The man who put indolence among the primary motives of human happiness was not likely to view novel theories with unruffled temper.
Hume has an eminent place among economists, and for one to whom the study of such phenomena was but a casual inquiry, it is marvelous how much he saw.

He is free from the crude errors of mercantilism; and twenty years before Adam Smith hopes, "as a British subject," for the prosperity of other countries.

"Free communication and exchange" seems to him an ordinance of nature; and he heaps contempt upon those "numberless bars, obstructions and imposts which all nations of Europe, and none more than England, have put upon trade." Specie he places in its true light as merely a medium of exchange.

The supposed antagonism between commerce and agriculture he disposes of in a half-dozen effective sentences.

He sees the place of time and distance in the discussion of economic want.