THE FISCAL QUESTION 139 



do or do not belong to the same nation. The strongest 

 adherents of preferential or protective tariff's do not dream 

 of advocating interference with the freedom of interchange 

 of goods between England and Scotland, although these 

 countries compete with one another not less keenly, and 

 in more ways, than with France or Germany. They tell 

 us that, were it only practicable, they would establish free 

 trade throughout the British Empire, and presumably, 

 therefore, throughout the world, if all the nations formed 

 one State. In a word, were it not for political and patriotic 

 considerations, London would be allowed to continue to 

 trade with Berlin, New York, and Paris as freely as with 

 Dublin or Glasgow. 



How, then, do political and patriotic considerations 

 affect the situation, so far as it depends upon ourselves? 

 "Why should they make any difference in our method of 

 interchanging goods? If our fiscal reformers took the 

 trouble to examine their own presuppositions, their answer 

 would be something of this kind : A political State stands 

 under peculiar obligations to its own citizens, and places 

 them under peculiarly intimate relations to itself. In their 

 interests it seeks and has a right to seek to enlarge its 

 territory and strengthen itself up to the limits of its power. 

 Ideally, a State ought to be self-sufficient, and be strong 

 and resourceful enough to provide its own citizens with all 

 that is required to satisfy their wants ; for incompleteness 

 implies weakness and dependence, and these carry with 

 them insecurity for all those to whom it ought to be an 

 adequate refuge. Hence, there is nothing to limit the 

 self-assertion of a State, for as self-sufficient it is an end 

 to itself ; and if it recognises any restraints, they are all 

 prudential in character. If it had the power, as it has the 



