Has not Congress passed laws which prohibit the importation of foreign
productions by the maintenance of excessive duties? Does not the
_Tribune_ maintain that it is advantageous to limit the supply of iron
manufactures and cotton fabrics, by restraining any one from bringing
them to market, but the manufacturers in New England and Pennsylvania?
Do we not hear it complained every day: Our importations are too
large; We are buying too much from abroad? Is there not an
Association of Ladies, who, though they have not kept their promise,
still, promised each other not to wear any clothing which was
manufactured in other countries?

Now tariffs can only raise prices by diminishing the quantity of goods
offered for sale. Therefore, statesmen, editors, and the public
generally, believe that scarcity is better than abundance.

But why is this; why should men be so blind as to maintain that
scarcity is better than plenty?

Because they look at _price_, but forget _quantity_.

But let us see.

A man becomes rich in proportion to the remunerative nature of his
labor; that is to say, _in proportion as he sells his produce at a
high price_. The price of his produce is high in proportion to its
scarcity. It is plain, then, that, so far as regards him at least,
scarcity enriches him. Applying, in turn, this manner of reasoning to
each class of laborers individually, the _scarcity theory_ is deduced
from it. To put this theory into practice, and in order to favor each
class of labor, an artificial scarcity is produced in every kind of