Sophisms of the Protectionists

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SOPHISMS

OF THE

PROTECTIONISTS.

BY THE LATE

M. FREDERIC BASTIAT,

_Member of the Institute of France_.

* * * * *

Part I. Sophisms of Protection--First Series.
Part II. Sophisms of Protection--Second Series.
Part III. Spoliation and Law.
Part IV. Capital and Interest.

TRANSLATED FROM THE PARIS EDITION OF 1863.

NEW-YORK:
AMERICAN FREE TRADE LEAGUE.

1870.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1869, by
THE WESTERN NEWS COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the
Northern District of Illinois.

PREFACE.

A previous edition of this work has been published under the title of
"Essays on Political Economy, by the late M. Frederic Bastiat." When it
became necessary to issue a second edition, the Free-Trade League
offered to buy the stereotype plates and the copyright, with a view to
the publication of the book on a large scale and at a very low price.
The primary object of the League is to educate public opinion; to
convince the people of the United States of the folly and wrongfulness
of the Protective system. The methods adopted by the League for the
purpose have been the holding of public meetings and the publication of
books, pamphlets, and tracts, some of which are for sale at the cost of
publication, and others given away gratuitously.

In publishing this book the League feels that it is offering the most
effective and most popular work on political economy that has as yet
been written. M. Bastiat not only enlivens a dull subject with his wit,
but also reduces the propositions of the Protectionists to absurdities.

Free-Traders can do no better service in the cause of truth, justice,
and humanity, than by circulating this little book among their friends.
It is offered you at what it costs to print it. Will not every
Free-Trader put a copy of the book into the hands of his Protectionist
friends?

It would not be proper to close this short preface without an expression
on the part of the League of its obligation to the able translator of
the work from the French, Mr. Horace White, of Chicago.

OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN FREE-TRADE LEAGUE,
9 Nassau Street, New-York, June, 1870.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

This compilation, from the works of the late M. Bastiat, is given to the
public in the belief that the time has now come when the people,
relieved from the absorbing anxieties of the war, and the subsequent
strife on reconstruction, are prepared to give a more earnest and
thoughtful attention to economical questions than was possible during
the previous ten years. That we have retrograded in economical science
during this period, while making great strides in moral and political
advancement by the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of the
freedmen, seems to me incontestable. Professor Perry has described very
concisely the steps taken by the manufacturers in 1861, after the
Southern members had left their seats in Congress, to reverse the policy
of the government in reference to foreign trade.[1] He has noticed but
has not laid so much stress as he might on the fact that while there
was no considerable public opinion to favor them, there was none at all
to oppose them. Not only was the attention of the people diverted from
the tariff by the dangers then impending, but the Republican party,
which then came into power, had, in its National Convention, offered a
bribe to the State of Pennsylvania for its vote in the Presidential
election, which bribe was set forth in the following words:

"_Resolved_, That while providing revenue for the support of the
General Government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such
an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the
industrial interests of the whole country; and we commend that policy
of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal wages,
to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an
adequate reward for their skill, labor and enterprise, and to the
nation commercial prosperity and independence."--_Chicago Convention
Platform_, 1860.

[Footnote 1: Elements of Political Economy, p. 461]

It is true that this resolution did not commit anybody to the doctrine
that the industrial interests of the whole country are promoted by taxes
levied upon imported property, however "adjusted," but it was
understood, by the Pennsylvanians at least, to be a promise that if the
Republican party were successful in the coming election, the doctrine of
protection, which had been overthrown in 1846, and had been in an
extremely languishing state ever since, should be put upon its legs
again. I am far from asserting that this overture was needed to secure
the vote of Pennsylvania for Mr. Lincoln in 1860, or that that State
was governed by less worthy motives in her political action than other
States. I only remark that her delegates in the convention thought such
a resolution would be extremely useful, and such was the anxiety to
secure her vote in the election that a much stronger resolution might
have been conceded if it had been required. I affirm, however, that
there was no agitation on the tariff question in any other quarter. New
England had united in passing the tariff of 1857, which lowered the
duties imposed by the act of 1846 about fifty per cent., i.e., one-half
of the previously existing scale. The Western States had not petitioned
Congress or the convention to disturb the tariff; nor had New York done
so, although Mr. Greeley, then as now, was invoking, more or less
frequently, the shade of Henry Clay to help re-establish what is deftly
styled the "American System."

