Rural Wealth and Welfare: Economic Principles Illustrated and Applied in Farm LifeFairchild, Geo. T. (George Thompson)
Science
Rural Wealth and Welfare: Economic Principles Illustrated and Applied in Farm Life
Fairchild, Geo. T. (George Thompson)
Agriculture -- Economic aspects; Economics
If, on the other hand, the restrictive tariff invites capital from abroad
for the sake of gaining the trade of a country, the diminished profit of
labor in some foreign country compels emigration, and such emigrants are
likely to follow the capital. Only the poorest of foreign laborers will be
compelled to help themselves by emigration, and only those will gain by
the change of location. Thus it is said a restrictive tariff encourages
the least desirable form of immigration. This is illustrated in the
development of the mining industry through the fostering effects of the
tariff.
There can be no question that any restriction upon trade may foster the
contrivance of combination to secure monopoly. Hence it is often claimed
that the existence of trusts is due in great measure to tariff
restrictions, preventing the competition natural in the commercial world.
It is certainly true that the restriction of a patent right may make
possible the abuses of a trust. If trusts were confined to protected
industries or to countries maintaining protective systems, the weight of
the argument would be stronger. It is certainly true, however, that the
wider the range of competition without restriction, the greater the
protection against combination for sake of monopoly. The monopoly in
kerosene oil would be a greater menace but for the possible check of
competition from abroad.
Such artificial restrictions, again, prevent the naturally rapid growth of
international commerce, which gives the surest foundation for more
permanent conditions of peace and greater extension of welfare over the
world. The tremendous interests of the commercial world are the strongest
safeguard against unnecessary warfare, and the best protection to any
nation is the fact that it makes itself needed by all the rest of the
world.
Thus inter-dependence of nations rather than independence is the essential
aim of those who seek the world’s welfare. An alliance of two peoples for
commercial purposes is the best guaranty of mutual support of national
institutions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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