Chapter XVII

SELECTIONS FROM JUGERNATH’S SACRED WRITINGS.

Allow me, my dear Idolator, to make a few quotations from one of your sacred Vedas, on the subject of land.

You are fond of quoting them when it suits your purpose.

_Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith._ _Action of Free Trade._

(1.) Every improvement in the Free Trade has ruined
circumstances of the society agricultural industry. Can it
tends, either directly be an improvement in the
or indirectly, to raise the circumstances of the society.
real rent of land, to increase
the real wealth of
the landlord, his power of
purchasing the labour or
the produce of the labour
of other people.

(2.) Every increase in the real Free Trade has lowered rents.
wealth of the society, Can it have wrought increase
every increase in the in the real wealth of society?
quantity of useful labour
employed within it, tends
indirectly to raise the real
rent of land.

(3) All those improvements in The improvements in machinery,
the productive powers of science, steam, and electricity
labour which tend directly prevented the collapse of
to reduce the real price agriculture at first, and has
of manufactures, tend indirectly even given a semblance of
to raise the real temporary prosperity, and this
rent of land. has been dishonestly claimed by
Free-traders as their work.

(4.) Whatever reduces the real In spite of this advantage
price of manufactured agriculture has collapsed
produce raises that of under Free Trade.
rude produce of the landlord.

(5.) The neglect of cultivation Your Free Trade prophets, Bright
and improvement, the fall and Gladstone, are unceasing
in the real price of any in their endeavours to destroy
part of the rude produce the landlord and diminish his
of the land ... tend to power of employing productive
lower the real rent of land, labour.
to reduce the real wealth
of the landlord, to diminish
his power of purchasing
either the labour
or the produce of the
labour of other people.

(6.) The whole annual produce
of the land and labour of
every country constitutes
a revenue to three different
orders of people,
--to:--
1. Those who live by rent.
2. Those who live by wages.
3. Those who live by profit.
The interest of the first
of these three great orders
is strictly and inseparably
connected with the general
interests of the society.
_Whatever either promotes Free trade obstructs the
or obstructs the one, promotes interests of the first of
or obstructs the other._ these three great orders, and
necessarily obstructs the
general interests of the
nation at large.

(7.) The interest of this third Free trade has emanated from
order has not the same this order.
connection with the
general interest of the
society as that of the
other two.

_Merchants and Master
Manufacturers_ are, in this
order, the two classes of
people who commonly employ
the largest capitals.

(8.) The proposal of any new If attention had only been paid
law or regulation of commerce, to Adam Smith’s warning, we
which comes from should not now have to mourn
this order, ought always the decadence of England’s
to be listened to with great industries.
precaution, and ought
never to be adopted till
after having been long and
carefully examined, not
only with the most scrupulous,
but with the most
suspicious, attention.

(9.) It comes from an order of
men whose interest is
never exactly the same
with that of the public;
who have generally an
interest to _deceive and
even to oppress the public_,
and who accordingly have,
upon many occasions, How true of your prophet Bright!
both deceived and oppressed Free Trade is another fearful
it. (Wealth of Nations, example of the _deception and
by Adam Smith, Bk. I. oppression_ practised by
Chap. XI.) this class.

You will probably, attempt to discredit your sacred writings when they do not support your own views.

You will argue that Adam Smith wrote when the conditions of society and commerce were very different from what they are now.

Mathematicians say, that when a formula will not accommodate itself to altering conditions and circumstances, it is unsound. It is the same with political science. Either the political science of Adam Smith is unsound, and he is not reliable, or the serious indictments against Free Trade given in the quotations above are well-founded.