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{
"title": "Fallacies Of Protection",
"authors": ["Frederic Bastiat"],
"publishdate": "1845-04-01",
"tags": ["Economics"]
}
My design in this little volume is to refute some of the arguments
which are urged against the Freedom of Trade.
I do not propose to engage in a contest with the protec- tionists; but
rather to instil a principle into the minds of those who hesitate
because they sincerely doubt.
I am not one of those who say that Protection is founded on men's
interests. I am of opinion rather that it is founded on errors, or, if
you will, upon incomplete truths. Too many people fear liberty, to
permit us to conclude that their apprehensions are not sincerely felt.
It is perhaps aiming too high, but my wish is, I confess, that this
little work should become, as it were, the Mantuil of those whose
business it is to pronounce between the two principles. Where men have
not been long accus- tomed and familiarised to the doctrine of
liberty, the fallacies of protection, in one shape or another, are
con- stantly coming back upon them. In order to disabuse them of such
errors when they recur, a long process of analysis becomes necessary ;
and everyone has not the time required for suth a process —
legislators less than others. This is my reason for endeavouring to
present the analysis and its results cut and dry.
But it may be asked: Are the benefits of liberty so hidden as to be
discovered only by Economists by profession?
We must confess that our adversaries have a marked advantage over us
in the discussion. In very few words they can announce a half-truth;
and in order to demon- strate that it is incomplete, we are obliged to
have recourse to long and dry dissertations.
This arises from the nature of things. Protection concentrates on one
point the good which it produces, while the evils which it indicts are
spread over the masses. The one is visible to the naked eye; the other
only to the eye of the mind. In the case of liberty, it is just the
reverse.
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