I espouse Free Trade
because it is just, it is unselfish, and it is profitable.
For these reasons have I, a Worker, deeply interested in the welfare
of the fellow-workers who are my countrymen, lent to Truth and Justice
what little aid I could, by adapting Bastiat's keen and cogent Essay
to the wants of readers on this side of the Atlantic.
EMILE WALTER, _the Worker_.
NEW YORK, 1866.
WHAT IS FREE TRADE?
CHAPTER I.
PLENTY AND SCARCITY.
Which is better for man and for society--abundance or scarcity?
What! Can such a question be asked? Has it ever been pretended, is it
possible to maintain, that scarcity is better than plenty?
Yes: not only has it been maintained, but it is still maintained.
Congress says so; many of the newspapers (now happily diminishing in
number) say so; a large portion of the public say so; indeed, the
_city theory_ is by far the more popular one of the two.
Has not Congress passed laws which prohibit the importation of foreign
productions by the maintenance of excessive duties? Does not the
_Tribune_ maintain that it is advantageous to limit the supply of iron
manufactures and cotton fabrics, by restraining any one from bringing
them to market, but the manufacturers in New England and Pennsylvania?
Do we not hear it complained every day: Our importations are too
large; We are buying too much from abroad? Is there not an
Association of Ladies, who, though they have not kept their promise,
still, promised each other not to wear any clothing which was
manufactured in other countries?
Now tariffs can only raise prices by diminishing the quantity of goods
offered for sale.
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