ABSTRACT
A country may import from another, commodities which it does not produce itself, or it may import those which it could produce, but at a greater expense; and in either case the transaction will be equally advantageous. It is not necessary, however, to dwell on the general principles establishing the superior advantages of a free trade. In the first place, it should be constantly kept in mind, that the utmost freedom of trade could not possibly occasion the least injury to the persons engaged in those departments of industry, part of the produce of which is at present exported without the aid of bounties. It is in vain, therefore, to attempt to set up a clamour about the injury that would be done to a large class of the manufacturers by consenting to recur to the sound principle of a free trade.
