The revenue of the country will thus represent fifteen millions more in value....

There will then be an increase of fifteen millions in the riches of the country; precisely the amount of the importation of money." This is droll enough! If a country has made in the course of the year fifty millions of revenue in harvests and merchandise, she need but sell one-quarter to foreign nations, in order to make herself one-quarter richer than before! If then she sold the half, she would increase her riches by one-half; and if the last hair of her wool, the last grain of her wheat, were to be changed for cash, she would thus raise her product to one hundred millions, where before it was but fifty! A singular manner, certainly, of becoming rich.

Unlimited price produced by unlimited scarcity! To sum up our judgment of the two systems, let us contemplate their different effects when pushed to the most exaggerated extreme.
According to the protectionist just quoted, the French would be quite as rich, that is to say, as well provided with everything, if they had but a thousandth part of their annual produce, because this part would then be worth a thousand times its natural value! So much for looking at prices alone.
According to us, the French would be infinitely rich if their annual produce were infinitely abundant, and consequently bearing no value at all..