degree in which competition is present.

I. The action of competition is at a minimum where the dealers in two articles exchanged are single individuals, or bodies of persons actuated by one will, e.g. two governments negotiating a commercial treaty, or a trades-union coming to an agreement with a combination of masters about the rate of wages. The general principle in this case is that both parties will be gainers