Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the
Political History of the United States CIRCULATION OF WEALTH.
The word circulation (of wealth) is one of those politico-
economical terms which has been most misused. The framers of
systems have often employed it to build upon the data which it
expresses airy castles in which nothing was wanting to make the
world supremely happy but a basis on which the structure might
rest. But the circulation of wealth is none the less an
important fact well worthy of being observed, and one which has
not been studied, perhaps, as much as it deserves. If utopists,
while mistaking its law, have too often exaggerated its
importance, this is no reason for extimating it below its real
significance. —The circulation of wealth, says J.B. Say, "is the
passage of a thing having value from one hand to another." —The
passage merchandise from one hand to another is the first
elementary fact which constitutes, by its repetition, the
general phenomenon of the circulation of weal