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428 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIM
a larger market than our manufacturers have, because
they have their own and ours as well, is too a'bsurd
for serious argument. In any case, the main point
surely is that our people are fully employed. what-
ever barriers are shut against us, and that no hard
and fast rule can be laid down as to certain particular
employments being always indispensable, although
without them we are fully employed and can easily
obtain from abroad all that we require.
As regards our manufactures for home consumption
which are also invaded by the foreigner, the same may
. again be said. The people who feel the stress of
competition are naturally alarmed and cry out. The
foreigner. with his smaller wages, sends in his goods
and "takes the bread out of their mouths." This often
means when analysed that in certain employments there
is a difficulty in maintaining the high current rate of
wage which has been established in similar employ-
ments here; but after a time employment is found else-
where, and the complaints cease. There can be no case
of a growing army of unemployed. If there were such.
the rates of wages generally could not be maintained. '
The signs that our whole industrial position is under-
mined, as fair-traders contend, in consequence of changes
in the general character of employment throughout the
country, are thus entirely wanting. On the contrary.
the country has developed on natural lines, undergoing
the changes necessitated by the inevitable decay and
loss of primary industries with the minimum of friction,
and equally meeting the changes from one employment
tQ. another necessitated by the advance of society itself.
Why should not the same process of adaptation continue?

1 See also the above essay on" The Recent Rate of Material Pro-
gress in England," vol. ii., p. 89 et seq., for a discussion of th~se
and other points connected with our present economic p.osition.-
See also the above essay on "Protection for Manufactures In ~ew
Countries," vol. ii., tJ! 151, for a statement as to the small proportion
of population in any country engaged in manufacturing for export,
'or in home manufactures where foreign competition is possible.