CHAPTER XXXI 



A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF FREE-TEADE PRINCIPLES {COU- 

 cludcd) — SOME CATEGORICAL REPLIES TO FREE- 

 TRADE QUESTIONS 



One of the chief features of most works on economics is its 

 fondness for dealing in abstract principles rather than in 

 concrete examples. To deal in the abstract is to generalise, 

 and to deal in generalities is not to convince. 



There is an old saying that — " an ounce of practice is worth 

 a ton of theory," and it is true. The abstract partakes too 

 much of — theory. The concrete is nearer to— practice. 



The following passages are examples of the abstract : — 



Fkee-trade Postulations 



" If Great Britain were to insist by means of prohibitive tariffs on 

 making her people grow all their own corn, much labour would be 

 diverted to agriculture, and vast portions of inferior land would need to 

 be cultivated. Since all imports of corn would now cease, the exports 

 of cloth, machinery, etc., by which they are at present purchased 

 would cease also, and the industries which supply them would decline, 

 the mercantile marine, which conducts the trade, would be unemployed, 

 shipbuilding and other subsidiary industries, so far as they depend 

 upon this branch of commerce, would collapse and a vast army of 

 unemployed artisans, now receiving high wages, would be driven to 

 agriculture to provide a bare subsistence from a niggardly soil, or what 

 is more probable, they would leave the country in search of a better 

 livelihood. The effect upon home industry would thus be dis- 

 astrous." * 



" In no circumstances known at present could this country feed 

 her enormous population of 4(i,0(»0,UOU people at their existing 

 standard of subsistence ; to be self-sutlicing as regards food, a portion 

 of the population would need to emigrate, and of the remainder, the 

 majority must betake themselves to agricultural pursuits. Is the 



* " The Free-trade Movement," pp. 112-113. 

 333 



