… is from page 502 of J.E. Cairnes’s 1874 volume, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy, Newly Expounded (footnote deleted):
What then is the true criterion of the gain on foreign trade? I reply, the degree in which it cheapens commodities, and renders them more abundant. Foreign trade not merely supplies us with commodities more cheaply than we could produce them from our own resources, but supplies us with many commodities which, without it, we could not obtain at all.
DBx: Contrast Cairnes’s correct economist’s understanding with the foundational myth peddled by protectionists scarcityists – namely, the myth that proclaims that a people are richer the less abundant and more expensive to them are the goods and services that they consume.
It is incredible that anyone actually believes such a thing. It is triply incredible that this myth is embraced widely.
Scarcityism is truly a strange belief system.
