To repulse us, precisely for the reason that our case is a more complete one than any which have preceded it, would be to lay down the following equation: + x + =-; in other words, it would be to accumulate absurdity upon absurdity.
"Labor and Nature concur in different proportions, according to country and climate, in every article of production.

The portion of Nature is always gratuitous; that of labor alone regulates the price.
"If a Lisbon orange can be sold at half the price of a Parisian one, it is because a natural and gratuitous heat does for the one, what the other only obtains from an artificial and consequently expensive one.
"When, therefore, we purchase a Portuguese orange, we may say that we obtain it half gratuitously and half by the right of labor; in other words, at _half price_ compared to those of Paris.
"Now it is precisely on account of this _demi-gratuity_ (excuse the word) that you argue in favor of exclusion.

How, you say, could national labor sustain the competition of foreign labor, when the first has every thing to do, and the last is rid of half the trouble, the sun taking the rest of the business upon himself?
If then the _demi-gratuity_ can determine you to check competition, on what principle can the _entire gratuity_ be alleged as a reason for admitting it?
You are no logicians if, refusing the demi-gratuity as hurtful to human labor, you do not _a fortiori_, and with double zeal, reject the full gratuity.
"Again, when any article, as coal, iron, cheese, or cloth, comes to us from foreign countries with less labor than if we produced it ourselves, the difference in price is a _gratuitous gift_ conferred upon us; and the gift is more or less considerable, according as the difference is greater or less.

It is the quarter, the half, or the three-quarters of the value of the produce, in proportion as the foreign merchant requires the three-quarters, the half, or the quarter of the price.

It is as complete as possible when the producer offers, as the sun does with light, the whole in free gift.