Something Else
--What is restriction?
--A partial prohibition.
--What is prohibition?
--An absolute restriction.
--So that what is said of one is true of the other?
--Yes, comparatively. They bear the same relation to each other that the
arc of the circle does to the circle.
--Then if prohibition is bad, restriction cannot be good.
--No more than the arc can be straight if the circle is curved.
--What is the common name for restriction and prohibition?
--Protection.
--What is the definite effect of protection?
--To require from men harder labor for the same result.
--Why are men so attached to the protective system?
--Because, since liberty would accomplish the same result with less
labor, this apparent diminution of labor frightens them.
--Why do you say apparent?
--Because all labor economized can be devoted to something else.
--What?
--That cannot and need not be determined.
--Why?
--Because, if the total of the comforts of France could be gained with a
diminution of one-tenth on the total of its labor, no one could
determine what comforts it would procure with the labor remaining at its
disposal. One person would prefer to be better clothed, another better
fed, another better taught, and another more amused.
--Explain the workings and effect of protection.
--It is not an easy matter. Before taking hold of a complicated
instance, it must be studied in the simplest one.
--Take the simplest you choose.
--Do you recollect how Robinson Crusoe, having no saw, set to work to
make a plank?
--Yes. He cut down a tree, and then with his ax hewed the trunk on both
sides until he got it down to the thickness of a board.
--And that gave him an abundance of work?
--Fifteen full days.
--What did he live on during this time?
--His provisions.
--What happened to the ax?
--It was all blunted.
--Very good; but there is one thing which, perhaps, you do not know. At
the moment that Robinson gave the first blow with his ax, he saw a plank
which the waves had cast up on the shore.
--Oh, the lucky accident! He ran to pick it up?
--It was his first impulse; but he checked himself, reasoning thus:
If I go after this plank, it will cost me but the labor of carrying it
and the time spent in going to and returning from the shore.
But if I make a plank with my ax, I shall in the first place obtain
work for fifteen days, then I shall wear out my ax, which will give me
an opportunity of repairing it, and I shall consume my provisions, which
will be a third source of labor, since they must be replaced. Now,
labor is wealth. It is plain that I will ruin myself if I pick up this
stranded board. It is important to protect my personal labor, and now
that I think of it, I can create myself additional labor by kicking this
board back into the sea.
--But this reasoning was absurd!
--Certainly. Nevertheless it is that adopted by every nation which
protects itself by prohibition. It rejects the plank which is offered
it in exchange for a little labor, in order to give itself more labor.
It sees a gain even in the labor of the custom house officer. This
answers to the trouble which Robinson took to give back to the waves
the present they wished to make him. Consider the nation a collective
being, and you will not find an atom of difference between its reasoning
and that of Robinson.
--Did not Robinson see that he could use the time saved in doing
something else?
--What 'something else'?
--So long as one has wants and time, one has always something to do. I
am not bound to specify the labor that he could undertake.
--I can specify very easily that which he would have avoided.
--I assert, that Robinson, with incredible blindness, confounded labor
with its result, the end with the means, and I will prove it to you.
--It is not necessary. But this is the restrictive or prohibitory system
in its simplest form. If it appears absurd to you, thus stated, it is
because the two qualities of producer and consumer are here united in
the same person.
--Let us pass, then, to a more complicated instance.
--Willingly. Some time after all this, Robinson having met Friday, they
united, and began to work in common. They hunted for six hours each
morning and brought home four hampers of game. They worked in the garden
for six hours each afternoon, and obtained four baskets of vegetables.
One day a canoe touched at the Island of Despair. A good-looking
stranger landed, and was allowed to dine with our two hermits. He
tasted, and praised the products of the garden, and before taking leave
of his hosts, said to them:
Generous Islanders, I dwell in a country much richer in game than this,
but where horticulture is unknown. It would be easy for me to bring you
every evening four hampers of game if you would give me only two baskets
of vegetables.
At these words Robinson and Friday stepped on one side, to have a
consultation, and the debate which followed is too interesting not to be
given in extenso:
Friday. Friend, what do you think of it?
Robinson. If we accept we are ruined.
Friday. Is that certain? Calculate!
Robinson. It is all calculated. Hunting, crushed out by competition,
will be a lost branch of industry for us.
Friday. What difference does that make, if we have the game?
Robinson. Theory! It will not be the product of our labor.
Friday. Yes, it will, since we will have to give vegetables to get it.
Robinson. Then what shall we make?
Friday. The four hampers of game cost us six hours' labor. The
stranger gives them to us for two baskets of vegetables, which take us
but three hours. Thus three hours remain at our disposal.
