It will be urged that it is of more advantage to a nation to import
the materials called raw, whether they are or are not the product of
labor, and to export manufactured articles.
This is a strongly accredited opinion.
"The more abundant raw materials are," said the petition from
Bordeaux, "the more manufactories are multiplied and extended." It
said again, that "raw material opens an unlimited field of labor to
the inhabitants of the country from which it is imported."
"Raw material," said the other petition, that from Havre, "being the
aliment of labor, must be submitted to a _different system_, and
admitted at once at the lowest duty." The same petition would have the
protection on manufactured articles reduced, not one after another,
but at an undetermined time; not to the lowest duty, but to twenty per
cent.
"Among other articles which necessity requires to be abundant and
cheap," said the third petition, that from Lyons, "the manufacturers
name all raw material."
This all rests on an illusion. We have seen that all _value_
represents labor.
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