Part 10 (2/2)

Mr de Saint Cricq has asked: ”Are we sure that our foreign customers will buy from us as much as they sell us?”

Mr de Dolish producers will come to seek their supplies from us, rather than from any other nation, or that they will take from us a value equivalent to their exportations into France?”

I cannot but wonder to see_practical_, thus reasoning wide of all practice!

In practice, there is perhaps no traffic which is a direct exchange of produce for produce Since the use of money, no man says, I will seek shoes, hats, advice, lessons, only from the shoemaker, the hatter, the lawyer, or teacher, ill buy from me the exact equivalent of these in corn Why should nations impose upon themselves so troublesome a restraint?

Suppose a nation without any exterior relations One of its citizens makes a crop of corn He casts it into the _national_ circulation, and receives in exchange--what? Money, bank bills, securities, divisible to any extent, by means of which it will be lawful for him to withdrahen he pleases, and, unless prevented by just competition from the national circulation, such articles as he may wish At the end of the operation, he will have withdrawn from the mass the exact equivalent of what he first cast into it, and in value, _his consumption will exactly equal his production_

If the exchanges of this nation with foreign nations are free, it is no longer into the _national_ circulation but into the _general_ circulation that each individual casts his produce, and froed to calculate whether what he casts into this general circulation is purchased by a countryiven to hilishh means of this money are manufactured on this or the other side of the Rhine or the Pyrenees One thing is certain; that each individual finds an exact balance bethat he casts in and what he withdraws froreat common reservoir; and if this be true of each individual, it is not less true of the entire nation

The only difference between these two cases is, that in the last, each individual has open to hier market both for his sales and his purchases, and has, consequently, a e

The objection advanced against us here, is, that if all were to co from circulation the produce fro froard to a nation

Our answer is: If a nation can no longer withdraw any thing froer cast any thing into it

It ork for itself It will be obliged to submit to what, in advance, you wish to force upon it, viz, _Isolation_ And here you have the ideal of the prohibitive systeh that you should inflict upon it now, and unnecessarily, this systeht chance to be subjected to it without your assistance?

XVI

OBSTRUCTED RIVERS PLEADING FOR THE PROHIBITIONISTS

So of the Cortes

The subject in discussion was a proposed treaty with Portugal, for i the channel of the Douro A able, transportation rain will come into forainst the project, unless ree to increase our tariff so as to re-establish the equilibrium

Three months after, I was in Lisbon, and the sao said: Mr President, the project is absurd

You guard at great expense the banks of the Douro, to prevent the influx into Portugal of Spanish grain, and at the sareat expense, _to facilitate such an event_ There is in this a want of consistency in which I can have no part Let the Douro descend to our Sons as we have received it from our Fathers

XVII

A NEGATIVE RAILROAD

I have already remarked that when the observer has unfortunately taken his point of view from the position of producer, he cannot fail in his conclusions to clash with the general interest, because the producer, as such, must desire the existence of efforts, wants, and obstacles

I find a singular exemplification of this remark in a journal of Bordeaux