CHAPTER XXIX 



A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF FREE-TRADE RRINCTPLES 



(co7itinued)~CEB.TAm concrete examples showing 



FREE-TRADE FALLACIES COBDEN's FUNDAMENTAL 



blunder 



It is held by Free-trade economists that Great Britain should 

 buy her corn from Argentina, wo will say, where she could get 

 it a trifle cheaper than if she grew it herself, because, as imports 

 must necessarily be paid for by exports, and as about 75 per 

 cent, of British exports are mamtfadured goods, these manu- 

 factures would necessarily have to be taken in exchange for 

 the corn. 



This is a very pretty theory, and it serves the interests of 

 Tree-traders admirably ; but, like most of their theories, it is in 

 — tlic ahstract form. Will it bear reducing to a simple concrete 

 example ? Argentina has sent us £50,000 of corn, and wants 

 £50,000 worth of steel rails and bridge material for the exten- 

 sion of her railway system. Belgium and Germany are com- 

 petitors with us for the order, and can — as they have often done 

 — undersell us, and one or the other of them eventually gets it. 

 Where, then, do our manufactures come in ? 



Let us see what further investigation may reveal. 



Said Adam Smith — 



" It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family never to 

 attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make tlian 

 to buy. . . . What is prudence in the conduct of every private 

 family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom." 



Tliis is what is termed by economists specialising production, 

 and as an " abstract principle " it is well-nigh unassailable. 



Whether this principle can be rigorously applied in its 

 integrity to either the individual requirements of domestic life, 

 or to tlie larger life of the nation is, however, quite another 

 question. 



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