Frédéric Bastiat：Economic Sophisms, Excerpt 269

The same thing holds of the use made of the word _inundation_. This word is ordinarily used in a bad sense, for we often see our fields injured, and our harvests carried away by floods. If, however, they leave on our soil something of greater value than what they carry away, like the inundations of the Nile, we should be thankful for them, as the Egyptians are. Before we declaim, then, against the inundations of foreign products--before proceeding to restrain them by irksome and costly obstacles--we should inquire to what class they belong, and whether they ravage or fertilize. What should we think of Mehemet Ali, if, instead of raising, at great cost, bars across the Nile, to extend wider its inundations, he were to spend his money in digging a deeper channel to prevent Egypt being soiled by the foreign slime which descends upon her from the Mountains of the Moon? We display exactly the same degree of wisdom and sense, when we desire, at the cost of millions, to defend our country.... From what? From the benefits which nature has bestowed on other climates.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44145
Locator：Excerpt 269 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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