Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 22 of Pierre Lemieux’s excellent 2018 book, What’s Wrong With Protectionism? [original emphasis; footnote deleted; link added]:

The mercantilists of the 16th and 17th centuries thought that a country should export as much as possible and import as little as possible. This is an economic error. Just as individuals sell goods or labor in order to buy something, countries export in order to import. As James Mill wrote nearly 200 years ago, “The benefit which is derived from exchanging one commodity for another, arises, in all cases, from the commodity received, not from the commodity given.”

DBx: Pictured here is James Mill (1773-1836).