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PROTECTIONIST VICTORIES-FREE TRADE SUCCESSES 179
made mats and brushes, or over the imposition of
countervailing duties on sugar.

The rea! erlent of Free Trade.
The demonstration that the real success is all the
while with Free Trade is easy enough.
Let me begin first of all by showing that the bulk of
the industry of the world-· nine-tenths, or ninety-nine
hundredths, or perhaps even more-is already carried
on under Free Trade, and not under Protectionist con-
ditions.
Take the fact to begin with, that the British Empire
is, on the whole, with one or two exceptions, unim-
portant by comparison, a Free Trade Empire. \Vhat
does this mean?
The' answer is that the Protection of every other
country-grant that the rest of the world is Protec-
tionist-is modified by the existence of this great Free-
Trading community.
Protectionist countries may erect barriers against
trading with us, but so long as we erect none the net
hindrance to trade is very much less than if we were to
follow their example.
Do not suppose that we are only one of several
approximately equal nations in this matter. The British
Empire is a very large part of the world, commercially
speaking. I do not wish to bore you with figures, but
if we take the aggregate imports and exports of the
world, omitting some places like Gibraltar, Malta, and
Holland, which are places mainly of transit trade, we
might reckon that out of a total of three thousand
millions or thereabouts the British Empire alone counts
for one thousand miUions. I f we include with it various
minor countries-such as China, for instance-which
are really not Protectionist in their foreign trade, we
may say broadly that a third to half the world is Free-
Trading.
Hence, Protection is far less mischievous even to