Ro8
LIFE OF GOBDEN. [omar
1860. Nobody has fully grasped the bearings of Free Trade, Who
1.56. does not realize what the international aspect of every com”
mercial transaction amounts to; how the conditions of pro
duction and exchange in any one country affect, both actually
and potentially, the corresponding conditions in every other
country. It is not Free Trade between any two countries
that is the true aim; but to remove obstacles in the way of
the stream of freely exchanging commodities, that ought
like the Oceanus of primitive geography, to encircle the whole
habitable world. In this circulating system every tariff is 82
obstruction, and the free circulation of commodities is in’ the
long run as much impeded by an obstruction at one frontier
8s at another.! This is one answer to an idea which has been
lately broached among us, under stress of the temporary
reaction against Free Trade. It has been suggested that
though we cannot restore Protection in its old simplicity
yet we might establish a sort of National Imperial Customs
Union among the English dominions. The territory over
which the flag of Great Britain waves, is 80 enormous and 80
varied in productive conditions, that we could well afford, it
is urged, to shut ourselves within our own walls, developing
our own resources, and consolidating a strong national sentiment,
until the nations who are now fighting us with pro”
bective tariffs come round to a better mind. The answer 0
this is that the removal of the restriction on the circulation
to a more distant point would not affect the vital fact thab
the circulation would still be restricted and interrupted. TO
induce our colonies and dependencies to admit our goods
free, would of course be so much gained; just as the freedom
of interior or domestic commerce, which was one of the
chief causes of the early prosperity of Great Britain, was by 80
much a gain over the French system, which cut off province
¢ This is worked out with vigour and acutences in the admirable pamphlet
published by the Cobden Club in 1870, entitled, Commercial Treaties : Fret
Trade and Internationalism. Nowr Letters by a dissinle of Richard Oobdem
