174 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



survive under that open competition which is the essence 

 of free trade. In all the popular articles and discussions on 

 thissubject which I have seen, the extreme free traders, with- 

 out exception, maintain that this makes no difference, and 

 that because the competition of such artificially supported 

 industries keeps down prices here, therefore it benefits us 

 and injures only the protectionist peoples. But this 

 argument entirely ignores the element of stability and 

 healthy growth, perhaps the most vital essential to the pros- 

 perity of all industrial pursuits, and of every manufacturing 

 or trading community. When a country is developing its 

 natural resources without the artificial stimulus of bounties 

 or protective duties, its progress may not be very rapid, 

 but it will be sure, and for long periods permanent. It 

 will depend upon the attraction of capital to the industries 

 in question, the training up of skilled workmen, the making 

 its way in foreign markets, and other similar causes ; and 

 under a system of general free trade, these will not be 

 subject to extreme fluctuations, and the industry in question 

 will be stable as well as prosperous. No one can doubt 

 that such stability in the various industries of a country is 

 the very essence of true prosperity, leading to a steady 

 rate of wages and an assured return both to labour and 

 capital ; whereas the contrary condition of instability 

 and fluctuation is the most disastrous and dishearten- 

 ing. But such instability is the necessary result of the 

 trade of one country being subject to the ever-changing 

 influences of the protectionist legislation of other countries. 

 When, after acquiring a natural supremacy in any industry, 

 we are suddenly shut out of a market by prohibitive duties, 

 and subjected to the competition which those duties bring 

 upon us, disturbance, loss, and suffering are sure to be 

 caused both to capitalist and workman. Here then we 

 are deprived of what is really the most important advantage 

 of free trade, by the action of other countries. Is there 

 either reason or justice in passively submitting to this 

 deprivation, and is there any mode of action by which 

 we can gain for ourselves the benefits of that system of 

 freedom which we have so long magnanimously offered to all 

 the world ? I venture to say that there is, and that by a 



