Page 156 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

148 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES

And then Mill proceeds to argue, amongst other
things, that in the case of America protective import
duties would not set up towns in Ohio and Michigan,
but would merely favour New England as against Old
England. He does not dispute, however, that in a
really new country protective import duties would have
the ,effect contended for by American protectionists.
He rather assumes that the effect wilJ be produced.
At any rate, whatever was Mill's precise view, there
is no doubt that protectionists like Carey profess to aim
at a larger settlement of population in a new country,
so that the agriculturist may have a local market, and
so on. Even in Mill, however, one can see that he has
in view a large economic change that may be effected
by means of protective import duties in new countries
-that the question in his mind is a big one and not a
little one.

If I were to discuss these passages generally, I should
have a good deal to say upon them. I t is not a suf-
ficient reason to employ protective duties to set up a
new industry in a country that the industry is believed
to be suitable for it. Proof is also required that after
paying the expense of the operation people will be
better off in any way than they would otherwise have
been. But I am not discussing the passage generally.
I confine myself to the point whether manufactures-
what is popularly known as manufactures-can be set
up to any material extent in a new country in the way
described.
The suggestion I would now make is that, in the
nature of things, as far as manufactures are concerned,
the possible variation in economic conditions in a new
country by means of so-called protective duties to set
up manufactures must be quite insignificant. The
maximum of the manufactures that are capable of being
affected by protective duties is so small, that a new
country even if it could get all the manufactures con-
ceivably possible, would practically remain as before