 Title page forProtection or Free Trade: An Examination of the Tariff Question, with especial Regard to the Interests of Labor (1886 UK edition) | |
| Author | Henry George |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Trade,free trade,protectionism,tariff,capitalism,socialism,Georgism,tax policy,land,economic rent |
Publication date | 1886 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 360 |
| Text | Protection or Free Trade: An Examination of the Tariff Question, with especial Regard to the Interests of Labor atWikisource |
Protection or Free Trade is an 1886 book published by theeconomist andsocial philosopher,Henry George. Its sub-title isAn Examination of the Tariff Question with Especial Regard to the Interests of Labor. As the title suggests, George examined the debate betweenprotectionism andfree trade.[1]
George was opposed totariffs, which were at the time both the major method ofprotectionist trade policy and an important source of federal revenue. He argued that tariffs kept prices high for consumers, while failing to produce any increase in overall wages. He also believed that tariffs protected monopolistic companies from competition, thus augmenting their power. LikeProgress and Poverty, much of the book was devoted to attacking privileges, such as land monopoly, which limit trade and rob value from producers.
Largely as a result of this book, free trade became a major issue in federal politics.Protection or Free Trade was the first book to be read entirely into theCongressional Record.[2] It was read aloud by five Democratic congressmen.[3][4]
George defended what he considered "true free trade". For him, this required free trade to be coupled with the treatment ofland ascommon property:
Free trade means free production. Now fully to free production it is necessary not only to remove all taxes on production, but also to remove all other restrictions on production. True free trade, in short, requires that the active factor of production, Labor, shall have free access to the passive factor of production, Land. To secure this all monopoly of land must be broken up, and the equal right of all to the use of the natural elements must be secured by the treatment of the land as the common property inusufruct of the whole people.[5]
In 1997,Spencer MacCallum wrote that Henry George was "undeniably the greatest writer and orator on free trade who ever lived."[6]
In 2009,Tyler Cowen wrote that George's 1886 bookProtection or Free Trade "remains perhaps the best-argued tract on free trade to this day."[7]
Jim Powell said thatProtection or Free Trade was probably the best book on trade written by anyone in theAmericas, comparing itAdam Smith'sWealth of Nations.[8]
Milton Friedman said it was the most rhetorically brilliant work ever written on trade.[9] Friedman also paraphrased one of George's arguments in favor of free trade: "It’s a very interesting thing that in times of war, we blockade our enemies in order to prevent them from getting goods from us. In time of peace we do to ourselves by tariffs what we do to our enemy in time of war.”[10]
Oswald Garrison Villard said, "Few men made more stirring and valuable contributions to the economic life of modern America than did Henry George,"[11] and that what George had "written about protection and free trade is as fresh and as valuable today as it was at the hour in which it was penned."[12]
The table of contents are as follows:[13]
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