Аннотация:
Introduction. The main question of political economy in various forms
The title of the main work of Adam Smith, the founder of the political economy, really is very demonstrative: “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”.
The last word in this title allows us to think that we are talking about the wealth of certain separate concrete peoples, organized in specific ever-existing socio-historical organisms, such as a small family, a large family, a clan, a tribe, a simple state, a power, an empire, a macros of 21 century, etc. A simple state, a power, and an empire are usually called states. All of these begone and existing socio-historical organisms have the same «state-economic» structure and the same activities. So in [15, p. 47], [16, p. 53], and [17, p. 63] they were called noms.
With that understanding, the main question of political economy is the following: what is the nature of wealth (or, in other words, welfare) of each historically possible nom and of each member of this nom? This general question can be put in different special forms.
The main question of political economy in the substantial form is the question about a source, at the expense of which, the nom as a whole can build its wealth?
If not proceed from ideological preferences but from natural and scientific knowledge, one can understand that the welfare of any nom (as a whole) can be created by just two primary archemodes:
− Firstly, by the withdrawal from their native or foreign environment;
− Secondly, by the withdrawal from the foreign above-natural (i.e., created by mankind in the process of its being) environment, both material and mental (see further section 2.3).
Scientific and technological development only changes the types of this withdrawal. Under the withdrawal we understand the gratuitous extraction and appropriation of any wealth.
A native or foreign natural environment and foreign above-natural environment together constitute substantial environment of the nom. It is therefore possible to say that the welfare of any nom can be achieved in the first place by means of the withdrawal from the substantial environment of the nom or, in other words, at the expense of substantial withdrawal.
Thus the (primary) withdrawing nature of the nom wealth consists in the following act: the withdrawal of the objects of withdrawal from the substantial environment of the nom and their transfer into the nom in a form of the products of withdrawal, subjected to
− either further processing during the process of proper public production within the nom,
− or appropriation and redistribution within the nom.
In the past, this nature manifested itself in the form of robbery and levy imposition. Now that nature is manifested in the modern sophisticated forms.
Only after the beginning of the implementation of the described primary withdrawal the proper public production may be exercised inside the nom. Therefore the welfare of any nom can be achieved in the second place by means of the productive processing of wealth withdrawn from the substantial environment of the nom.
Thus the (secondary) productive nature of the nom wealth consists in the following act: the proper public production inside the nom considers the products of the withdrawal from the substantial environment of the nom as the objects of nom production and converts them into products of nom production that are subjected to appropriation and distribution both inside and outside the nom.
The substantial withdrawal and the productive processing of withdrawn wealth naturally can be called the public maintenance (keeping) of the nom (this notion extends the trite notion of public production).
Once the basic question in substantial form is answered, questions in the following forms raise.
The main question of political economy in the administration form is the question about a means of administration, at the expense of which, the nom, as a whole, can build its wealth? The main question of political economy in the distribution form is the question how the created wealth can be distributed among the members of the nom?
Accordingly to these two questions the paper is divided into two parts. Each of them shows that the economic activity of mankind rests on the synthesis of solidarity and competition.