FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION 263

interruption of food-supply in war time is one on which
experts are not agreed. It may be remarked that, to provide
 England with food, for her present population, from her
own soil, would require a thoroughness of cultivation which
would probably raise its cost very greatly. The choice
must, apparently, be made between industrial development
and an agricultural development such as would mean a
great decrease of the value of the annual product of the
nation. Whether the less expensive insurance against war
dangers would be found in such a change in type of the
dominant industry, or in the maintenance of a navy adequate
to guard the avenues of commerce, is the question which
needs an answer. In making these remarks, it is not sought
to deny that advantage would probably arise from some
scheme aiming at retaining more of the population in rural
surroundings. But the scheme need not have a protective
tariff as an essential feature.
A brief reference will be sufficient to the view that a
country suffers, by following a policy of free trade, because it
is not met by a like policy on the part of its neighbours. It
is true that, to realise the full advantages of international
exchange, freedom from restriction on both sides would be
needed, If it can be proved that freedom of trade is a net
benefit to the country adopting it, its abandonment cannot
cease to be a loss because the amount of that net benefit was
smaller than it might have been under reciprocal free trade.
To have freight charges reduced to a negligible amount
would be an advantage, but it would be unreasonable to
establish a system of import duties as a defence against the
fact that transportation involves expense. Yet the imposition
 of a tariff, because a corresponding impediment to
exchange is interposed by other governments, would be a
not unlike proceeding to that named.
If, however, the contention is that, by imposing duties, a
bargain for their abolition by mutual agreement is facilitated,
a different case is presented. If this policy of retaliation be
judged by its practical results. it will not appeal with
convincing force.
One feature in connection with it, however, may