Part 8 (1/2)

X

RECIPROCITY

We have just seen that all which renders transportation difficult, acts in the same manner as protection; or, if the expression be preferred, that protection tends towards the same result as obstacles to transportation

A tariff may then be truly spoken of, as a swamp, a rut, a steep hill; in a word, an _obstacle_, whose effect is to augment the difference between the price of consumption and that of production It is equally incontestable that a swa, etc, are veritable protective tariffs

There are people (few in nuin to understand that obstacles are not the less obstacles, because they are artificially created, and that our well-being is more advanced by freedom of trade than by protection; precisely as a canal is more desirable than a sandy, hilly, and difficult road

But they still say, this liberty ought to be reciprocal If we take off our taxes in favor of Spain, while Spain does not do the same towards us, it is evident that we are duped Let us then make _treaties of commerce_ upon the basis of a just reciprocity; let us yield where we are yielded to; let us e of selling

Persons who reason thus, are (I aoverned by the protectionist principle They are only a little more inconsistent than the pure protectionists, as these are more inconsistent than the absolute prohibitionists

I will illustrate this by a fable

STULTA AND PUERA (FOOL-TOWN AND BOY-TOWN)

There were, it reat expense had a road built which connected them with each other

Some time after this was done, the inhabitants of _Stulta_ beca us with its productions; this must be attended to They established therefore a corps of _Obstructors_, so called because their business was to place obstacles in the way of the wagon trains which arrived from _Puera_ Soon after, _Puera_ also established a corps of Obstructors

After sohtened, the inhabitants of _Puera_ began to discover that these reciprocal obstacles ht possibly be reciprocal injuries They sent therefore an a over the official phraseology) spoke much to this effect: ”We have built a road, and noe put obstacles in the way of this road This is absurd It would have been far better to have left things in their original position, for then ould not have been put to the expense of building our road, and afterwards of creating difficulties In the name of _Puera_, I come to propose to you, not to renounce at once our syste to a theory, and we despise theories as hing at the same time carefully our respective _sacrifices_” The a thus spoken, the town of _Stulta_ asked tiriculturists were consulted; and at last, after sootiations were broken off

At this news, the inhabitants of _Puera_ held a council An old man (who it has always been supposed had been secretly bribed by _Stulta_) rose and said: ”The obstacles raised by _Stulta_ are injurious to our sales; this is a misfortune Those which we ourselves create, injure our purchases; this is a second misfortune We have no power over the first, but the second is entirely dependent upon ourselves Let us then at least get rid of one, since we cannot be delivered from both Let us suppress our corps of _Obstructors_, without waiting for _Stulta_ to do the same Some day or other she will learn to understand better her own interests”

A second counselor, a man of practice and of facts, uncontrolled by theories and wise in ancestral experience, replied: ”We must not listen to this dreamer, this theorist, this innovator, this utopian, this political economist, this friend to _Stulta_ We would be entirely ruined if the ehed and exactly equalized, between _Stulta_ and _Peura_ There would be ; in exportation than in iard to _Stulta_, in the inferior condition in which Havre, Nantes, Bordeaux, Lisbon, London, Haher up the rivers Seine, Loire, Garonne, Tagus, Thames, the Elbe, and the Mississippi; for the difficulties of ascendingrivers (A voice exclaims: 'But the cities near the her up the stream') This is not possible

(The same voice: 'But it is a fact') Well, they have then prospered _contrary to rule_” Such conclusive reasoning staggered the assehly and conclusively by speaking of national independence, national honor, national dignity, national labor, overwhel importation, tributes, ruinous co the assembly to continue their system of obstacles, and I can now point out a certain country where youwith the best possible understanding, by the decree of the saislative assembly, paid by the same citizens; the first to improve the road, the last to embarrass it

XI

ABSOLUTE PRICES

If ish to judge between freedom of trade and protection, to calculate the probable effect of any political phenomenon, we should notice how far its influence tends to the production of _abundance or scarcity_, and not simply of _cheapness or dearness_ of price Weto _absolute prices_, it would lead to inextricable confusion

Mr Mathieu de Do established the fact that protection raises prices, adds:

”The augmentation of price increases the expenses of life, and consequently the price of labor, and every one finds in the increase of the price of his produce the same proportion as in the increase of his expenses Thus, if every body pays as consumer, every body receives also as producer”

It is evident that it would be easy to reverse the argument and say: If every body receives as producer, every bodywhatever, unless it be that protection _transfers_ riches, uselessly and unjustly Robbery does the saeive even simple compensation, it is necessary to adhere to the ”_consequently_” of Mr de Dombasle, and to convince one's self that the price of labor rises with that of the articles protected This is a question of fact, which I refer to Mr Moreau de Jonnes, begging hies was found to increase with the stock of the mines of Anzin For my own part I do not believe in it, because I think that the price of labor, like every thing else, is governed by the proportion existing between the supply and the demand Now I can perfectly well understand that _restriction_ will diminish the supply of coal, and consequently raise its price; but I do not as clearly see that it increases the dees