assembly, paid by
the same citizens; the first to improve the road, the last to
embarrass it.

CHAPTER XI.

ABSOLUTE PRICES.

If we wish to judge between freedom of trade and protection, to
calculate the probable effect of any political phenomenon, we should
notice how far its influence tends to the production of _abundance_ or
_scarcity_, and not simply of _cheapness_ or _dearness_ of price. We
must beware of trusting to absolute prices: it would lead to
inextricable confusion.

Mr. Protectionist, after having established the fact that protection
raises prices, adds:

"The augmentation of price increases the expenses of life, and
consequently the price of labor, and every one finds in the increase
of the price of his produce the same proportion as in the increase of
his expenses. Thus, if everybody pays as consumer, everybody receives
also as producer."

It is evident that it would be easy to reverse the argument, and say:
If everybody receives as producer, everybody must pay as consumer.

Now what does this prove? Nothing whatever, unless it be that
protection _transfers_ riches, uselessly and unjustly. Spoliation does
the same.

Again, to prove that the complicated arrangements of this system give
even simple compensation, it is necessary to adhere to the
"_consequently_" of Mr. Protectionist, and to convince oneself that
the price of labor rises with that of the articles protected. This is
a question of fact. For my own part I do not believe in it, because I
think that the price of labor, like everything else, is governed by
the proportion existing between the supply and the demand. Now I can
perfectly well understand that _restriction_ will diminish the supply
of produce, and consequently raise its price; but I do not as clearly
see that it increases the demand for labor, thereby raising the rate
of wages. This is the less conceivable to me, because the sum of labor
required depends upon the quantity of disposable capital; and
protection, while it may change the direction of capital, and transfer
it from one business to another, cannot increase it one penny.

This question, which is of the highest interest, we will examine
elsewhere. I return to the discussion of _absolute prices_, and
declare that there is no absurdity which cannot be rendered specious
by such reasoning as that which is commonly resorted to by
protectionists.

Imagine an isolated nation possessing a given quantity of cash,