_Robinson._ Supposing that the stranger learns to cultivate a garden, and that his island is more fertile than ours. Do you see the consequences? _Friday._ Yes. Our relations with the stranger will stop. He will take no more vegetables from us, since he can get them at home with less trouble. He will bring us no more game, since we will have nothing to give in exchange, and we will be then just where you want us to be now. _Robinson._ Short-sighted savage! You do not see that after having destroyed our hunting, by inundating us with game, he will kill our gardening by overwhelming us with vegetables. _Friday._ But he will do that only so long as we give him _something else_; that is to say, so long as we find _something else_ to produce, which will economize our labor. _Robinson._ _Something else--something else!_ You always come back to that. You are very vague, friend Friday; there is nothing practical in your views. The contest lasted a long time, and, as often happens, left each one convinced that he was right. However, Robinson having great influence over Friday, his views prevailed, and when the stranger came for an answer, Robinson said to him: "Stranger, in order that your proposition may be accepted, we must be quite sure of two things: "The first is, that your island is not richer in game than ours, for we will struggle but with _equal arms_. "The second is, that you will lose by the bargain. For, as in every exchange there is necessarily a gainer and a loser, we would be cheated, if you were not. What have you to say?". "Nothing, nothing," replied the stranger, who burst out laughing, and returned to his canoe. --The story would not be bad if Robinson was not so foolish. --He is no more so than the committee in Hauteville street. --Oh, there is a great difference. You suppose one solitary man, or, what comes to the same thing, two men living together. This is not our world; the diversity of occupations, and the intervention of merchants and money, change the question materially. --All this complicates transactions, but does not change their nature. --What! Do you propose to compare modern commerce to mere exchanges? --Commerce is but a multitude of exchanges; the real nature of the exchange is identical with the real nature of commerce, as small labor is of the same nature with great, and as the gravitation which impels an atom is of the same nature as that which attracts a world. --Thus, according to you, these arguments, which in Robinson's mouth are so false, are no less so in the mouths of our protectionists? --Yes; only error is hidden better under the complication of circumstances. --Well, now, select some instance from what has actually occurred. --Very well; in France, in view of custom and the exigencies of the climate, cloth is an useful article. Is it the essential thing _to make it, or to have it_? --A pretty question! To have it, we must make it.