RECIPROCITY.
We have just seen that all which renders transportation difficult,
acts in the same manner as protection; or, if the expression be
preferred, that protection tends towards the same result as all
obstacles to transportation.
A tariff may be truly spoken of as a swamp, a rut, a steep hill; in a
word, an _obstacle_, whose effect is to augment the difference between
the price of consumption and that of production. It is equally
incontestable that a swamp, a bog, &c., are veritable protective
tariffs.
There are people (few in number, it is true, but such there are) who
begin to understand that obstacles are not the less obstacles because
they are artificially created, and that our well-being is more
advanced by freedom of trade than by protection; precisely as a canal
is more desirable than a sandy, hilly, and difficult road.
But they still say, this liberty ought to be reciprocal. If we take
off our taxes in favor of Canada, while Canada does not do the same
towards us, it is evident that we are duped. Let us, then, make
_treaties of commerce_ upon the basis of a just reciprocity; let us
yield where we are yielded to; let us make the _sacrifice_ of buying
that we may obtain the advantage of selling.
Persons who reason thus, are (I am sorry to say), whether they know it
or not, governed by the protectionist principle. They are only a
little more inconsistent than the pure protectionists, as these are
more inconsistent than the absolute prohibitionists.
I will illustrate this by a fable:
There were, it matters not where, two towns, N*w Y*rk and M*ntr**l,
which, at great expense, had a road built, which connected them with
each other. Some time after this was done, the inhabitants of N*w Y*rk
became uneasy, and said: "M*ntr**l is overwhelming us with its
productions; this must be attended to." They established, therefore, a
corps of _Obstructors_, so called, because their business was to place
obstacles in the way of the convoys which arrived from M*ntr**l. Soon
after, M*ntr**l also established a corps of Obstructors.
After some years, people having become more enlightened, the
inhabitants of M*ntr**l began to discover that these reciprocal
obstacles might possibly be reciprocal injuries. They sent, therefore,
an ambassador to N*w Y*rk, who (passing over the official phraseology)
spoke much to this effect: "We have built a road, and now we put
obstacles in the way of this road. This is absurd. It would have been
far better to have left things in their original position, for then we
would not have been put to the expense of building our road, and
afterwards of creating difficulties. In the name of M*ntr**l I come to
propose to you not to renounce at once our system of mutual obstacles,
for this would be acting according to a principle, and we despise
principles as much as you do; but to somewhat lighten these obstacles,
weighing at the same time carefully our respective _sacrifices_." The
ambassador having thus spoken, the town of N*w Y*rk asked time to
reflect; manufacturers, office-seekers, congressmen, and custom-house
officers, were consulted; and at last, after some years' deliberation,
it was declared that the negotiations were broken off.
At this news, the inhabitants of M*ntr**l held a council. An old man
(who it has always been supposed had been secretly bribed by N*w Y*rk)
rose and said: "The obstacles raised by N*w Y*rk are injurious to our
sales; this is a misfortune. Those which we ourselves create, injure
our purchases; this is a second misfortune. We have no power over the
first, but the second is entirely dependent upon ourselves. Let us
then at least get rid of one, since we cannot be delivered from both.
Let us suppress our corps of Obstructors, without waiting for N*w Y*rk
to do the same. Some day or other she will learn to better calculate
her own interests."
A second counsellor, a man of practice and of facts, uncontrolled by
principles and wise in ancestral experience, replied: "We must not
listen to this dreamer, this theorist, this innovator, this Utopian,
this political economist, this friend to N*w Y*rk. We would be
entirely ruined if the embarrassments of the road were not carefully
weighed and exactly equalized between N*w Y*rk and M*ntr**l. There
would be more difficulty in going than in coming; in exportation than
in importation. We would be with regard to N*w Y*rk, in the inferior
condition in which Havre, Nantes, Bordeaux, Lisbon, London, Hamburg,
and New Orleans, are, in relation to cities placed higher up the
rivers Seine, Loire, Garonne, Tagus, Thames, Elbe, and Mississippi;
for the difficulties of ascending must always be greater than those of
descending rivers."
"(A voice exclaims: 'But the cities near the mouths of rivers have
always prospered more than those higher up the stream.')
"This is not possible."
"(The same voice: 'But it is a fact.')
"Well, they have then prospered _contrary to rule_."
Such conclusive reasoning staggered the assembly. The orator went on
to convince them thoroughly and conclusively by speaking of national
independence, national honor, national dignity, national labor,
overwhelming importation, tributes, ruinous competition. In short, he
succeeded in determining the assembly to continue their system of
obstacles, and I can now point out a certain country where you may see
road-workers and Obstructors working with the best possible
understanding, by the decree of the same legislative assembly, paid by
the same citizens; the first to improve the road, the last to
embarrass it.