The protective policy was restored, after its fifteen years' sleep,
under the auspices of Mr. Morrill, a Representative (now a Senator) from
Vermont. Latterly I have noticed in the speeches and votes of this
gentleman (who is, I think, one of the most conscientious, as he is one
of the most amiable, men in public life), a reluctance to follow to
their logical conclusion the principles embodied in the "Morrill tariff"
of 1861. His remarks upon the copper bill, during the recent session of
Congress, indicate that, in his opinion, those branches of American
industry which are engaged in producing articles sent abroad in exchange
for the products of foreign nations, are entitled to some consideration.
This is an important admission, but not so important as another, which
he made in his speech on the national finances, January 24, 1867, in
which, referring to the bank note circulation existing in the year 1860,
he said: "_And that was a year of as large production and as much
general prosperity as any, perhaps, in our history_."[2] If the year
immediately preceding the enactment of the Morrill tariff was a year of
as large production and as much general prosperity as any in our
history, of what use has the Morrill tariff been? We have seen that it
was not demanded by any public agitation. We now see that it has been of
no public utility.

[Footnote 2: Congressional Globe, Second Session Thirty-ninth Congress,
p. 724.]

In combating, by arguments and illustrations adapted to the
comprehension of the mass of mankind, the errors and sophisms with which
protectionists deceive themselves and others, M. Bastiat is the most
lucid and pointed of all writers on economical science with whose works
I have any acquaintance. It is not necessary to accord to him a place
among the architects of the science of political economy, although some
of his admirers rank him among the highest.[3] It is enough to count
him among the greatest of its expounders and demonstrators. His death,
which occurred at Pisa, Italy, on the 24th December, 1850, at the age of
49, was a serious loss to France and to the world. His works, though for
the most part fragmentary, and given to the public from time to time
through the columns of the _Journal des Economistes_, the _Journal des
Debats_, and the _Libre Echange_, remain a monument of a noble intellect
guided by a noble soul. They have been collected and published
(including the _Harmonies Economiques_, which the author left in
manuscript) by Guillaumin & Co., the proprietors of the _Journal des
Economistes_, in two editions of six volumes each, 8vo. and 12mo. When
we reflect that these six volumes were produced between April, 1844, and
December, 1850, by a young man of feeble constitution, who commenced
life as a clerk in a mercantile establishment, and who spent much of his
time during these six years in delivering public lectures, and laboring
in the National Assembly, to which he was chosen in 1848, our admiration
for such industry is only modified by the thought that if he had been
more saving of his strength, he might have rendered even greater
services to his country and to mankind.

[Footnote 3: Mr. Macleod (_Dictionary of Political Economy_, vol. I, p.
246) speaks of Bastiat's definition of Value as "the greatest revolution
that has been effected in any science since the days of Galileo."

See also Professor Perry's pamphlet, _Recent Phases of Thought in
Political Economy_, read before the American Social Science Association,
October, 1868, in which, it appears to me, that Bastiat's theory of
Rent, in announcing which he was anticipated by Mr. Carey, is too highly
praised.]

