A SYNOPSIS 373 



The Economic Incongruities of Free-trade 



One of the most curious things about Free-traders is their 

 imperviousness to ridicule. Free-trade is a veritable jumble 

 of paradoxes and economic inconsistencies, and yet its votaries 

 C(mtinue their absurd gasconading. Great Britain is the only 

 great State which has Free-trade, and yet she far excels any 

 other nation on earth — small or great — in foul pauperism, 

 widespread distress, and growing unemployment. Cobden and 

 his fellow manufacturer-reformers in the " forties " led the 

 people to believe that the land would Ijo tilled, distress and 

 pauperism vanish, employment be plentiful, and general pros- 

 perity secured, by abolishing the Corn Laws, and banishing 

 what in those days they called "Protection." After sixty 

 years of expectancy the people find that not only have none 

 of these things been accomplished, but that poverty and 

 unemployment have become so general as to breed wide- 

 spread discontent and threaten revolution ; indeed, it may 

 truly be said that — given the opportunity — "the masses" were 

 never more ripe for a general uprising than they are to-day, 

 and although these facts are patent enough to " the man in the 

 street," the pachydermatous nature of the Free-trader cannot 

 be brought to realise that these evils are, and must be, due 

 to the unfortunate results of the economic system called Free- 

 trade, for the simple, yet irresistible, reason that for the last 

 sixty- two years the country has known no other system ! 



There is abundance of land lying unproductive, and vast 

 unemployment, but Free- trade is incapaUc of hnnging them 

 together. There is an immense British mercantile marine 

 carrying more than half of the world's trade and capable of 

 giving work to vast numbers of our own unemployed, and yet 

 our ships are largely manned hu foreigners. 



With unrivalled industrial skill and command of raw 

 material, with a plethora of skilled labour and ample capital, 

 we nevertheless prefer to buy in foreign markets, force our 

 own workpeople to emigrate, and drive our capital abroad so 

 i]i'Sit foreign eompetitors mag use it against tis. 



With matchless facilities for growing our own food supplies, 

 and thus aftording employment to millions of our fellow- 

 countrymen, we spend £172,000,000 each year abroad so that 

 the foreigner mag grov^ them for us. 



With vast facilities for universal employment in our land, 

 with numerous trades and manufacturing industries wherein 

 productive lucrative work could be found for every man and 

 woman in the country, we prefer to hug our rngs and tatters to 



