Two Views on Profit in Sir James Steuart

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the relationship between private profit and public profit on the theory of Sir James Steuart, through examination of his profit theories: profit upon alienation and positive profit. Steuart argued about ideas of ‘profit’ two times in another context─ chapter 4 and 8, Book 2, Steuart’s inquiry. And those ideas have been regarded as unifiable to one profit theory in previous studies. But, in this research, I shall show that those arguments have different viewpoints. The one, profit upon alienation in chapter 4, is to discuss the private individual profit. The other, positive or relative profit in chapter 8, is to consider the profit of public or statesman that idea is applied to assess the result of economic activities by private individuals.