CHAPTER XX 



FISCAL POLICY AND AGRICULTURE 



It is not the intention in these pages to discuss the 

 general policy of so-called " free trade," except as far 

 as it affects the agricultural interests, and through 

 them the interests of the whole country. 



In order to discuss the question fully, with any gain, 

 it is necessary to begin by referring to the opinions 

 and arguments of those who were practically the foun- 

 ders of the doctrine of free trade, namely, the great 

 French economists of the eighteenth century, of whom 

 Quesnay was the head, Turgot and other great think- 

 ers were the disciples, and Adam Smith was, in the 

 main, a follower. It is necessary to know and keep in 

 mind exactly what this school meant by free trade. 

 Mr. John Morley, speaking of Quesnay, says: "It was 

 no small proof of originality and enlightenment to 

 precede Adam Smith ten years in the doctrine of free 

 trade, of free industry, of loans on interest, of the 

 effects of the division of labour, of the processes of 

 formation of capital, etc. etc."^ 



But no one knows better than Mr. Morley that the 

 doctrine advocated by the school to which he refers, 

 and generally adopted by Adam Smith, was that of uni- 

 versal free trade. All their arguments were of a cos- 

 mopolitan, and not of a national kind, and were based 

 on the supposal of a freedom of exchange among 

 nations. They claimed, not to have set up a theorem, 



^ See " Critical Miscellanies," first and second series. 

 329 



