John Locke's Economic Perspective:

On the relationship between Trade and Public Good

Abstract

For Locke, the problems of economy were closely related with the government. He thought that the economic prosperity of England was realized by ‘ordering’ trade. Trade consisted of two fields; one was manufacture, and the other navigation and commerce. And what rotated ‘the wheel’ of trade was money. It was required that landholder, broker (merchant and moneyed-man), and labor took their own part as a component in the circulation of trade. He did not intend to defend their particular interests, but thought about totally the problem of trade in terms of pursuing the public good.