Quotation of the Day…

Tweet

… is from page 258 of F.C. Benham’s 1932 paper “The Balance of Trade,” which is Chapter XVIII of the 1932 report of a commission in the U.K., chaired by Sir William Beveridge; the title of the collection is Tariffs: The Case Examined:

A tariff does not leave consumers free to select which imports they can best do without. It makes the selection for them, or, at least, strongly influences their choice. This may be thought wise. We think it a loss. Nor is a tariff as flexible an instrument as a free exchange-rate. It creates vested interests and can only be readily altered in an upward direction. Further, by reducing imports it tends to make the rate of exchange higher than it would otherwise be. This places export industries at a disadvantage, even if wages and other internal costs do not rise.

DBx: Yes.
…..

I can find no link to a copy of this book. The hard copy that I own, and from which the above quotation is taken, was given to me as a gift by the generous Doug Irwin.