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—
Reply: That which feeds a country is not exactly agriculture, but grain.
—If they say to you: The basis of the sustenance of the people is agriculture—
Reply: The basis of the sustenance of the people is grain. Thus a law which causes two bushels of grain to be obtained by agricultural labor at the expense of four bushels, which the same labor would have produced but for it, far from being a law of sustenance, is a law of starvation.
—If they say to you: A restriction on the admission of foreign grain leads to more cultivation, and, consequently, to a greater home production—
Reply: It leads to sowing on the rocks of the mountains and the sands of the sea. To milk and steadily milk, a cow gives more milk; for who can tell the moment when not a drop more can be obtained? But the drop costs dear.
—If they say to you: Let bread be dear, and the wealthy farmer will enrich the artisans—