Robinson. Say rather that they are taken from our activity. There is
our loss. Labor is wealth, and if we lose a fourth of our time we are
one-fourth poorer.
Friday. Friend, you make an enormous mistake. The same amount of game
and vegetables and three free hours to boot make progress, or there is
none in the world.
Robinson. Mere generalities. What will we do with these three hours?
Friday. We will do something else.
Robinson. Ah, now I have you. You can specify nothing. It is very easy
to say something else--something else.
Friday. We will fish. We will adorn our houses. We will read the
Bible.
Robinson. Utopia! Is it certain that we will do this rather than that?
Friday. Well, if we have no wants, we will rest. Is rest nothing?
Robinson. When one rests one dies of hunger.
Friday. Friend, you are in a vicious circle. I speak of a rest which
diminishes neither our gains nor our vegetables. You always forget that
by means of our commerce with this stranger, nine hours of labor will
give us as much food as twelve now do.
Robinson. It is easy to see that you were not reared in Europe.
Perhaps you have never read the Moniteur Industriel? It would have
taught you this: All time saved is a dear loss. Eating is not the
important matter, but working. Nothing which we consume counts, if it is
not the product of our labor. Do you wish to know whether you are rich?
Do not look at your comforts, but at your trouble. This is what the
Moniteur Industriel would have taught you. I, who am not a theorist,
see but the loss of our hunting.
Friday. What a strange perversion of ideas. But--
Robinson. No buts. Besides, there are political reasons for
rejecting the interested offers of this perfidious stranger.
Friday. Political reasons!
Robinson. Yes. In the first place he makes these offers only because
they are for his advantage.
Friday. So much the better, since they are for ours also.
Robinson. Then by these exchanges we shall become dependent on him.
Friday. And he on us. We need his game, he our vegetables, and we will
live in good friendship.
Robinson. Fancy! Do you want I should leave you without an answer?
Friday. Let us see; I am still waiting a good reason.
Robinson. Supposing that the stranger learns to cultivate a garden,
and that his island is more fertile than ours. Do you see the
consequences?
Friday. Yes. Our relations with the stranger will stop. He will take
no more vegetables from us, since he can get them at home with less
trouble. He will bring us no more game, since we will have nothing to
give in exchange, and we will be then just where you want us to be now.
Robinson. Short-sighted savage! You do not see that after having
destroyed our hunting, by inundating us with game, he will kill our
gardening by overwhelming us with vegetables.
Friday. But he will do that only so long as we give him something
else; that is to say, so long as we find something else to produce,
which will economize our labor.
Robinson. Something else--something else! You always come back to
that. You are very vague, friend Friday; there is nothing practical in
your views.
The contest lasted a long time, and, as often happens, left each one
convinced that he was right. However, Robinson having great influence
over Friday, his views prevailed, and when the stranger came for an
answer, Robinson said to him:
Stranger, in order that your proposition may be accepted, we must be
quite sure of two things:
The first is, that your island is not richer in game than ours, for we
will struggle but with equal arms.
The second is, that you will lose by the bargain. For, as in every
exchange there is necessarily a gainer and a loser, we would be cheated,
if you were not. What have you to say?.
Nothing, nothing, replied the stranger, who burst out laughing, and
returned to his canoe.
--The story would not be bad if Robinson was not so foolish.
--He is no more so than the committee in Hauteville street.
--Oh, there is a great difference. You suppose one solitary man, or,
what comes to the same thing, two men living together. This is not our
world; the diversity of occupations, and the intervention of merchants
and money, change the question materially.
--All this complicates transactions, but does not change their nature.
--What! Do you propose to compare modern commerce to mere exchanges?
--Commerce is but a multitude of exchanges; the real nature of the
exchange is identical with the real nature of commerce, as small labor
is of the same nature with great, and as the gravitation which impels an
atom is of the same nature as that which attracts a world.
--Thus, according to you, these arguments, which in Robinson's mouth are
so false, are no less so in the mouths of our protectionists?
--Yes; only error is hidden better under the complication of
circumstances.
--Well, now, select some instance from what has actually occurred.
--Very well; in France, in view of custom and the exigencies of the
climate, cloth is an useful article. Is it the essential thing to make
it, or to have it?
--A pretty question! To have it, we must make it.
--That is not necessary. It is certain that to have it some one must
make it; but it is not necessary that the person or country using it
should make it. You did not produce that which clothes you so well, nor
France the coffee it uses for breakfast.
--But I purchased my cloth, and France its coffee.
--Exactly, and with what?
--With specie.
--But you did not make the specie, nor did France.
--We bought it.
--With what?
