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the effects of cold; must necessarily become far more industrious
and economical than the one who merely requires protection from the
rain; and into whose mouth the fruits are ready to drop during the
whole year。 Diligence; economy; order; and forethought are at first
produced by necessity afterwards by habit; and by the steady
cultivation of those virtues。 Morality goes hand in hand with the
exertion of one's powers and economy; and immorality with idleness
and extravagance: each are reciprocally fertile sources; the one of
power; the other of weakness。
An agricultural nation; which inhabits a country of temperate
climate; leaves therefore the richest part of its natural resources
unutilised。
The school; inasmuch as; in judging the influences of climate
on the production of wealth; it has not distinguished between
agriculture and manufacturing industry; has fallen into the gravest
errors in respect to the advantages and disadvantages of protective
regulations; which we cannot here omit thoroughly to expose;
although we have already made mention of them in general terms
elsewhere。
In order to prove that it is foolish to seek to produce
everything in one and the same country; the school asks the
question: whether it would be reasonable if we sought to produce
wine by growing grapes in Scottish and English greenhouses? It is
of course possible to produce wine in this manner; only lt would be
of much worse quality and more expensive than that which England
and Scotland could procure in exchange for their manufactured
goods。 To anyone who either is unwilling or unable to penetrate
more deeply into the nature of things; this argument is a striking
one; and the school is indebted to it for a large portion of its
popularity; at any rate among the French vine growers and silk
manufacturers; and among the North American cotton planters and
cotton merchants。 Regarded in the light of day; however; it is
fundamentally false; since restrictions on commercial intercourse
operate quite differently on the productive power of agriculture
than they do on the productive power of manufacturing industry。
Let us first see how they operate on agriculture。
If France rejects from her frontiers German fat cattle; or
corn; what will she effect thereby? In the first place; Germany
will thereby be unable to buy French wines。 France will therefore
have to use those portions of her soil which are fitted for the
cultivation of the vine less profitably in proportion as this
destruction of commercial interchange lessens her exportation of
wines。 So many fewer persons will be exclusively occupied with the
cultivation of the vine; and therefore so much less native
agricultural products will be required; which these persons would
have consumed; who would have otherwise devoted themselves
exclusively to vine culture。 This will be the case in the
production of oil as well as in that of wine。 France will therefore
always lose in her agricultural power on other points much more
than she gains on one single point; because by her exclusion of the
German cattle she protects a trade in the rearing and fattening of
cattle which had not been spontaneously developed; and for which;
therefore; probably the agriculture of those districts where this
branch of industry has had to be artificially developed is not
adapted。 Thus will it be if we consider France merely as an
agricultural State opposed to Germany as a merely agricultural
State; and if we also assume that Germany will not retaliate on
that policy by a similar one。 This policy; however; appears still
more injurious if we assume that Germany; as she will be compelled
to out of regard to her own interests; adopts similarly restrictive
measures; and if we consider that France is not merely an
agricultural; but also a manufacturing State。 Germany will; namely;
not merely impose higher duties on French wines; but on all those
French products which Germany either produces herself; or can more
or less do without; or procure elsewhere; she will further restrict
the importation of those manufactured goods which she cannot at
present produce with special benefit; but which she can procure
from other places than from France。 The disadvantage which France
has brought upon herself by those restrictions; thus appears twice
or three times greater than the advantage。 It is evident that in
France only so many persons can be employed in the cultivation of
the vine; in the cultivation of olives; and in manufacturing
industry; as the means of subsistence; and raw materials which
France either produces herself or procures from abroad; are able to
support and employ。 But we have seen that the restriction of
importation has not increased the agricultural production; but has
merely transferred it from one district to another。 If free course
had been permitted to the interchange of products; the importation
of products and raw materials; and consequently the sale of wine;
oil; and manufactured goods; would have continually increased; and
consequently the number of persons employed in the cultivation of
the vine and olives; and in manufactures; while with the increasing
traffic; on the one hand; the means of subsistence and raw
materials; and; on the other hand; the demand for her manufactured
products; would have augmented。 The augmentation of this population
would have produced a larger demand for those provisions and raw
materials which cannot easily be imported from abroad; and for
which the native agriculture possesses a natural monopoly; the
native agriculture therefore would thus have obtained a far greater
profit。 The demand for those agricultural products for which the
character of the French soil is specially adapted; would be much
more considerable under this free interchange than that produced
artificially by restriction。 One agriculturist would not have lost
what another gained; the whole agriculture of the country would
have gained; but still more the manufacturing industry。 Through
restriction; the agricultural power of the country therefore is not
increased; but limited; and besides this; that manufacturing power
is annihilated which would have grown up from the augmentation of
the internal agriculture; as well as from the foreign importation
of provisions and raw materials。 All that has been attained through
the restriction is an increase of prices in favour of the
agriculturists of one district at the expense of the agriculturists
of another district; but above all; at the expense of the total
productive force of the country。
The disadvantages of such restrictions on the interchange of
products are still more clearly brought to light in the case of
England than in that of France。 Through the corn laws; on doubt; a
quantity of unfertile land is brought under cultivation; but it is
a question whether these lands would not have been brought under
cultivation without them。 The more wool; timber; cattle; and corn
that England would have imported; the more manufactured goods would
she have sold; the greater number of workmen would have been
enabled to live in England; the higher would the prosperity of the
working classes have risen。 England would probably have doubled the
number of her workmen。 Every single workman would have lived
better; would have been better able to cultivate a garden for his
pleasure and for the production of useful vegetables; and would
have supported himself and his family much better。 It is evident
that such a large augmentation of the working population; as well
as of its prosperity and of the amount of what it consumed; would
have produced an enormous demand for those products for which the
island possesses a natural monopoly; and it is more than probable
that thereby double and three times as much land could have been
brought into cultivation than by unnatural restrictions。 The proof
of this may be seen in the vicinity of every large town。 However
large the mass of products may be which is brought into this town
from distant districts for miles around it; one cannot discover a
single tract of land uncultivated; however much that land may have
been neglected by nature。 If you forbid the importation into such
a town of corn from distant districts; you thereby merely effect a
diminution of its population; of its manufacturing industry; and
its prosperity; and compel the farmer who lives ne