The Great Question: Tariff Reform or Free Trade? by Leopold Stennett Amery delves into the complex economic debate surrounding trade policies in early 20th-century Britain. Amery, a prominent political figure, presents a detailed analysis of the merits and drawbacks of tariff reform versus the traditional policy of free trade. This work explores the potential impacts of different trade strategies on British industries, employment, and the nation's overall economic prosperity. Offering insights into the historical context of the era, “The Great Question†provides a valuable resource for understanding the foundations of modern trade discussions. Readers interested in economic history, political economy, and the evolution of British trade policy will find Ameryâ€(TM)s arguments both insightful and historically significant. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... THE TRADE FALLACY In the first of these addresses I endeavoured to bring out the essential difference between the individual and the public point of view in economics--a difference as profound, I suggested, as that between the old Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which regarded the earth as the fixed centre of the universe, and the Copernican, which fixed the centre, at any rate of our planetary system, in the sun--and to show that the recognition of this distinction at once destroys the whole general argument in favour of laisser faire in economics as in any other department of human activity. Last time I examined the Free Trade or Orthodox theory of production and the arguments against interference, by tariff or otherwise, based upon it, and showed how the same fallacy of mixing up the individual and public aspect of economic issues underlay it. But in this case the fallacy was not so easy to detect, as it lay, not so much in the argument itself as in the use of the terms employed, especially in the use of the word "capital." I devoted some time to analysing the "terminological inexactitude" of Adam Smith, and of his school, and to showing that the whole of their main argument against protective regulations is based on the assumption that the volume of the national industry is determined by a fixed inelastic quantity of "capital" in the same way as the individual manufacturer's enterprise is limited by the fixed capital he can save or borrow. I showed, too, that the same individualist fallacy in a slightly different form underlies the Free Trade conception of population as a fixed number of individuals looking out for the most profitable employments available at the moment, instead of what it really is, when looked at broadly, an elastic...