--With our products which went to Peru.
--Then it is in reality your labor that you exchange for cloth, and
French labor that is exchanged for coffee?
--Certainly.
--Then it is not absolutely necessary to make what one consumes?
--No, if one makes something else, and gives it in exchange.
--In other words, France has two ways of procuring a given quantity of
cloth. The first is to make it, and the second is to make something
else, and exchange that something else abroad for cloth. Of these two
ways, which is the best?
--I do not know.
--Is it not that which, for a fixed amount of labor, gives the greatest
quantity of cloth?
--It seems so.
--Which is best for a nation, to have the choice of these two ways, or
to have the law forbid its using one of them at the risk of rejecting
the best?
--It seems to me that it would be best for the nation to have the
choice, since in these matters it always makes a good selection.
--The law which prohibits the introduction of foreign cloth, decides,
then, that if France wants cloth, it must make it at home, and that it
is forbidden to make that something else with which it could purchase
foreign cloth?
--That is true.
--And as it is obliged to make cloth, and forbidden to make something
else, just because the other thing would require less labor (without
which France would have no occasion to do anything with it), the law
virtually decrees, that for a certain amount of labor, France shall
have but one yard of cloth, making it itself, when, for the same amount
of labor, it could have had two yards, by making something else.
--But what other thing?
--No matter what. Being free to choose, it will make something else
only so long as there is something else to make.
--That is possible; but I cannot rid myself of the idea that the
foreigners may send us cloth and not take something else, in which case
we shall be prettily caught. Under all circumstances, this is the
objection, even from your own point of view. You admit that France will
make this something else, which is to be exchanged for cloth, with
less labor than if it had made the cloth itself?
--Doubtless.
--Then a certain quantity of its labor will become inert?
--Yes; but people will be no worse clothed--a little circumstance which
causes the whole misunderstanding. Robinson lost sight of it, and our
protectionists do not see it, or pretend not to. The stranded plank thus
paralyzed for fifteen days Robinson's labor, so far as it was applied to
the making of a plank, but it did not deprive him of it. Distinguish,
then, between these two kinds of diminution of labor, one resulting in
privation, and the other in comfort. These two things are very
different, and if you assimilate them, you reason like Robinson. In the
most complicated, as in the most simple instances, the sophism consists
in this: Judging of the utility of labor by its duration and intensity,
and not by its results, which leads to this economic policy, a
reduction of the results of labor, in order to increase its duration and
intensity.
More
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A Chinese Story
They exclaim against the greed and the selfishness of the age! Open the thousand books, the thousand papers, the thousand pamphlets, which the Parisian presses throw out every day on the country; is not all this the work of little saints? Wha... A Negative Railroad
I have already remarked that when the observer has unfortunately taken his point of view from the position of producer, he cannot fail in his conclusions to clash with the general interest, because the producer, as such, must desire the existence ... Absolute Prices
If we wish to judge between freedom of trade and protection, to calculate the probable effect of any political phenomenon, we should notice how far its influence tends to the production of abundance or scarcity, and not simply of cheapness or dear... Abundance Scarcity
Which is the best for man or for society, abundance or scarcity? How, it may be exclaimed, can such a question be asked? Has it ever been pretended, is it possible to maintain, that scarcity can be the basis of a man's happiness? Yes; this ha... Appendix
We published an article entitled Dearness-Cheapness, which gained for us the two following letters. We publish them, with the answers: DEAR MR. EDITOR:--You upset all my ideas. I preached in favor of free trade, and found it very convenient ... Balance Of Trade
Our adversaries have adopted a system of tactics, which embarrasses us not a little. Do we prove our doctrine? They admit the truth of it in the most respectful manner. Do we attack their principles? They abandon them with the best possible grace.... Capital And Interest
My object in this treatise is to examine into the real nature of the Interest of Capital, for the purpose of proving that it is lawful, and explaining why it should be perpetual. This may appear singular, and yet, I confess, I am more afraid of be... Capital And Interest
I address this treatise to the workmen of Paris, more especially to those who have enrolled themselves under the banner of Socialist democracy. I proceed to consider these two questions: 1st. Is it consistent with the nature of things, and with ju... Commentary
If this little book were destined to live three or four thousand years, to be read and re-read, pondered and studied, phrase by phrase, word by word, and letter by letter, from generation to generation, like a new Koran; if it were to fill the libra... Conclusion
All the Sophisms which I have so far combated, relate to the restrictive policy; and some even on this subject, and those of the most remarkable, I have, in pity to the reader, passed over: acquired rights; unsuitableness; exhaustion of money, etc... Conflicting Principles
There is one thing which embarrasses me not a little; and it is this: Sincere men, taking upon the subject of political economy the point of view of producers, have arrived at this double formula: A government should dispose of consumers subje... Dearness Cheapness
I consider it my duty to say a few words in regard to the delusion caused by the words dear and cheap. At the first glance, I am aware, you may be disposed to find these remarks somewhat subtile, but whether subtile or not, the question is whether... Discriminating Duties
A poor laborer of Gironde had raised, with the greatest possible care and attention, a nursery of vines, from which, after much labor, he at last succeeded in producing a pipe of wine, and forgot, in the joy of his success, that each drop of this ... Does Protection Raise The Rate Of Wages?
