Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

tional and feeling beings is, according to Adam Smith, God’s business and not man’s. 5 Jean-
Baptiste Say (l767-l832), who sought to spread Smith’s teaching in France, asserted that the
laws of the economy are not „the work of man“, but „result as certainly from the nature of
things as the laws of the physical world“; one does not invent them, one discovers them. 6
Frédéric Bastiat (l80l-l850) embraced the same optimism. He compared the mécanique céleste
of the starry heavens with the mécanique sociale of the natural economic order, which tells of
the wisdom of God. 7
b) The ‘natural’ order of the economy is discernible by our reason.
Faith in the order of the economy given by nature was complemented by trust in reason,
which was able to know that order correctly. The physiocrat Paul-Pierre Le Mercier de La
Revière († l80l) had already taught that knowledge of natural laws is easy for man because
nature has given each one „a sufficient portion of the light of reason.“ 8
c) The basic principle of the natural economic order is the individualistic idea of freedom.
The bonds of the guild system and of landlordism were broken. The freedom of man and his
property, of contract and competition, of trade and industry were proclaimed. The state, Adam
Smith demanded in l776, should „completely take away...all systems either of preference or
restraint.“ Then „the obvious and simple system of natural liberty“ will be established on its
own. The tasks of the state are limited to protection of the country from external enemies, the
creation of legal security at home, and the establishment of unprofitable, but indispensable
public institutions (e.g., schools and streets). In the economy, however, state management and
planning have harmful consequences. There are no two characters that are less compatible
with one another than the character of a merchant and that of a prince; for governments are
„always and without exception the most wasteful spenders“ because they spend other people’s
money. The slogan laissez faire, laissez passer was an expression of the demand for total economic
freedom. 9
d) The natural motive force in the economy is self-interest.
We have never experienced, thought Adam Smith, „much good done by those who affected to
trade for the public good.“ But if everyone follows „his own interest,“ he „frequently promotes
that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.“ Only the
work of free, self-interested people brings prosperity. For the „experience of all ages and nations“
agrees that, although it only requires payment of living expenses, work done by slaves
„is in the end the dearest of any“; for „a person who can acquire no property, can have no
other interest but to eat as much, and to labor as little as possible.“ 10
The teaching of Adam Smith on the altruism of egoism had the effect of a revelation on many
of his contemporaries. Frédéric Bastiat praised this law as the „most sublime revelation of the
impartial providence of God with respect to all his creatures.“ 11 The brilliant Hermann
Heinrich Gossen (l8l0-l858), however, thought that, as God has brought „order into his
worlds“ through gravity, so has he created „order among his people“ through self-interest.
Self-interest holds human society together. It is „the bond that is twined around all men and
forces them in mutual exchange to further the well-being of their fellow man at the same time
as their own well-being.“ Unfortunately, self-interest has been so mistaken that it has been
denounced as „pleasure-seeking“: „Man can go this far astray if he leaves unnoticed the reve-
5
A. Smith, op. cit., bk. 2, chap. 3 and bk. 4, chap. 9.
6
Trait‚ d’Economie politique, 12f.
7
Oeuvres complètes (Paris, 1855), VI:10f.
8
L’Ordre naturel et essentiel des sociétés politiques (Paris, 1767), 81.
9
Op. cit., bk. 3, ch. 2.
10
Ibid., bk. 4, chap. 2; bk. 3, chap. 2.
11 Op cit., 327.
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