CHAPTER XL 



FOREIGN TRADE IS NO REMEDY FOR OUR INDUSTRIAL 

 DISTRESS. 



[A portion of the matter forming this chapter I prepared for the Atlantic 

 Monthly of August, 1879, where it may be found under the title of " Foreign 

 Trade no Cure for Hard Times."] 



VERY large number of well meaning people be- 

 Heve that the only remedy for our industrial 

 distress is to be found in foreign trade by selling 

 our manufactures and products of every nature in for- 

 eign markets by manufacturing and producing for 

 all the world by making our country the workshop 

 of the world, and our people the world's providers. 



Suppose it were to our interest, and the interest of 

 the world, that it should be so, how can it be done ? 

 The answer quickly comes, By manufacturing and 

 producing cheaper and better than any other people 

 or, to sell a better article, at a less price, than any 

 competitor. By the power of cheapness to drive all 

 other producers and manufacturers out of the market 

 to undersell all others. 



Let us see what this means, and what we have 

 to compete with, for it is by competition only that 

 foreign markets can be obtained. I take up the 

 " Statesman," of India, to learn the working time in 

 thoir cotton mills. From that paper I quote : - 

 198 