Workmen, your situation is singular! you are robbed, as I will presently prove to you.... But no; I retract the word; we must avoid an expression which is violent; perhaps indeed incorrect; inasmuch as this spoliation, wrapped in the sophisms whic... Effort Result
We have seen that between our wants and their gratification many obstacles are interposed. We conquer or weaken these by the employment of our faculties. It may be said, in general terms, that industry is an effort followed by a result. But by ... Equalizing Of The Facilities Of Production
It is said ... but, for fear of being accused of manufacturing Sophisms for the mouths of the protectionists, I will allow one of their most able reasoners to speak for himself. It is our belief that protection should correspond to, should be th... Fourth Tableau
The Agitation. Jacques Bonhomme. Parisians, let us demand the reform of the octroi; let it be put back to what it was. Let every citizen be FREE to buy wood, butter and meat where it seems good to him. The People. Hurrah for LIBERTY! Pierre.... Human Labor National Labor
Destruction of machinery--prohibition of foreign goods. These are two acts proceeding from the same doctrine. We do meet with men who, while they rejoice over the revelation of any great invention, favor nevertheless the protective policy; but s... Inferior Council Of Labor
What! You have the assurance to demand for every citizen the right to buy, sell, trade, exchange, and to render service for service according to his own discretion, on the sole condition that he will conduct himself honestly, and not defraud the r... Introduction
My object in this little volume has been to refute some of the arguments usually advanced against Free Trade. I am not seeking a combat with the protectionists. I merely advance a principle which I am anxious to present clearly to the minds of s... Metaphors
A Sophism will sometimes expand and extend itself through the whole tissue of a long and tedious theory. Oftener it contracts into a principle, and hides itself in one word. Heaven preserve us, said Paul Louis, from the Devil and from the spiri... National Independence
Among the arguments advanced in favor of a restrictive system, we must not forget that which is drawn from the plea of national independence. What will we do, it is asked, in case of war, if we are at the mercy of England for our iron and coal? ... Natural History Of Spoliation
Why do I give myself up to that dry science, political economy? The question is a proper one. All labor is so repugnant in its nature that one has the right to ask of what use it is. Let us examine and see. I do not address myself to those ... Obstacle Cause
The obstacle mistaken for the cause--scarcity mistaken for abundance. The sophism is the same. It is well to study it under every aspect. Man naturally is in a state of entire destitution. Between this state and the satisfying of his wants, th... Obstructed Rivers Pleading For The Prohibitionists
Some years since, being at Madrid, I went to the meeting of the Cortes. The subject in discussion was a proposed treaty with Portugal, for improving the channel of the Douro. A member rose and said: If the Douro is made navigable, transportation m... Our Productions Are Overloaded With Taxes
This is but a new wording of the last Sophism. The demand made is, that the foreign article should be taxed, in order to neutralize the effects of the tax, which weighs down national produce. It is still then but the question of equalizing the fac... Petition From The Manufacturers Of Candles
To the Honorable the Members of the Chamber of Deputies: GENTLEMEN,--You are in the right way: you reject abstract theories; abundance, cheapness, concerns you little. You are entirely occupied with the interest of the producer, whom you are anx... Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
After this, therefore on account of this. The most common and the most false of arguments. Real suffering exists in England. This occurrence follows two others: First. The reduction of the tariff. Second. The loss of two consecutive harv... Raw Material
It is said that no commerce is so advantageous as that in which manufactured articles are exchanged for raw material; because the latter furnishes aliment for national labor. And it is hence concluded: That the best regulation of duties, woul... Reciprocity
We have just seen that all which renders transportation difficult, acts in the same manner as protection; or, if the expression be preferred, that protection tends towards the same result as obstacles to transportation. A tariff may then be tru... Reciprocity Again
Mr. de Saint Cricq has asked: Are we sure that our foreign customers will buy from us as much as they sell us? Mr. de Dombasle says: What reason have we for believing that English producers will come to seek their supplies from us, rather than f... Robbery By Bounties
They find my little book of Sophisms too theoretical, scientific, and metaphysical. Very well. Let us try a trivial, commonplace, and, if necessary, coarse style. Convinced that the public is duped in the matter of protection, I have desired to pr... Salt Postage And Customs
