258 Force and the Social Structure 



Trade does not require force; free trade consists 

 simply in letting people buy and sell as they want to 

 buy and sell. It is protection that requires force, 

 for it consists in preventing people from doing what 

 they want to do. Protective tariffs are as much appli- 

 cations of force as are blockading squadrons, and their 

 object is the same — to prevent trade. ^ 



More recently, Eduard Bernstein has pointed 

 out the connection of the current economic theories 

 with the philosophy of force. Discussing the 

 reasons for the ineffectiveness of the modern 

 economic interdependence of nations to prevent 

 war, in the June, 19 15, number of Die Friedens- 

 warte, he says : 



Anyone who reads the literature of the militarist 

 Imperialism of the day will constantly discover its 

 intimate connection with protectionist theories; and 

 its strong influence on European thought is increased 

 by the fact that there remains only a small minority of 

 political thinkers familiar with the true doctrine of 

 Free Trade and able to appreciate its far-reaching 

 effects on international relations. Those who do not 

 adopt the theory of protection, adopt an eclecticism 

 in economics which lacks all theoretical foundation, 

 and is, therefore, defenceless against the arguments of 

 the imperialists. That is how it has come about that 

 in the age of the most fully developed world commerce, 

 a world war is raging, and the peoples engaged in it 

 are roused to a degree of hatred and bitterness un- 



* Henry George, Protection or Free Trade ? chapter vi. 



