Economic Sophisms

A country might still be unhappy, although for a long time each man may have been unused to injustice through the continued resistance of an…

Society must perhaps pass through this prosaic state of transition, in which men practise virtue from motives of prudence, in order to rise…

For, sooth to say, if you make cloths I make roofs; and both, in their own way, shelter our customers from cold and from rain.

And yet I run after customers; and customers run after you. You have found out the way of securing them by hindering them from supplying themselves…

What is astonishing in all this? Monsieur Cunin, the Minister of State, has not forgotten M. Cunin, the manufacturer--all quite natural. But, alas!…

You will no doubt tell me that these small halfpence, which pass in this way from my pocket to yours, maintain workpeople who reside around your…

Be this as it may, Monsieur le Ministre-fabricant, knowing that I should be but ill received by you, I have not come to require you, as I had good…

Here, of course, you will interpose a difficulty. "My good friend," you will say, "I would protect you and your fellow-workmen with all my heart; but…

Why do you drive away the Belgians? Because they sell cheaper than you. And why do they sell cheaper than you? Because they have a certain degree…

Between you and a Belgian, therefore, there is exactly the same difference as in my trade there would be between a blunt and a sharp axe.

Regard the country at large as a workman who desires, by his labour, to procure all things he has want of, and, among others, cloth.

You do not deny that at present, in France, we obtain a piece of stuff by the work of our own looms (that is the blunt axe) _with more labour_ than…

Whereas at present we give a hundred blows of the axe, we shall then give three hundred. The work which we now do in an hour will then require…

And should the theoretical advocates of free trade ever dare to call in question the utility of the measure, we know well where to seek for reasons…

"What! you have the face to demand for all citizens a right to sell, buy, barter, and exchange; to render and receive service for service, and to…

This is what is said to us. I know very well what to think of it; but what I wish to know is, what the workmen themselves think of it.

I have at hand an excellent instrument of inquiry. Not those Upper Councils of Industry, where extensive proprietors who call themselves labourers,…

No; it is with workmen, who are workmen in reality, that we have to do--joiners, carpenters, masons, tailors, shoemakers, dyers, blacksmiths,…

My object was to interrogate these plain, simple people as to the manner in which they are, or believe themselves to be, affected by the policy of…

They divided the assembly into as many committees as there were groups of distinct trades, and delivered to each committee a schedule to be filled up…

On the day fixed, the worthy president (we adopt the official style) took the chair, and there were laid upon the table (still the official style)…

1st, In consequence of the policy of protection, we pay dearer for bread, meat, sugar, firewood, thread, needles, etc., which is equivalent in our…

2d, In consequence of the policy of 'protection, our customers also pay dearer for everything, and this leaves them less to spend upon clothing;…

3d, In consequence of the policy of protection, the stuffs which we make up are dear, and people on that account wear their clothes longer, or…

Note.--After all our inquiries, deliberations, and discussions, we have been quite unable to discover that in any respect whatever the policy of…

2d, It imposes a like tax upon all our fellow-citizens who are not of our trade, and they, being so much the poorer, have recourse to cheap…

3d, It keeps up iron at so high a price, that it is not employed in the country for ploughs, grates, gates, balconies, etc.; and our trade, which…

All the other reports (with which it is unnecessary to trouble the reader) are to the same tune. Gardeners, carpenters, shoemakers, clogmakers,…

What I remark, especially, is the good sense displayed by our villagers in perceiving not only the direct injury which the policy of protection…

And perhaps those men whose eyes a dash of protection has fascinated, especially our agriculturists, would be willing to give it up, if they were…

In that case they might perhaps say to themselves, "Better far to be self-supported in the midst of a set of customers in easy circumstances, than to…

For to desire to enrich by turns each separate branch of industry by creating a void round each in succession, is as vain an attempt as it would be…

I think it necessary to submit to the reader some theoretical remarks on the illusions to which the words dearness and cheapness give rise. At…

In the midst of this conflict, it would seem that the law has only one course to follow, and that is to allow prices to settle and adjust…

But the parties to this dispute have changed positions. The advocates of dearness have secured the triumph of their system, and it lies with the…

To create cheapness, the free-traders have occasionally succeeded in securing liberty, and, to their astonishment, an elevation of prices has been…

For example, in France, in order to favour agriculture, a duty of 22 per cent has been imposed on foreign wool, and it has turned out that French…

In England, to satisfy the consumer, they lowered, and ultimately removed, the duty on foreign wool; and it has come to pass that in that country the…

And these are not isolated facts; for the price of wool is governed by precisely the same laws which govern the price of everything else. The same…

Put the case of two isolated nations, each composed of a million of inhabitants. Grant that, _coteris paribus_, the one possesses double the quantity…