The school recognises no distinction between nations which haveattained a higher degree of economical development, and those whichoccupy a lower stage.Everywhere it seeks to exclude the action ofthe power of the State; everywhere, according to it, will theindividual be so much better able to produce, the less the power ofthe State concerns itself for him.In fact, according to thisdoctrine savage nations ought to be the most productive and wealthyof the earth, for nowhere is the individual left more to himselfthan in the savage state, nowhere is the action of the power of theState less perceptible.
Statistics and history, however, teach, on the contrary, thatthe necessity for the intervention of legislative power andadministration is everywhere more apparent, the further the economyof the nation is developed.As individual liberty is in general agood thing so long only as it does not run counter to the interestsof society, so is it reasonable to hold that private industry canonly lay claim to unrestricted action so long as the latterconsists with the well-being of the nation.But whenever theenterprise and activity of individuals does not suffice for thispurpose, or in any case where these might become injurious to thenation, there does private industry rightly require support fromthe whole power of the nation, there ought it for the sake of itsown interests to submit to legal restrictions.
If the school represents the free competition of all producersas the most effectual means for promoting the prosperity of thehuman race, it is quite right from the point of view which itassumes.On the hypothesis of a universal union, every restrictionon the honest exchange of goods between various countries seemsunreasonable and injurious.But so long as other nationsSubordinate the interests of the human race as a whole to theirnational interests, it is folly to speak of free competition amongthe individuals of various nations.The arguments of the school infavour of free competition are thus only applicable to the exchangebetween those who belong to one and the same nation.Every greatnation, therefore, must endeavour to form an aggregate withinitself, which will enter into commercial intercourse with othersimilar aggregates so far only as that intercourse is Suitable tothe interests of its own special community.These interests of thecommunity are, however, infinitely different from the privateinterests of all the separate individuals of the nation, if eachindividual is to be regarded as existing for himself alone and notin the character of a member of the national community, if weregard (as Smith and Say do) individuals as mere producers andconsumers, not citizens of states or members of nations; for assuch, mere individuals do not concern themselves for the prosperityof future generations -- they deem it foolish (as Mr Cooper reallydemonstrates to us) to make certain and present sacrifices in orderto endeavour to obtain a benefit which is as yet uncertain andlying in the vast field of the future (if even it possess any valueat all); they care but little for the continuance of the nation --they would expose the ships of their merchants to become the preyof every bold pirate -- they trouble themselves but little aboutthe power, the honour, or the glory of the nation, at the most theycan persuade themselves to make some material sacrifices for theeducation of their children, and to give them the opportunity oflearning a trade, provided always that after the lapse of a fewyears the learners are placed in a position to earn their ownbread.
Indeed, according to the prevailing theory, so analogous isnational economy to private economy that J.B.Say, where(exceptionally) he allows that internal industry may be protectedby the State, makes it a condition of so doing, that everyprobability must exist that after the lapse of a few years it willattain independence, just as a shoemaker's apprentice is allowedonly a few years' time in order to perfect himself so far in histrade as to do without parental assistance.
NOTES:
1.Wealth of Nations, Book IV.chap.ii.
2.Lectures on Political Economy, by Thomas Cooper, pp.1, 15, 19,117.
