Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/29

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THE REVIVAL OF PROTECTIONISM
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markets. There is no evidence that the advance of German or American foreign trade has caused productive power in this country to remain idle to any larger extent than when we were "the workshop of the world."

Sane consideration of the nature of commerce compels us to deny that the increased commerce of Germans or Americans has reduced the aggregate market for British goods.

This treatment of nations as trading units is the first item of the series of separatist fallacies upon which Protectionism old and new relies.

The second is the separation of the interests of the seller from those of the buyer, and the false assertion that the interests of the former are, or ought to be, superior.

The reason why Protectionism appeals to the producer and ignores the consumer is evident. Every man contains within the limits of his own person the whole economy of world co-operation and exchange in petto. As producer he makes a large surplus of

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