Q. Can you buy it cheaper, without wronging the man who might sell it dearer?
A. No.
Q. As it is impossible to prove that such a conduct is equitable, how will you be able to prove it to be advantageous to the State?
A. It is advantageous to the State, that all its internal productions should receive at home, all such forms and preparations as may increase their value.
Q. Is the quantity of productions useful to the State?
A. The question is almost ridiculous.
Q. If the productor be discouraged by the low price set upon his productions, and take proper measures to produce less, in order to save the expence attending a greater production, and in the mean time to gain by producing less as much as he could gain by producing more, will you not then be guilty of having wronged the State of all the productions which you crush in the very bud, by the prohibition you sue for?
A. No; Smuggling will give to the parties injured by the prohibitory law, a fully sufficient means of extricating themselves.
Q. Your hopes then are, that Smuggling will make up for the injuries you propose to do to the productors; but how will you compensate to the State for the loss it sustains by a clandestine exportation?