The _Sophismes Economiques_, which fill the larger portion of this
volume, were not expected by their author to outlast the fallacies which
they sought to overthrow. But these fallacies have lived longer and have
spread over more of the earth's surface than any one _a priori_ could
have believed possible. It is sometimes useful, in opposing doctrines
which people have been taught to believe are peculiar to their own
country and time, to show that the same doctrines have been maintained
in other countries and times, and have been exploded in other languages.
By what misuse of words the doctrine of Protection came to be
denominated the "American System," I could never understand. It
prevailed in England nearly two hundred years before our separation from
the mother country. Adam Smith directed the first formidable attack
against it in the very year that our independence was declared. It held
its ground in England until it had starved and ruined almost every
branch of industry--agriculture, manufactures, and commerce alike.[4] It
was not wholly overthrown until 1846, the same year that witnessed its
discomfiture in the United States, as already shown. It still exists in
a subdued and declining way in France, despite the powerful and
brilliant attacks of Say, Bastiat, and Chevalier, but its end cannot be
far distant in that country. The Cobden-Chevalier treaty with England
has been attended by consequences so totally at variance with the
theories and prophecies of the protectionists that it must soon succumb.

[Footnote 4: It is so often affirmed by protectionists that the
superiority of Great Britain in manufactures was attained by means of
protection, that it is worth while to dispel that illusion. The facts
are precisely the reverse. Protection had brought Great Britain in the
year 1842 to the last stages of penury and decay, and it wanted but a
year or two more of the same regimen to have precipitated the country
into a bloody revolution. I quote a paragraph from Miss Martineau's
"History of England from 1816 to 1854," Book VI, Chapter 5:

"Serious as was the task of the Minister (Sir R. Peel) in every view,
the most immediate sympathy was felt for him on account of the
fearful state of the people. The distress had now so deepened in the
manufacturing districts as to render it clearly inevitable that many
must die, and a multitude be lowered to a state of sickness and
irritability from want of food; while there seemed no chance of any
member of the manufacturing classes coming out of the struggle at
last with a vestige of property wherewith to begin the world again.
The pressure had long extended beyond the interests first affected,
and when the new Ministry came into power, there seemed to be no
class that was not threatened with ruin. In Carlisle, the Committee
of Inquiry reported that a fourth of the population was in a state
bordering on starvation--actually certain to die of famine, unless
relieved by extraordinary exertions. In the woollen districts of
Wiltshire, the allowance to the independent laborer was not
two-thirds of the minimum in the workhouse, and the large existing
population consumed only a fourth of the bread and meat required by
the much smaller population of 1820. In Stockport, more than half the
master spinners had failed before the close of 1842; dwelling houses
to the number of 3,000, were shut up; and the occupiers of many
hundreds more were unable to pay rates at all. Five thousand persons
were walking the streets in compulsory idleness, and the Burnley
guardians wrote to the Secretary of State that the distress was far
beyond their management; so that a government commissioner and
government funds were sent down without delay. At a meeting in
Manchester, where humble shopkeepers were the speakers, anecdotes
were related which told more than declamation. Rent collectors were
afraid to meet their principals, as no money could be collected.
Provision dealers were subject to incursions from a wolfish man
prowling for food for his children, or from a half frantic woman,
with her dying baby at her breast; or from parties of ten or a dozen
desperate wretches who were levying contributions along the street.
The linen draper told how new clothes had become out of the question
with his customers, and they bought only remnants and patches, to
mend the old ones. The baker was more and more surprised at the
number of people who bought half-pennyworths of bread. A provision
dealer used to throw away outside scraps; but now respectable
customers of twenty years' standing bought them in pennyworths to
moisten their potatoes. These shopkeepers contemplated nothing but
ruin from the impoverished condition of their customers. While
poor-rates were increasing beyond all precedent, their trade was only
one-half, or one-third, or even one-tenth what it had been three
years before. In that neighborhood, a gentleman, who had retired from
business in 1833, leaving a property worth L60,000 to his sons, and
who had, early in the distress, become security for them, was showing
the works for the benefit of the creditors, at a salary of L1 a week.
In families where the father had hitherto earned L2 per week, and
laid by a portion weekly, and where all was now gone but the sacks of
shavings they slept on, exertions were made to get 'blue milk' for
children to moisten their oatmeal with; but soon they could have it
only on alternate days; and soon water must do. At Leeds the pauper
stone-heap amounted to 150,000 tons; and the guardians offered the
paupers 6s. per week for doing nothing, rather than 7s. 6d. per week
for stone-breaking. The millwrights and other trades were offering a
premium on emigration, to induce their hands to go away. At Hinckley,
one-third of the inhabitants were paupers; more than a fifth of the
houses stood empty; and there was not work enough in the place to
employ properly one-third of the weavers. In Dorsetshire a man and
his wife had for wages 2s. 6d. per week, and three loaves; and the
ablest laborer had 6s. or 7s. In Wiltshire, the poor peasants held
open-air meetings after work--which was necessarily after dark.
There, by the light of one or two flaring tallow candles, the man or
the woman who had a story to tell stood on a chair, and related how
their children were fed and clothed in old times--poorly enough, but
so as to keep body and soul together; and now, how they could nohow
manage to do it. The bare details of the ages of their children, and
what the little things could do, and the prices of bacon and bread,
and calico and coals, had more pathos in them than any oratory heard
elsewhere."

