Page 154 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

146 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
be found. But clearly what is true of the one mischief
may not be true of the other mischief, and may not
compel to the same action.
A similar illustration would be furnished by the well-
known case of the shilling duty on corn. Import duties
on articles of food to protect the home-grower are, of
course, bad economically; but given a very small duty
of long standing, may not the disadvantages of remov-
ing it, necessitating an addition to a disproportionate
income tax, be greater on the whole than those of let-
ting it remain? It is the question of degree, as in the
previous case of inequality of taxation, which is here
the material question.
I have often thought that the principle might be
usefully applied in the discussion of Mill's famous ex-
ception to the universal applicability of free trade prin-
ciples, viz.: that import duties for protective purposes
might be permissible in new countries in order to begin
industries naturally suitable, an idea which has been
applied by other writers to manufacturing industries
generally, the alleged object being to give variety to
the economic regime of such countries and promote the
increase of a town population. I need not say here that
Mill has been very much misrepresented. His excep-
tion was a very limited one, and was no more than a
statement that there might be cases for protection in
the way he mentioned, whereas his statement has been
used as an authority for every sort of protectionist mis-
chief, in old as well as new countries. But taking it in
its more exact and limited meaning, what seems to me
worthy of examination from a statistical view is whether,
in fact, manufacturing industries can be promoted to
any material extent in really new countries, so as to
give that variety to their economic regime which protec-
tionists contend for. In other words, how much. variety
can so be given to the industries of a new country?
Let us begin by quoting the exact words from Mill,
in which he gives a little counte~ance to protection for