Blockading with Trade Restrictions | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary

Blockading with Trade Restrictions | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary: "He realized that if tariffs were really good, then civilization would have begun where people were cut off from the outside world by mountains, oceans, deserts and other natural barriers. But, he explained, 'it is where trade could best be carried on that we find wealth first accumulating and civilization beginning. It is on accessible harbors, navigable rivers and highways that we find cities arising and the arts and sciences developing.'

George wrote Protection or Free Trade because he hated monopolies. They could be maintained only if there were government-enforced restrictions that prevented people from dealing with alternative suppliers. He concluded that the most effective antitrust policy was free trade — consumers and businesses able to shop the world for the best values.

He explained why trade restrictions mainly harm nations that impose them: 'Every tariff that raises prices for the encouragement of one industry must operate to discourage all other industries into which the products of that industry enter. A tariff that raises the price of lumber necessarily discourages the industries which make use of lumber, from those connected with the building of houses and ships to those engaged in the making of matches and wooden toothpicks; a tariff that raises the price of salt discourages the dairyman and the fisherman; a tariff that raises the price of sugar discourages the fruit-preserver, the maker of syrups, and so on.'

George observed that nations try to prevent adversaries from trading, and a blockade is considered an act of war."

"George's most famous lines: 'Protective tariffs are as much applications of force as are blockading squadrons, and their object is the same — to prevent trade. The difference between the two is that blockading squadrons are a means whereby nations attempt to prevent their enemies from trading. Protective tariffs are a means whereby nations attempt to prevent their own people from trading. What protection teaches us is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.'"