"But all this came from the Corn Laws," is the ready reply of the
American protectionist. The Corn Laws were the doctrine of protection
applied to breadstuffs, farm products, "raw materials." But it was not
only protection for corn that vexed England in 1842, but protection for
every thing and every body, from the landlord and the mill-owner to the
kelp gatherer. Every species of manufacturing industry had asked and
obtained protection. The nation had put in force, logically and
thoroughly, the principle of denying themselves any share in the
advantages which nature or art had conferred upon other climates and
peoples, (which is the principle of protection), and with the results so
pathetically described by Miss Martineau. The prosperity of British
manufactures dates from the year 1846. That they maintained any kind of
existence prior to that time is a most striking proof of the vitality of
human industry under the persecution of bad laws.]

As these pages are going through the press, a telegram announces that
the French Government has abolished the discriminating duties levied
upon goods imported in foreign bottoms, and has asked our government to
abolish the like discrimination which our laws have created. Commercial
freedom is making rapid progress in Prussia, Austria, Italy, and even
in Spain. The United States alone, among civilized nations, hold to the
opposite principle. Our anomalous position in this respect is due, as I
think, to our anomalous condition during the past eight or nine years,
already adverted to--a condition in which the protected classes have
been restrained by no public opinion--public opinion being too intensely
preoccupied with the means of preserving the national existence to
notice what was doing with the tariff. But evidences of a reawakening
are not wanting.

There is scarcely an argument current among the protectionists of the
United States that was not current in France at the time Bastiat wrote
the _Sophismes Economiques_. Nor was there one current in his time that
is not performing its bad office among us. Hence his demonstrations of
their absurdity and falsity are equally applicable to our time and
country as to his. They may have even greater force among us if they
thoroughly dispel the notion that Protection is an "American system."
Surely they cannot do less than this.

There are one or two arguments current among the protectionists of the
United States that were not rife in France when Bastiat wrote his
_Sophismes_. It is said, for instance, that protection has failed to
achieve all the good results expected from it, because the policy of the
government has been variable. If we could have a steady course of
protection for a sufficient period of time (nobody being bold enough to
say what time would be sufficient), and could be _assured_ of having it,
we should see wonderful progress. But, inasmuch as the policy of the
government is uncertain, protection has never yet had a fair trial. This
is like saying, "if the stone which I threw in the air had staid there,
my head would not have been broken by its fall." It would not stay
there. The law of gravitation is committed against its staying there.
Its only resting-place is on the earth. They begin by violating natural
laws and natural rights--the right to exchange services for
services--and then complain because these natural laws war against them
and finally overcome them. But it is not true that protection has not
had a fair trial in the United States. The protection has been greater
at some times than at others, that is all. Prior to the late war, all
our revenue was raised from customs; and while the tariffs of 1846 and
1857 were designated "free trade tariffs," to distinguish them from
those existing before and since, they were necessarily protective to a
certain extent.

