xi RECIPROCITY THE ESSENCE OF FREE TRADE 177 



bulk of their goods sold at home that they can afford to 

 undersell us with their surplus stocks. These vary of 

 course with variations of trade, and thus our manu- 

 facturers are at any time liable to great fluctuations of 

 prices owing to such importations. It is a weak and 

 miserable answer to say that the people benefit by the 

 low prices thus caused ; for the great mass of our people 

 are wage-earners and producers as well as consumers, 

 and almost every article we either produce or manufac- 

 ture is subject to the injurious effects of the influx of 

 surplus stocks from protected countries, by which wages 

 are lowered and numbers of men and women thrown out 

 of work. There is no comparison between the great loss 

 and suffering thus caused, and the small advantage to the 

 consumer in an almost infinitesimal and often temporary 

 lowering of the retail price of goods the majority of which 

 are not prime necessaries of life. 



What Reciprocity means. 



But there is a very simple mode by which we can obtain 

 that stability which general free trade would give us, and 

 which, as I have endeavoured to show, is its greatest 

 recommendation. It is to reply to protectionist countries 

 by putting the very same import duty on the very same 

 articles that they do, changing our duties as they change 

 theirs. 



This will restore the balance, and, so far as we are con- 

 cerned, be almost equivalent to general free trade. It 

 may, perhaps, even be better for us, in some respects, for 

 we shall get some revenue from these duties ; but the 

 great thing is, that we shall obtain stability. Our 

 capitalists and workmen will alike feel that foreign 

 protectionist governments can no longer play upon our 

 industries as they please, for their own benefit. They will 

 know that they will be always free from unfair competition, 

 while neither asking nor receiving a shred of protection 

 from that fair competition of naturally developed industries 

 which is alone compatible with the principles of free trade. 

 There will then be every incentive to exertion in order to 



VOL. II. v 



