Quotation of the Day…

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… is from Henry Martyn’s brilliant 1701 tract, Considerations Upon the East-India Trade:

For, if the Providence of God wou’d provide Corn for England as Manna heretofore for Israel, the People wou’d not be well imploy’d to Plough, and Sow, and Reap for no more Corn, than, might be had without this labour. If the fame Providence wou’d provide us Cloaths without our labour, our Folly wou’d be the same, to be Carding, Spinning, Weaving, Fulling and Dressing, to have neither better nor more Cloaths than might be had without this labour…. In like manner, if the East-Indies wou’d send us Cloaths for nothing, as good or equivalent of those which are made in England by prodigious labour of the People, we shou’d be very ill imploy’d to refuse the Gift, only that we might labour for the same value of Cloaths which might be as well obtain’d by sitting still. A People wou’d bethought extravagant and only fit for Bedlam, which with great for and bustle shou’d imploy itself to ‘remove Stones from place to place, at-last to throw ’em down.

DBx: Yes. Protectionism is literal insanity – bedlam.