I say, and I sincerely believe, that if any two countries are placed in unequal circumstances as to advantages of production, _the one of the two which is the less favored by nature, will gain more by freedom of commerce_.

To prove this, I will be obliged to turn somewhat aside from the form of reasoning which belongs to this work.

I will do so, however; first, because the question in discussion turns upon this point; and again, because it will give me the opportunity of exhibiting a law of political economy of the highest importance, and which, well understood, seems to me to be destined to lead back to this science all those sects which, in our days, are seeking in the land of chimeras that social harmony which they have been unable to discover in nature.

I speak of the law of consumption, which the majority of political economists may well be reproached with having too much neglected.
Consumption is the _end_, the final cause of all the phenomena of political economy, and, consequently, in it is found their final solution.
No effect, whether favorable or unfavorable, can be vested permanently in the producer.

His advantages and disadvantages, derived from his relations to nature and to society, both pass gradually from him; and by an almost insensible tendency are absorbed and fused into the community at large--the community considered as consumers.