72 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



solutions, and entire hill-sides are devastated by noxious 

 vapours ; their population is increased from ten millions 

 to twenty millions, but most of them live in " black 

 countries" or in huge smoky towns, and, in default of 

 more innocent pleasures, take to drink ; the country as a 

 whole is more wealthy, but, owing to the large proportion 

 of the population depending upon the fluctuating demands 

 of foreign trade, there are periodically recurring epochs of 

 distress far beyond what was ever known in their former 

 condition. 



With this example of the natural effects of carrying out 

 the essential principles of free trade, another people in 

 almost exactly similar circumstances determine that they 

 prefer less wealth and less population, rather than destroy 

 the natural beauty of their country and give up the simple, 

 healthful, and natural pleasures they now enjoy. They 

 accordingly, by the free choice of the people in Parliament 

 assembled, forbid by high duties the exportation of any 

 minerals, and even regulate the number of mines that 

 shall be worked, in order that their country shall not be 

 changed into a huge congeries of manufactories. A balance 

 is thus kept up between different industries, all of which 

 are allowed absolutely free development so long as they 

 do not interfere with the public enjoyment, or cause any 

 permanent deterioration to the water, the soil, or the 

 vegetation of the country. They are in fact protectionists, 

 for the purpose of preserving the beauty and enjoyability 

 of their native land for themselves and for their posterity. 

 Free trade under the guidance of capitalism would destroy 

 these, and give them instead cheaper wine and silk, stale 

 eggs instead of fresh, and butter ingeniously manufactured 

 from various refuse fats. They prefer nature to luxury. 

 They prefer intellectual and aesthetic pleasures, with fresh 

 air and pure water, to an endless variety of cheap manu- 

 factures. Are they morally or intellectually wrong in 

 doing so ? 



Again : there may be, and probably are, countries which 

 produce nothing that some other country could not supply 

 them with at a cheaper rate. But as populations must work 

 to live, they have to contravene the essential principle of free 