[This chapter is an amusing dialogue relating principally to English Postal Reform. Being inapplicable to any condition of things existing in the United States, it is omitted.--Translator.] ... Something Else
--What is restriction? --A partial prohibition. --What is prohibition? --An absolute restriction. --So that what is said of one is true of the other? --Yes, comparatively. They bear the same relation to each other that the arc of the ... Spoliation And Law
[Footnote 16: On the 27th of April, 1850, after a very curious discussion, which was reproduced in the Moniteur, the General Council of Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce issued the following order: Political economy shall be taught by the g... Supremacy By Labor
As in a time of war, supremacy is attained by superiority in arms, can, in a time of peace, supremacy be secured by superiority in labor? This question is of the greatest interest at a time when no one seems to doubt that in the field of industr... The House
Mondor had a house. In building it, he had extorted nothing from any one whatever. He owed it to his own personal labor, or, which is the same thing, to labor justly rewarded. His first care was to make a bargain with an architect, in virtue of whic... The Little Arsenal Of The Free Trader
--If they say to you: There are no absolute principles; prohibition may be bad, and restriction good-- Reply: Restriction prohibits all that it keeps from coming in. --If they say to you: Agriculture is the nursing mother of the country-- R... The Plane
A very long time ago there lived, in a poor village, a joiner, who was a philosopher, as all my heroes are, in their way. James worked from morning till night with his two strong arms, but his brain was not idle, for all that. He was fond of reviewi... The Right And The Left Hand
[Report to the King.] SIRE--When we see these men of the Libre Echange audaciously disseminating their doctrines, and maintaining that the right of buying and selling is implied by that of ownership (a piece of insolence that M. Billault has cr... The Sack Of Corn
Mathurin, in other respects as poor as Job, and obliged to earn his bread by day-labor, became, nevertheless, by some inheritance, the owner of a fine piece of uncultivated land. He was exceedingly anxious to cultivate it. Alas! said he, to make dit... The Tax Collector
JACQUES BONHOMME, Vine-grower. M. LASOUCHE, Tax Collector. L. You have secured twenty hogsheads of wine? J. Yes, with much care and sweat. --Be so kind as to give me six of the best. --Six hogsheads out of twenty! Good heavens! You want ... The Three Aldermen
A DEMONSTRATION IN FOUR TABLEAUX. First Tableau. [The scene is in the hotel of Alderman Pierre. The window looks out on a fine park; three persons are seated near a good fire.] Pierre. Upon my word, a fire is very comfortable when the stoma... The Two Hatchets
Petition of Jacques Bonhomme, Carpenter, to M. Cunin-Gridaine, Minister of Commerce. MR. MANUFACTURER-MINISTER: I am a carpenter, as was Jesus; I handle the hatchet and the plane to serve you. In chopping and splitting from morning until nigh... Theory Practice
Partisans of free trade, we are accused of being theorists, and not relying sufficiently upon practice. What a powerful argument against Mr. Say (says Mr. Ferrier,) is the long succession of distinguished ministers, the imposing league of writer... There Are No Absolute Principles
The facility with which men resign themselves to ignorance in cases where knowledge is all-important to them, is often astonishing; and we may be sure that a man has determined to rest in his ignorance, when he once brings himself to proclaim as a... Third Tableau
Twenty Years After. Son. Father, decide; we must leave Paris. Work is slack, and everything is dear. Father. My son, you do not know how hard it is to leave the place where we were born. Son. The worst of all things is to die there of misery... To Artisans And Laborers
Many papers have attacked me before you. Will you not read my defense? I am not mistrustful. When a man writes or speaks, I believe that he thinks what he says. What is the question? To ascertain which is the more advantageous for you, restri... Two Systems Of Morals
Arrived at the end of the preceding chapter, if he gets so far, I imagine I hear the reader say: Well, now, was I wrong in accusing political economists of being dry and cold? What a picture of humanity! Spoliation is a fatal power, almost norm... Utopian Ideas
If I were His Majesty's Minister! --Well, what would you do? --I should begin by--by--upon my word, by being very much embarrassed. For I should be Minister only because I had the majority, and I should have that only because I had made it, a... Wonderful Discovery!
At this moment, when all minds are occupied in endeavoring to discover the most economical means of transportation; when, to put these means into practice, we are leveling roads, improving rivers, perfecting steamboats, establishing railroads, and...