What Is Free Trade?

in a state of e

is wants, there exist a number of obstacles

ers; in a word-obstacles. To overcome these obstacles it is necessary that I should bestow much labor and great efforts in opposing them; or, what is the same thing,

liged to combat them all by hunting, fishing, agriculture, spinning, weaving, architecture, etc., and it is very evident that it would be better for him that these difficulties should exist to a less degree, or even not at all. In a state of society

more that it would be better for society that these

point of view, we come to believe that obstacles, instead

of men as modified by the division of labor, we perceive, without difficulty, how it ha

struggling against all surrounding obstacles, to combat only one; the effort being made not for him

enefit of others, as the immediate cause of his riches. The greater, the more serious, the more stringent, may

forced, to work in his service. Disease, then, which is an obstacle to the happiness of mankind, becomes to him the source of his comforts. The reasoning of all producers is, in what concerns themselves, the same. As the doctor draws his profits from disease, so does the ship-owner from the obstacle called distance; the agricultu

ts, and say: Wants are riches: Labor is riches: The obstacle to well-

iron, we create a difficulty in procuring it. This obstacle severely felt, obliges individuals to pay, in order to relieve themselves from it. A certain number of our citizens, giving themselves up to the combating of this obstacle, will thereby make

ill lead to the pros

obstacle exists, since it occupies a portion of the labor of the nation, and enriches a certain number of our citizens. But here is presented to us an ingenious machine, which cuts down the oak, squares

is sufficient to remember that hum

same effort which was at first necessary for one. If the labor of coopers could become useless, it must take another direction. To ma