list2-第45部分
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
incomparably greater than the total value of the much more
expensive fabrics of luxury。 The former class of manufactures;
therefore; brings into motion large masses of natural; mental; and
personal productive powers; and gives by the fact that it
requires large capital inducements for considerable saving of
capital; and for bringing over to its aid foreign capital and
powers of all kinds。 The development of these branches of
manufacture thus tends powerfully to promote the increase of
population; the prosperity of home agriculture; and also especially
the increase of the trade with foreign countries; inasmuch as less
cultivated countries chiefly require manufactured goods of common
use; and the countries of temperate climates are principally
enabled by the production of these articles to carry on direct
interchange with the countries of tropical climates。 A country e。g。
which trade has to import cotton yarns and cotton goods cannot
carry on direct with Egypt; Louisiana; or Brazil; because it cannot
supply those countries with the cotton goods which they require;
and cannot take from them their raw cotton。 Furthermore; these
articles; on account of the magnitude of their total value; serve
especially to equalise the exports of the nation tolerably well
with its imports; and always to retain in the nation the amount of
circulating medium which it requires; or to provide it with the
same。 Thus it is by the prosperity and preservation of these
important branches of industry that the industrial independence of
the nation is gained and maintained; for the disturbance of trade
resulting from wars is of little importance if it merely hinders
the purchase of expensive articles of luxury; but; on the other
hand; it always occasions great calamities if it is attended by
scarcity and rise in price of common manufactured goods; and by the
interruption of a previously considerable sale of agricultural
products。 Finally; the evasion of customs duties by smuggling and
false declarations of value is much less to be feared in the case
of these articles; and can be much more easily prevented than in
the case of costly fabrics of luxury。
Manufactures and manufactories are always plants of slow
growth; and every protective duty which suddenly breaks off
formerly existing commercial connections must be detrimental to the
nation for whose benefit it is professedly introduced。 Such duties
ought only to be increased in the ratio in which capital; technical
abilities; and the spirit of enterprise are increasing in the
nation or are being attracted to it from abroad; in the ratio in
which the nation is in a condition to utilise for itself its
surplus of raw materials and natural products which it had
previously exported。 It is; however; of special importance that the
scale by which the import duties are increased should be determined
beforehand; so that an assured remuneration can be offered to the
capitalists; artificers; and workmen; who are found in the nation
or who can be attracted to it from abroad。 It is indispensable to
maintain these scales of duty inviolably ; and not to diminish them
before the appointed time; because the very fear of any such breach
of promise would already destroy for the most part the effect of
that assurance of remuneration。
To what extent import duties should be increased in the case of
a change from free competition to the protective system; and how
much they ought to be diminished in the case of a change from a
system of prohibition to a moderate system of protection; cannot be
determined theoretically: that depends on the special conditions as
well as on the relative conditions in which the less advanced
nation is placed in relation to the more advanced ones。 The United
States of North America e。g。 have to take into special
consideration their exports of raw cotton to England; and of
agricultural and maritime products to the English colonies; also
the high rate of wages existing in the United States; whereby they
again profit by the fact that they can depend more than any other
nation on attracting to themselves English capital; artificers; men
of enterprise; and workmen。
It may in general be assumed that where any technical industry
cannot be established by means of an original protection of forty
to sixty per cent and cannot continue to maintain itself under a
continued protection of twenty to thirty per cent the fundamental
conditions of manufacturing power are lacking。
The causes of such incapacity can be removed more or less
readily; to the class more readily removable belong want of
internal means of transport; want of technical knowledge; of
experienced workmen; and of the spirit of industrial enterprise; to
the class which it is more difficult to remove belong the lack of
industrious disposition; civilisation; education; morality; and
love of justice on the part of the people; want of a sound and
vigorous system of agriculture; and hence of material capital; but
especially defective political institutions; and want of civil
liberty and of security of justice; and finally ; want of
compactness of territory; whereby it is rendered impossible to put
down contraband trade。
Those industries which merely produce expensive articles of
luxury require the least consideration and the least amount of
protection; firstly; because their production requires and assumes
the existence of a high degree of technical attainment and skill;
secondly because their total value is inconsiderable in proportion
to that of the whole national production; and the imports of them
can be readily paid for by means of agricultural products and raw
materials; or with manufactured products of common use; further;
because the interruption of their importation occasions no
important inconvenience in time of war; lastly; because high
protective duties on these articles can be most readily evaded by
smuggling。
Nations which have not yet made considerable advances in
technical art and in the manufacture of machinery should allow all
complicated machinery to be imported free of duty; or at least only
levy a small duty upon them; until they themselves are in a
Position to produce them as readily as the most advanced nation。
Machine manufactories are in a certain sense the manufacturers of
manufactories; and every tax on the importation of foreign
machinery is a restriction on the internal manufacturing power。
Since it is; however; of the greatest importance; because of its
great influence on the whole manufacturing power; that the nation
should not be dependent on the chances and changes of war in
respect of its machinery; this particular branch of manufacture has
very special claims for the direct support of the State in case it
should not be able under moderate import duties to meet
competition。 The State should at least encourage and directly
support its home manufactories of machinery; so far as their
maintenance and development may be necessary to provide at the
commencement of a time of war the most necessary requirements; and
under a longer interruption by war to serve as patterns for the
erection of new machine factories。
Drawbacks can according to our system only be entertained in
cases where half…manufactured goods which are still imported from
abroad; as for instance cotton yarn; must be subjected to a
considerable protective duty in order to enable the country
gradually to produce them itself。
Bounties are objectionable as permanent measures to render the
exports and the competition of the native manufactories possible
with the manufactories of further advanced nations in neutral
markets; but they are still more objectionable as the means of
getting possession of the inland markets for manufactured goods of
nations which have themselves already made progress in
manufactures。 Yet there are cases where they are to be justified as
temporary means of encouragement; namely; where the slumbering
spirit of enterprise of a nation merely requires stimulus and
assistance in the first period of its revival; in order to evoke in
it a powerful and lasting production and an export trade to
countries which themselves do not possess flourishing manufactures。
But even in these cases it ought to be considered whether the State
would not do better by making advances free of interest and
granting special privileges to individual men of enter prise; or
whether it would not be still more to the purpose to promote the
formation of companies to carry into effect such primary
experimental adventures; to advance to such companies a portion of
their requisite share capital out of the State treasury; and to
allow to the private persons taking shares in them a preferential
interest on their invested capital。 As instances of the cases
referred to; we may mention experimental undertakings in trade and
navigation to distant countries; to which the commerce of private
persons has not yet been extended; the establishment of lines of
steamers to distant countries; the founding of new colonies; &c。
Chapter 27
The Customs System and the Popular School
The popular school does not discriminate (in respect of the
operation of protective duties) between natural or primitive
products and manufactured products