Again, it is said that there is need of diversifying our industry--- as
though industry would not diversify itself sufficiently through the
diverse tastes and predilections of individuals--as though it were
necessary to supplement the work of the Creator in this behalf, by human
enactments founded upon reciprocal rapine. The only rational object of
diversifying industry is to make people better and happier. Do men and
women become better and happier by being huddled together in mills and
factories, in a stifling atmosphere, on scanty wages, ten hours each day
and 313 days each year, than when cultivating our free and fertile
lands? Do they have equal opportunities for mental and moral
improvement? The trades-unions tell us, No. Whatever may be the
experience of other countries where the land is either owned by absentee
lords, who take all the product except what is necessary to give the
tenant a bare subsistence, or where it is cut up in parcels not larger
than an American garden patch, it is an undeniable fact that no other
class of American workingmen are so independent, so intelligent, so well
provided with comforts and leisure, or so rapidly advancing in
prosperity, as our agriculturists; and this notwithstanding they are
enormously overtaxed to maintain other branches of industry, which,
according to the protective theory, cannot support themselves. The
natural tendency of our people to flock to the cities, where their eyes
and ears are gratified at the expense of their other senses, physical
and moral, is sufficiently marked not to need the influence of
legislation to stimulate it.

It is not the purpose of this preface to anticipate the admirable
arguments of M. Bastiat; but there is another theory in vogue which
deserves a moment's consideration. Mr. H.C. Carey tells us, that a
country which exports its food, in reality exports its soil, the foreign
consumers not giving back to the land the fertilizing elements
abstracted from it. Mr. Mill has answered this argument, upon
philosophical principles, at some length, showing that whenever it
ceases to be advantageous to America to export breadstuffs, she will
cease to do so; also, that when it becomes necessary to manure her
lands, she will either import manure or make it at home.[5] A shorter
answer is, that the lands are no better manured by having the bread
consumed in Lowell, or Pittsburgh, or even in Chicago, than in
Birmingham or Lyons. But it seems to me that Mr. Carey does not take
into account the fact that the total amount of breadstuffs exported from
any country must be an exceedingly small fraction of the whole amount
taken from the soil, and scarcely appreciable as a source of manure,
even if it were practically utilized in that way. Thus, our exportation
of flour and meal, wheat and Indian corn, for the year 1860, as compared
with the total crop produced, was as follows:

TOTAL CROP.[6]

Flour and Meal, bbls. Wheat, bu. Corn, bu.
55,217,800 173,104,924 838,792,740

_Exportation._
Flour and Meal, bbls. Wheat, bu. Corn, bu.
2,845,305 4,155,153 1,314,155

_Percentage of Exportation to Total Crop._
5.15 2.40 .39

This was the result for the year preceding the enactment of the Morrill
tariff. It is true that our exports of wheat and Indian corn rose in the
three years following the enactment of the Morrill tariff, from an
average of eight million bushels to an average of forty-six million
bushels, but this is contrary to the theory that high tariffs tend to
keep breadstuffs at home, and low ones to send them abroad. There is
need of great caution in making generalizations as to the influence of
tariffs on the movement of breadstuffs. Good or bad harvests in various
countries exercise an uncontrollable influence upon their movement, far
beyond the reach of any legislation short of prohibition. The market for
breadstuffs in the world is as the number of consumers; that is, of
population. It is sometimes said in the way of reproach, (and it is a
curious travesty of Mr. Carey's manure argument,) that foreign nations
_will not_ take our breadstuffs. It is not true; but if it were, that
would not be a good reason for our passing laws to prevent them from
doing so; that is, to deprive them of the means to pay for them. Every
country must pay for its imports with its exports. It must pay for the
services which it receives with the services which it renders. If
foreign nations are not allowed to render services to us, how shall we
render them the service of bread?

[Footnote 5: Principles of Political Economy (People's Ed.), London,
1865, page 557.]

[Footnote 6: These figures are taken from the census report for the year
1860. In this report the total production of flour and meal is given,
not in barrels, but in value. The quantity is ascertained by dividing
the total value by the average price per barrel in New York during the
year, the fluctuations then being very slight. Flour being a
manufactured article, is it not a little curious that we exported under
the "free trade tariff" twice as large a percentage of breadstuffs in
that form as we did of the "raw material," wheat?]

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