That he should consider this an argument for tariffs shows just how intellectually impoverished the protectionists really are. All that Legge did was to provide a very crude description of part of the market process. This information does not consist entirely of prices but also of changing expectations, of conflicting predictions, knowledge of new techniques, changes in consumer preferences and so on. In short, the market is a coordinating process that gives us spontaneous order. It should be clear, even to Legge, that no mind, computer or organisation is remotely capable of collecting, let alone coordinating, the knowledge of the market in its totality.
Tariffs are an excellent example, along with price controls, of such interference.
In short, lower living standards are the price of protectionism. These are the real costs, the opportunity costs of protection, the things that we were forced to sacrifice. But these are costs upon which every protectionist is mute. Legge would have us believe that in the absence of protection Australia would have no manufacturing of any kind. Growth consists of capital accumulation which means expansion of the capital structure.