… is from page 23 of the late, great Manuel Ayau’s excellent 2007 monograph, Not a Zero-Sum Game (original emphasis):
Some who consider themselves champions of the right to private property would be surprised to learn that when they oppose free exchange and “globalization,” or support economic trade restrictions, they are in effect denying people their right to property.
A person can exercise property rights in one of two ways: through personal use, the enjoyment or consumption of what he owns; or by trading it for something else, either directly through barter or indirectly through the use of money and the intermediation of third parties. Thus, trade is a fundamental manifestation of your property rights.
DBx: Yes.
Protectionists wish to strip some property rights away from large numbers of people in order to bestow special privileges on a subset of existing producers. Protectionism is thus a subterfuge in support of thievery.
….
Manuel “Muso” Ayau (1925-2010) was one of the greatest men whom I ever had the pleasure of knowing.
