Columbia Cniversity inthe City of Hew Dork LIBRARY THE SELIGMAN LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS PURCHASED BY THE UNIVERSITY 49 RIDGEFIELD, JOHN DALTON STREET, | SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. eee. ae ade is what the worship of Brahma is to the priestly caste 2 matter for devout contemplation only, far too sacred for _ Its votaries are the blindest of worshippers; they will not d anyone who questions it is at once ostracised as (politically) But this is nonsense. There is nothing sacred in I'rce Trade ; le question of political economy that has been discussed in Sia England, and by wiser statesmen than Messrs. , and has been dismissed as belonging to “the puerile ons of mankind” (M. Thiers). Just now, certainly of Free Trade are anything but rosy. Germany will have France seems inclined to banish it with the Jesuits ; Holland, n, and America have not yet been tempted even to y weak-kneed disciples. Mr. Bright and Mr. nd-writing is already on the wall that pro- kingdom has been taken from us and America is beating Free Trade England ners to suspect our faith in Free + nae 4 Trade was shaken. But foreigners do not wait for our expression of opinion ; they form their own opinions from their own observation, When they see industries springing into vigorous life under Protection in France, Germany, Bel cium, and America, and the same industries dying out under Free Trade in E ngland ; when they see the permanent antagonism — that has sprung up between capital and labour; the’ employers and employed; the want of sympathy—even antagonism—between consumers and producers; and the general depreciation in the quality of English work — and English goods, they do not look much further for arguments against. . Free Trade. “After all,” say they, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and if this is the result of 20 years of what is called Free Trade, perhaps we are just as well without it. It is not so evident after all that England is right and all the rest of the world wrong.” England has had four lean years; is she to have seven? As yet alas, there is only a glimmer of returning prosperity. For four y ar wages have been falling ; ; the busy hum of our teething hives of indust has been getting Rie. indnsaee establishments have been closi straw that drowning men catch at, is that America Pee Aeth a _— prosperous beyond example, is for the time supplying a portion of her wants from this country. Free Traders maintain that this is only” ordinary trade depression ; but, on the other hand, hard bon; psa see us it is not. ae know the oe one Ww certainty as the course of an Atlantic gale : it runs its ¢ boars sy oe pass away; but this does not pass away. Neither Zulu War, nor A War, nor spots on the sun, nor even Lord Beaconsfield himse ’ four combined, will account for the palsy that has struck down. 0 industries. “Tt is in times of distress,” says Mr. Bright, “ that and injustice of laws comes to be examined.” And 90 it j wit e Trade. The sophisms, the paradoxes, the theories of Bree ‘rad being examined with rapidly increasing scepticutay and Fr ‘re 5 furious. Their vocabulary fails them for words to denounce the fools, the idiots, the imbeciles, and worse, who will not read the pages of political economy exactly as they read them. But, after all, this exhibition of temper is unreasonable. Their reading is not the general reading of mankind ; it is in direct opposition to the practice of every industrial nation in the world, except the “ unspeakable Turk.” In America, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Holland; in fact, wherever the common sense of mankind is allowed to assert itself, the first and great commandment, the “whole law and the prophets” of political economy is allowed to be this, “That national prosperity depends on general employment.” The skill or industry of the workman in his trade is his capital, “ the capital of labour.” In an industrial community the capital of labour is _ the chief productive capital of the country ; but without general employ- ment it is valueless ; it is general employment that turns over this capital and makes it increase and multiply. The “capital of labour” cannot afford fo remain long idle. If employment is denied it in one place it speedily emigrates to another more congenial. This is the first lesson of political economy as read by the light of universal suffrage in France and America ; and so it would be the reading in England too if we had universal _ suffrage. But this is not the lesson taught by Mr. Bright and his friends. “Political economy,” say they, “tells us nothing about general employ- ment; let that regulate itself; we don’t recognise the claims of the “eapital of labour.’ The one lesson political economy teaches us is ‘that the consumer should be enabled to buy in the cheapest market.’ it is a matter of perfect indifference to us by whom this market is _ supplied, whether by our own producers, or by the producers of France, ‘Belgium, or America. There is no national nonsense about us, we are cosmopolitan to the backbone. If our producers cannot supply us as cheaply as the foreigners they must turn their hands to something else, or leave the country, or starve.” Reap i Whenever there has been a question of commercial treaties, or of a ange of duties, in France, or America, or Belgium, the first question 6 invariably asked has been, “ How will it affect the general employment of the people?” And the reply to that question has invariably guided their decision. America, France, and Belgium have never swerved in one single instance from their policy of protecting the employment of the people; and what is the result? That in these countries the capital of labour has been steadily twming over, accumulating and multiplying, and enriching all classes of the community. In America, especially, the effect of protecting the employment of the people has been little short of marvellous. Her prosperity is without bounds. The best | workmen of England have flocked to her ; industries that ten years ago had no existence have sprung into vigorous life ; she has multiplied her make of Bessemer steel eighteen times in ten years; she has 700 iron works in full operation; she now supplies herself in almost every 4 manufactured article she requires; her population has more than doubled in thirty years; and neither war, nor rebellion, nor debt, nor 3 soft money, nor hard money, have been able to cause more than a . temporary derangement of her prosperity. : af) This is the country that Mr. Vivian tells us, in his interesting notes 3 on America, “has the curse of Protection upon it ;” “and,” he adds, — with a genuine burst of Free-trade fanaticism, “where man interposes a his shortsighted law, the best provision of Providence is shackled and ; blighted.” Are we to understand that America is shackled and - blighted ? or merely that Free Trade has a Divine origin? We sce what America is: what she would be if Free Trade had been her destiny instead of Protection we can easily realise: there would be no iron-works, no cotton-works, no glass-works, no paper factories, nese teeming hives of industry; every manufactured article would be — imported from Europe. Her iron and coal mines would be still 3 undeveloped—she would remain a purely agricultural country, like c Russia, and her progress and civilisation would be indefinitely postponed. . er 7 ) Tt is 2 long story to discuss the reasons why French, Belgian, Berns n, and now American operatives produce cheaper than we © Tt is sufficient for our argument that they do: they pro- 0 cheaper than we do, as the Chinese produce cheaper than the s, and the Japanese cheaper than the Chinese. They can and ce almost every manufactured article—silk, iron, glass, cotton, heaper than we can. “So much the better,” say the Free ‘we shall then import what we require from France, Germany, or America cheaper than we can buy it in this country, and we @ 80 much more money tu spend on something else; and by h the country will be the richer.” This is the Free Trade let us take a test case. nd stry stands alone. Each one is so dovetailed and inter- ‘with other industries that it cannot fall without causing jury to numbers of others. Take plate glass, for Plate glass supports, and is supported by, and is mixed up with, no less than thirty-three distinct occupations, and employments. Suppose A builds a house, ich the plate glass costs £200. He perhaps buys French or ass 21 per cent cheaper than he could buy English glass. , grand thing is Free Trade,” say the Free Traders, “ A. will | have £5 to spend on something else ; therefore, to the | £5, the whole country is the richer. Apply this to iron, wool, cotton, silk, &c., &e., and you see at once how . Free Trade adds to the wealth of the country.” But, as in there is reverse to the medal: A saves £5, granted, but the Q the 33 industries depending on plate glass, lose _ The industrial community suffer to the extent of sa by the individual A. Apply this again to iron, , &e., and we shall see what foreign competition aeral employment of the people! In this case absolutely and entirely. Instead of going to t in 33 industries at home, it goes directly ies abroad, and the country is actually 8 Ten years ago the condition of our productive industries was nearly as bad as it isnow. General employment was ruinously depressed ; then came the years of inflation when wages and profits jumped to a point never before reached, “See what Free Trade is doing for us” said its supporters ; but it was not Free Trade at all that caused those three | years of inflation, it was war, simply war: the Franco-German War, and nothing else, that for two years paralyzed the productive industries of France and Germany, and left us masters of the situation to supply our own markets and the neutral markets of the world! Of course there is a Credit as well as a Debit side to foreign competition. I leave the Credit side to Mr. Bright and his followers. "The Debit side is shortly as follows :— Ba es Sahel Ma at) people. | Foreign competition has lessened the general employment of the It has made the returns of labour and capital more uncertain, more fluctuating. Supply is no longer regulated by demand, but by the overproduction and the necessities of foreign producers, The masters cannot calculate their profits, or the workmen their Cee Ree ae wages, for a month together. It must lengthen the labour and lower the wages of the British workman to the level of his foreign competitor. It has destroyed the national pride in national industries. It has created a wild competition in price, and price only, that has ruined the quality of English goods. It has destroyed the English workman’s pride in his work. Cheapness everywhere takes the place of quality. Pressed to produce the greatest possible quantity, in the least possible time, at the lowest possible price, the British workman has neither time nor inducement to improve his work. OAT eet NS ay i ee eee ¥