[ S70 ] [April, 



SILKS. 



Silks and Free Trade — these, next to Credit and Currency, are the 

 topics which occupy all talkers and debaters : every body discusses 

 them — some absurdly, some selfishly, all partially. We, too, must talk 

 about them, and, like the Laureate, we cast our " say " upon the 

 waters, and bid it God speed. We are no manufacturers, and there- 

 fore have no immediate interests to warp our sentiments ; nor are we 

 in office — no, nor in expectancy, and therefore need not mask our 

 purposes ; and, above all, to quiet our readers' rising apprehensions, 

 we are no political economists, and therefore are under no irresistible 

 temptations to confound truth and falsehood, and move heaven and 

 earth to support a favourite and bewildering hypothesis. We are mere 

 spectators of the wild and busy scene before us ; but possibly we may, 

 if not according to the proverb, see more, yet as much of the game as 

 the great gamesters themselves. It is simply our purpose to strip off 

 disguises, to speak of things by their right names, to refer effects to 

 their real causes, and motives to their true sources. We are bound to 

 none but the community ; and our sole object is the detection of fallacies 

 and the presentation of reahties. 



We profess ouTselves at once the advocates of Free Trade, and we 

 rest the cause on this strong and intelligible ground. The advantage 

 of a whole community is indisputably of superior importance to the 

 advantage of any part of that community. Now, every member of a 

 community desires to purchase at the lowest possible I'ate, and this 

 general desire marks and measures the interest of the whole nation. 

 But that general desire can be gratified only where the field of compe- 

 tition is left completely free. Wlieresoever such freedom exists, the 

 manufacturer must, first or last, sell at the lowest rate, because if he 

 do not, others will quickly step in, and, by under-selling him, force him 

 down to that point. If, on the other hand, the manufacturer possess 

 the monopoly of an article, or any thing like exclusive privilege, he 

 will be able to control the supply, and thus obtain higher prices, which 

 higher prices must of course be obtained at the expense of the com- 

 munity. 



Interpose in what way a government will, by restrictions or protec- 

 tions, the interpositions prove detrimental to one or the other, or to 

 both. Restrictions injure the manufacturer by curtailing his market, 

 and the community by contracting the supply. Protections, indeed, 

 advantage the manufacturer, but that advantage must again be acquired 

 at the cost of the public. A government, then, never interferes com- 

 mercially, without inflicting mischief — always on the commimity, and 

 sometimes on the manufacturer. Now, a government confessedly exists 

 solely for the security of the general good ; but to confer favours, to 

 grant indulgences, to sell monopolies, is plainly to sacrifice the general 

 good to particular persons and parties, and thus to violate the very 

 sanctions of legitmiate authority. The duty of a government then, 

 with respect to commercial matters, must be absolutely to do nothing. 

 We make no distinctions between domestic and foreign trade. If a 

 foreigner can bring into tlie country an article at a cheaper rate than 

 the same can be manufactured at home, it is equally acceptable and 

 advantageous for the public to purchase that article ; and the office of 



