262 ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES

with the rest. When a country has reached a’stage of
advanced industrial development, the difficulties attending
the establishment of new industries are much less important
than in countries whose industrial resources are at but an
early stage of exploitation. Capital is usually abundant, and
skill of all kinds is to be had at relatively moderate rates of
remuneration. If varieties of skill are demanded which the
country cannot supply, it is probable that a related kind of
skill will be available, which, if combined with intelligence,
can be adapted to the purpose in hand. Hence, the applicability
 of the infant industry plea to countries of advanced
industrial development is not general. It has been already
pointed out that, in putting it into practice, even where the
conditions give it greatest presumptive applicability, great
discrimination is necessary.
The economic argument is not the only one which has
weight in the controversy between the advocates of free
trade and of protection. Questions of national strength
must be given consideration as well as questions of national
wealth. The former depends, in modern times at least, on
the latter to a great extent. Vet there may be some
industries, such as those engaged in the manufacture of
munitions of war, including war-ships, the establishment of
which within the country is a necessity, and in reference to
which the fact that foreign supplies could generally be
purchased cheaply would be assigned little weight. Some
occupations which are related to the fighting strength of a
nation have received special encouragement on that account.
Thus, the fishing industry has, at some times and in some
places, been fostered as a means of securing a kind of
reserve from which ships of war could be supplied with
crews, composed of suitable men not entirely strange to life
on the sea. The encouragement of rural occupations has
been similarly urged, as affording men of superior physical
endurance for the army. These policies involve questions
of fact and technical detail which make them somewhat
unsuitable for discussion here. Another instance, where like
considerations have been urged, is that of the supply of food
to a population predominantly industrial. The danger of