e treasury. There is improper distribution; but no loss. But upon
each American orange consumed, there will be about ninety-nine cents
lost; for while the buyer very certainly loses them, the seller just
as certainly does not gain them; for, even according to the
hypothesis, he will receive only the price of production, I will leave
it to the protectionists to draw their conclusion.

4. _But freedom of trade equalizes these conditions as much as is
possible._ I have laid some stress upon this distinction between the
conditions of production and those of sale, which perhaps the
prohibitionists may consider as paradoxical, because it leads me on to
what they will consider as a still stranger paradox. This is: If you
really wish to equalize the facilities of production, leave trade
free.

This may surprise the protectionists; but let me entreat them to
listen, if it be only through curiosity, to the end of my argument. It
shall not be long. I will now take it up where we left off.

If we suppose for the moment, that the common and daily profits of
each American amount to one dollar, it will indisputably follow that
to produce an orange by _direct_ labor in America, one day's work, or
its equivalent, will be requisite; whilst to produce the cost of a
Portuguese orange, only one-hundredth of this day's labor is required;
which means simply this, that the sun does at Lisbon what labor does
at New York. Now is it not evident, that if I can produce an orange,
or, what is the same thing, the means of buying it, with one-hundredth
of a day's labor, I am placed exactly in the same condition as the
Portuguese producer himself, excepting the expense of the
transportation? It therefore follows that freedom of commerce
equalizes the conditions of production direct or indirect, as much as
it is possible to equalize them; for it leaves but the one inevitable
difference, that of transportation.

I will add that free trade equalizes also the facilities for attaining
enjoyments, comforts, and general consumption; the last, an object
which is, it would seem, quite forgotten, and which is nevertheless
all-important; since, in fine, consumption is the main object of all
our industrial efforts. Thanks to freedom of trade, we would enjoy
here the results of the Portuguese sun, as well as Portugal itself;
and the inhabitants of New York would have in their reach, as well as
those of London, and with the same facilities, the advantages which