Frédéric Bastiat：Economic Sophisms, Excerpt 74

V. Gentlemen protectionists, you find me in a paradoxical humour; and I am disposed to go further still. I say, and I sincerely think, that if two countries are placed under unequal conditions of production, _it is that one of the two which is least favoured by nature which has most to gain by free trade_. To prove this, I must depart a little from the usual form of such a work as this. I shall do so nevertheless, first of all, because the entire question lies there, and also because it will afford me an opportunity of explaining an economic law of the highest importance, and which, if rightly understood, appears to me to be fitted to bring back to the science all those sects who, in our day, seek in the land of chimeras that social harmony which they fail to discover in nature. I refer to the law of consumption, which it is perhaps to be regretted that the majority of economists have neglected.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44145
Locator：Excerpt 74 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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