A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF FilEE-TRADE PRINCIPLES 329 



and Free-traders have a difficult task Ijcfore them if they still 

 persist in trying to make the people believe otherwise. 



Free-trade economists point to so many universal benefits 

 accruing from Free-trade that many volumes would be required 

 for their consideration ; we can only deal with one other point. 



Higher Standard of Comfort Shared by all Nations 



Much is made of the higher standard of living which the 

 Fmtish people enjoy to-day in comparison with years " lang 

 syne," 



Tliis is perfectly true in the main, but for tlie purposes of 

 exalting the beneficence of Free-trade it suits these economists 

 to ignore the fact that all otlicr civilised nations, not hc'tng Free- 

 traders, have e(|ually shared in this liighcr standard of living 

 which is obviously the natural outcome of tlie universal 

 progressive prosperity of the world, rather than due to tlie 

 particular fiscal system of any country. The development of 

 the railway system of every country, the freer facilities offered 

 to over-seas trade and international communication, the applica- 

 tion of science to all departments of manufactures, the spread 

 of hygienic knowledge, cheap literature, and the thousand and 

 one civilising influences of the last fifty years, have all con- 

 tributed to mental culture and a higher standard of thoucrht 

 and material comfort ; and to state that the British people owe 

 these benefits to Free-trade is to advance a proposition which is 

 not only absurd but — untrue. 



" Statistics of wealth, commerce, rates of wages, savings, con- 

 sumption of food, etc., of shipping, revenue, and of the expansion of 

 the great staple trades, give induliitablc evidence of the vast 

 advance in comfort of the nation since the abolition of the protective 

 regime.''^ * 



It is at last realised that, in spite of that boasted com- 

 mercial and industrial progression which this country has 

 enjoyed during the last fifty years, other nations, which have 

 protected themselves with all sorts of tariffs— which, by the 

 way, are chiefly directed against Great Britain — have not only 

 experienced similar trade expansion but have actually progressed 

 in commercial and industrial development to a greater extent 

 than we have. 



PiEAL Cause of H[giier Standard of Living 



The freer facilities for communication with other countries 

 have opened the people's eyes to many facts. Among others 

 * " The Free-trade Movement," p. 134. 



