CHAPTER XIV.
CONFLICT OF PRINCIPLES.
There is one thing which confounds us, and it is this: Some sincere publicists, studying social economy from the point of view of producers only, have arrived at this double formula: "Governments ought to dispose of the consumers subject to the influence of their laws, in favor of national labor." "They should render distant consumers subject to their laws, in order to dispose of them in favor of national labor." The first of these formulas is termed _protection_; the latter, _expediency_.
Both rest on the principle called Balance of Trade; the formula of which is: "A people impoverishes itself when it imports, and enriches itself when it exports." Of course, if every foreign purchase is a tribute paid, a loss, it is perfectly evident we must restrain, even prohibit, importations.
And if all foreign sales are tribute received, profit, it is quite natural to create channels of outlet, even by force.
Protective System--Colonial System: two aspects of the same theory.

To _hinder_ our fellow-citizens purchasing of foreigners, _to force_ foreigners to purchase from our fellow-citizens, are merely two consequences of one identical principle.

Now, it is impossible not to recognize that according to this doctrine, general utility rests on _monopoly_, or interior spoliation, and on _conquest_, or exterior spoliation.
Let us enter one of the cabins among the Adirondacks.

The father of the family has received for his work only a slender salary.

The icy northern blast makes his half naked children shiver, the fire is extinguished, and the table bare.