But the _roles_ have been changed.

The partisans of high prices have obtained a triumph for their system, and it has fallen to defenders of natural prices to prove the advantages of their system.

The argument on both sides is conducted with two words.

It is very essential, then, to understand their meaning.
It must be granted at the outset that a series of events have happened well calculated to disconcert both sides.
In order to produce _high prices_ the protectionists have obtained high tariffs, and still low prices have come to disappoint their expectations.
In order to produce _low prices_, free traders have sometimes carried their point, and, to their great astonishment, the result in some instances has been an increase instead of a reduction in prices.
For instance, in France, to protect farmers, a law was passed imposing a duty of twenty-two per cent.

upon imported wools, and the result has been that native wools have been sold for much lower prices than before the passage of the law.
In England a law in behalf of the consumers was passed, exempting foreign wools from duty, and the consequence has been that native wools have sold higher than ever before.
And this is not an isolated fact, for the price of wool has no special or peculiar nature which takes it out of the general law governing prices.