Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1884-02-23
FREE TRADE SOUND COMMON SENSE.

Free trade is simply applying be-
tween nations the sound common
sense with which every man trades. In
Il good bargain both sides gain. The
buyer gets Il thing which he wants
more than what he gives for it. The .
seller is glad to take that with which
he can buy things he wants more than
those he has sold.
This is the simple principle of all
trade, whether by ''swappimg," or by
money. or by promises 10 pay, amongst
neighbors or with shop-keepers or
with foreign merchants. don't buy
unless get something ] want. buy
where l can get the cheapest. We
build roads, aud railways and vessels
to make it easy to take what we have
TO the places where, being most want
ed. it will sell for the most, and 10
bring what we want from the p!nces
where we can buy the best cheapest.
. In this wav man, or a ncighbor-
hood, or nation becomes rich. Igain
%, n,, 1 sell; gain also by what l
buy, else l should not buy it. Much
of what huv is in fact ''raw material
from whiCl, to earn again in turn food
10 turn into strength for fo-morrow's
work, land on which TO grow crops or
seed from which TO raise them, leather
put of which and tools with which to
make shoes, labor which will do for
me more than my one pair OF hands.
The cheaper l can buy any or all OF
rhese things, the more can make i'll
return, because can get increased
nrntit or sell more things at the same
profit.
Ii there is river between Us and
those OF whom we can probably buy
or who will buy of US, we bridge the
river, and if there must be tolls to pay
for and keep the bridge, we like to
have the toll as low as possible. But
there is perhaps store on our side of
the river which did not give very good
prices for graden stuff and which sold
! things very dear. The storekeeper
asks that the tolls shall be made high
and constable posted at the bridge to
,.isco lrage buying and selling OH the
other side, and "to protect the homo
ularket." We should cry, Glands off"
and demand low tolls aud decline to
pay the constable for the sake of the
storekeeper. The way to keep trade at
hume, we should tell him, would be to
save us the trouble and cost of crossing
the bridge by being enterprising him.
sell. 1HdJ Is IIle UlHeTGuCG UctW0Gu
free exchange and protective" res
trictions.
IL is said, however, that il VIC trade
freely witt, other nations the "balance
Of trade" will be "against" US; that is,
| the value of our imports would be
greater than the value of our exports,
aud there will be ''a drain OF money"
That is what money is meant for, to be
used for exchange. A man is not SO
| rich when he has money In his strong
chest, idle and paying no interest, as
when he pays it out as loan produc-
ing interest, Or for land producing
rent, or for goods producing profit.
But this is not all. In every profitable
exchange the import value Ching re-
ceivedJ should be more than the export
value Ching given.) When Mrs.
Brassy's party exchanged with savages
articles worth less than $5 for skins
worth in England $500, the "balance
of trade" when they returned was
''against" Eng and S495. But this was
not loss; it was profit. Ii we ship
325, 900 worth of goods and they are
sunk in the sea, the ''balance of trade"
is 5000 sin our favor This is loss.
When the whole world becomes pros
porous, the ''balance of trade" must be
''against" every country. Thus free
trade is simply common sense all
around.