List’s Protectionism, as we may guess from what precedes, possesses original features. It is not a universal remedy which may be indifferently applied to every country at any period or to all its products. It is a particular process which can only be used in certain cases and under certain conditions. Subjoined are some of the characteristic traits of this Protectionism which List himself has neatly described. (1) The Protectionist system can only be justified when it aims at the industrial education of a nation.[586] It is thus inapplicable to a nation like the English, whose industrial education is already complete. Nor should it be attempted by countries that have neither the aptitude nor the resources necessary for an industrial career. The nations of the tropical zone seem destined to the pursuit of agriculture, while those of the temperate zone are accustomed to engage in many and varied forms of production.[587] (2) But a further justification is also necessary. It must be shown that the nation’s progress is retarded by the competition of a powerful manufacturing rival which has already advanced farther on the industrial path.[588] “The reason for this is the same as that why a child or a boy in wrestling with a strong man can scarcely be victorious or even offer steady resistance.”[589] This was precisely the case with Germany in her struggle with England. (It is interesting to come across a full account of the process of “dumping” in List’s letters to Ingersoll. “Dumping,” which has received much attention lately in connection with the trust movement, consists in selling at a low price in foreign markets in order to keep up prices in the home market.[590]) (3) Even in that case Protection can be justified “only until that manufacturing Power is strong enough no longer to have any reason to fear foreign competition, and thenceforth only so far as may be necessary for protecting the inland manufacturing power in its very roots.”[591] (4) Lastly, Protection ought never to be extended to agriculture. The reasons for this exception are that on the one hand agricultural prosperity depends to a great extent upon the progress of manufactures—the protection of the latter indirectly benefits the former—and on the other hand an increase in the price of raw materials or of food would injure industry. Moreover, there exists a natural division which is particularly advantageous to the system of cultivation pursued by each country, a division dependent upon the natural qualities of their soils, which Protection would tend to destroy. This territorial division does not exist for manufactures, “for the pursuit of which every nation in the temperate zone seems to have an equal vocation.”[592]