FOOTNOTES:
[36] Fortnightly Review, April, 1873.
[37] The false economist pursues a small present good which will be followed by a great evil to come, while the true economist pursues a great good to come at the risk of a small present evil. (Political Economy—Bastiat.)
[38] “I am afraid that most of us entered upon this struggle with the belief that we had some distinct class interest in the question.” (Cobden.)
[39] Mr. Bright is deserting his free-trade comrades, who say—“It is not only the beneficial working of free trade that prescribes the agricultural ruin of England: it is the great natural law of the preservation of the fittest that proclaims that, as England is not the best fitted to grow corn, she must grow corn no longer.”
[CHAPTER XI.]
QUEM JUPITER VULT PERDERE, PRIUS DEMENTAT.
I think you will admit, that if a statesman, pretending to govern by rules of political economy, should make very gross, misleading statements regarding the results of a particular line of policy which he had pursued for years, such a man must be convicted of hopeless incompetency or else of gross dishonesty, either of which ought to disqualify him as an administrator; and your Free Trade statesman certainly comes under such an indictment.
Your Right Hon’ble Ruler rises after a public dinner, and holds forth with matchless eloquence, pointing out the blessings and prosperity Free Trade has brought to the country. His statements are received with thunders of applause, and the Right Hon’ble Orator and his audience disperse mutually satisfied with each other.
I wonder whether it ever occurs to the orator, in the quiet of his chamber, that to use his own words, he “has resorted to the simple but effectual plan of pure falsification.”[40] Can he possibly be so ignorant of current events, and of the subjects with which he ought to be acquainted, as not to know that other nations—protectionist nations—have made greater relative advance than ourselves; that the increase of wealth is universal; that it is shared by all civilized nations in common with us; and that it is due to improvements in science, art, and manufacture—to improved communications by railways, steam navigation, telegraphs, &c., which have made such enormous strides since the date at which Free Trade was adopted. Even Mill admits that—
“So rapid had been the extension of improved processes of agriculture, that the average price of corn had become decidedly lower even before the repeal of the Corn Laws.”[41]
There have been short periods of temporary prosperity in agriculture, and your Right Hon’ble Free Trader has been jubilant in hailing them as triumphs of Free Trade; but Adam Smith says:—
Improvements in manufacture tend to raise the value of land.[42]
Dare you, my Friend, after examination of the statistics given in the foregoing chapter, say, that the general increase of wealth is due to Free Trade; when protectionist nations have shared it in common with us? Aye! and taken the lion’s share too! You claim the temporary prosperity of the years 1871–73 as a victory for Free Trade, when in reality this prosperity is the most damning evidence against it. Are you so utterly blinded, as not to perceive that this prosperity was caused by the Franco-Prussian war, which, by preventing the unlimited importation of French and German commodities into England, caused, in fact, partial suspension of Free Trade? Don’t you know that, in those years of prosperity, the price of wheat rose to 58s. 8d. per quarter, and that, in the present depressed condition of England, it is down to 41s. 5d. per quarter? Don’t you know that, during that time of prosperity, the excess of imports beyond our exports was £60,000,000 less than in the present depressed time? In other words, we were depressing our industries by 60,000,000 sterling per annum less than at present. Now, my Friend, give your verdict; is your Right Hon’ble Free Trader guilty or not guilty, either of hopeless incompetence or gross dishonesty in attributing the general increase of wealth in the world to the agency of Free Trade?—Your friend, Bright,[43] naively admits that “to return to protection under the name of reciprocity, is to confess to the protectionists abroad, that we have been wrong, and they have been right.” Verily! Friend Bright, whether you confess it or not, the truth will out. Friend Bright! you are like the ostrich, burying its head in the sand and thinking no one can see you. The protectionist nations of Europe can see you distinctly, and they are all laughing at your folly.