From the introduction by Arthur T. Hadley, President, Yale University: "In every department of political economy except colonial policy, the English reader finds himself well supplied with material. But in this particular field good discussions are extremely rare. No English or American economist has devoted his time to a survey of the subject as Leroy-Beaulieu has done in France, or as other economists of scarcely less note have done in Holland, in Italy, and in Germany. We have excellent monographs dealing with particular points, but nothing except Adam Smith's Essay on Colonies which gives an introductory view of the principles governing the whole theme." "... Adam Smith is a theorist in the best sense of the word - a man whose breadth of view, instead of unfitting him for practical details, enables him to bring the widest lessons of history and experience to bear on the problems of the day, and makes his counsels most valuable to those who, by experience, know the perplexities with which these problems are attended."