Two Systems Before the World

(Reflections on Henry C. Carey and the Moral Vision of the American System)

“Two systems are before the world; the one looks to increasing the proportion of persons and of capital engaged in trade and transportation, and therefore to diminishing the proportion engaged in producing commodities with which to trade, with necessarily diminished return to the labour of all; while the other looks to increasing the proportion engaged in the work of production, and diminishing that engaged in trade and transportation, with increased return to all, giving to the labourer good wages, and to the owner of capital good profits.

One looks to pauperism, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; the other to increasing wealth, comfort, intelligence, combination of action, and civilization. One looks towards universal war; the other towards universal peace. One is the English system; the other we may be proud to call the American system, for it is the only one ever devised the tendency of which was that of elevating while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world.”

— Henry C. Carey, The Harmony of Interests (1851)

The Clash of Two Visions

Carey wrote at a time when two worldviews were colliding.

One was the English system—a global model built on finance, speculation, and dependence on cheap labor. It expanded trade and transportation but hollowed out productive work. As Carey observed, when too much wealth flows to middlemen and too little to makers, the result is pauperism and depopulation: a few grow rich, while many are left behind.

The other vision—the American system—sought to build a balanced, self-sustaining economy rooted in production, invention, and cooperation between labor and capital. Rather than chasing cheap markets abroad, it aimed to cultivate strong communities at home. The fruits of this system were good wages, fair profits, and shared prosperity.

A Moral Economy, Not Just an Industrial One

For Carey, economics was never neutral.

He saw a moral law embedded in production itself. Work was meant to elevate man, not enslave him to the machinery of commerce. When production and labor are honored, people thrive—both materially and spiritually. When speculation rules, greed displaces virtue, and nations decay from within.

The “American system,” as Carey defined it, was not merely a policy program but a moral economy—one that joined industry with integrity, liberty with labor, and national growth with human dignity.

From Carey to the Present

Though written in 1851, Carey’s words sound prophetic in our own time of global imbalance.

Today, vast networks of trade and finance dominate while fewer people actually make things. The result echoes his warning: wealth inequality, social fragmentation, and the loss of productive purpose.

If Carey’s “American system” stood for anything, it was that true prosperity begins with production before speculation—craft before commerce, substance before symbol. It called for nations to reward those who create rather than those who merely exchange.

Toward a Renewed Vision

Carey believed that when a society honors productive labor—farmers, builders, inventors, teachers, makers—it moves toward peace and order. When it worships profit and convenience, it drifts toward chaos and exploitation.

Perhaps that is the enduring relevance of his “two systems before the world.”

The choice remains ours:

• To measure success by what we consume, or by what we contribute.

• To build an economy that uses people to serve markets, or one that uses markets to serve people.

• To chase temporary gain, or to pursue enduring good.

Carey called this the only system devised to elevate while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world.

May we recover that vision—not merely in economics, but in the way we value work, community, and human dignity.