Cary has been heralded as a pioneer in establishing economics as a separate field of "scientific" inquiry, a proponent of a "favorable balance of trade", and an objector to the idea that low wages were desirable.
He was active in pastoral movements and cited the Bible as a key influence that provided moral and economic knowledge, especially in regards to sanctifying labor.
He believed that this is "why the Kingdom of Spain continues poor notwithstanding its Indies, because all that the Inhabitants buy is purchased for its full Value in Treasure or Product, their Labour adding nothing to its Wealth, for want of Manufactures.
Cary feared that "the affairs of Ireland, whose Trade will in a short time eat up ours, except some stop be put to it, and this doth not more affect any place as much as this city.
[1] He saw Ireland's role in the global economy to be one which should revert to "Husbandry, Trade and Manufactures stand diametrically opposite thereto" and that the country should be reduced to a more primitive and less developed state.
[3] Cary was an advocate of social reform, signing his name to support petitions which ranged from reducing the duties on imported sugar to opening the slave trade to Bristol.
[1] Cary both experienced and observed how the war had restricted England's treasure and as a result, his work acts as a guide for how countries could propagate wealth and overcome the obstacles of the preceding time.
In fact, Cary believed that "inflows of bullion were merely symptomatic of a nation's healthy productive capacity" and that "real wealth being based on accumulated labor and technological developments.
"[1] Additionally, labor was more useful and benefited more from when it was applied in the manufacturing sector compared to the agricultural sector and this difference according to Reinhart's interpretation of Cary's essay, "helped win wars, encouraged navigations, and, most important, offered a possibility for material and social amelioration, increasing workers' wages and moral rectitude while allowing them to remain competitive in foreign markets.
Only in a later work towards the end of his life did Cary offer the suggestion of tying the peoples' money to the public debt via an institution of a reformed national bank.
[1] Source:[7] During the end of the seventeen century, particularly after Cary published An Essay on the State of England, he began to develop a friendship with fellow Englishman John Locke via the correspondence of letters.
Locke is shown to express sincere approbation for Cary's writings, stating that "I think you have hit the mark ... 'Tis the balance of our trade with foreign countries, not altering the standard of our coin, which increases or lessens our bullion at home...".
"Tobacco is cut by Engines: Books are printed; Deal Boards are sawn with Mills; Lead is smelted by Wind Furnaces; all which save the Labour of many Hands, so the Wages of those employed need not be fallen ... New Projections are every Day set on Foot to render the making our Woollen Manufacturers easy, which should be rendered cheaper by the Contrivance of the Manufacturers, not by falling the Price of Labour; Cheapness creates Expence, and gives fresh Employments, whereby the Poor will be still kept at Work" (pg.
99–100)[15] Source:[6] Sophus Reinert, a historian at Harvard Business school, wrote about Cary's An Essay on the State of England in his 2011 book, Translating Empire: Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy.
[16] In Reinert's publication, he traced the economic translations between 1500 and 1849 to understand England's nationalistic policies during the eighteenth century and to ultimately explain the dynamics of political economy during this time period.