第 20 节
作者:翱翔1981      更新:2021-02-19 18:34      字数:9322
  writer will; I fear; be disagreeably surprised to hear; that I
  am; and always have been; an utterly fearless and unscrupulous
  free…trader。 Seven years ago; speaking of the various signs of
  infancy in the European mind (Stones of Venice; vol。 iii。 p。
  168); I wrote: 〃The first principles of commerce were
  acknowledged by the English parliament only a few months ago; in
  its free…trade measures; and are still so little understood by
  the million; that no nation dares to abolish its custom…houses。〃
  It will be observed that I do not admit even the idea of
  reciprocity。 Let other nations; if they like; keep their ports
  shut; every wise nation will throw its own open。 It is not the
  opening them; but a sudden; inconsiderate; and blunderingly
  experimental manner of opening them; which does the harm。 If you
  have been protecting a manufacture for a long series of years;
  you must not take the protection off in a moment; so as to throw
  every one of its operatives at once out of employ; any more than
  you must take all its wrappings off a feeble child at once in
  cold weather; though the cumber of them may have been radically
  injuring its health。 Little by little; you must restore it to
  freedom and to air。
  Most people's minds are in curious confusion on the subject
  of free trade; because they suppose it to imply enlarged
  competition。 On the contrary; free trade puts an end to all
  competition。 〃Protection〃 (among various other mischievous
  functions;) endeavours to enable one country to compete with
  another in the production of an article at a disadvantage。 When
  trade is entirely free; no country can be competed with in the
  articles for the production of which it is naturally calculated;
  nor can it compete with any other; in the production of articles
  for which it is not naturally calculated。 Tuscany; for instance;
  cannot compete with England in steel; nor England with Tuscany in
  oil。 They must exchange their steel and oil。 Which exchange
  should be as frank and free as honesty and the sea…winds can make
  it。 Competition; indeed; arises at first; and sharply; in order
  to prove which is strongest in any given manufacture possible to
  both; this point once ascertained; competition is at an end。
  13。 I should be glad if the reader would first clear the ground
  for himself so far as to determine whether the difficulty lies in
  getting the work or getting the pay for it。 Does he consider
  occupation itself to be an expensive luxury; difficult of
  attainment; of which too little is to be found in the world? or
  is it rather that; while in the enjoyment even of the most
  athletic delight; men must nevertheless be maintained; and this
  maintenance is not always forthcoming? We must be clear on this
  head before going farther; as most people are loosely in the
  habit of talking of the difficulty of 〃finding employment。〃 Is it
  employment that we want to find; or support during employment? Is
  it idleness we wish to put an end to; or hunger? We have to take
  up both questions in succession; only not both at the same time。
  No doubt that work is a luxury; and a very great one。 It is;
  indeed; at once a luxury and a necessity; no man can retain
  either health of mind or body without it。 So profoundly do I feel
  this; that; as will be seen in the sequel; one of the principal
  objects I would recommend to benevolent and practical persons; is
  to induce rich people to seek for a larger quantity of this
  luxury than they at present possess。 Nevertheless; it appears by
  experience that even this healthiest of pleasures may be indulged
  in to excess; and that human beings are just as liable to surfeit
  of labour as to surfeit of meat; so that; as on the one hand; it
  may be charitable to provide; for some people; lighter dinner;
  and more work; for others; it may be equally expedient to provide
  lighter work; and more dinner。
  14。 Book I。 chap。 iv。 s。 1。 To save space; my future references
  to Mr Mill's work will be by numerals only; as in this instance;
  I。 iv。 I。 Ed。 in 2 vols。 8vo。 Parker; 1848。
  15。 If Mr Mill had wished to show the difference in result
  between consumption and sale; he should have represented the
  hardware merchant as consuming his own goods instead of selling
  them; similarly; the silver merchant as consuming his own goods
  instead of welling them。 Had he done this; he would have made his
  position clearer; though less tenable; and perhaps this was the
  position he really intended to take; tacitly involving his
  theory; elsewhere stated; and shown in the sequel of this paper
  to be false; that demand for commodities is not demand for
  labour。 But by the most diligent scrutiny of the paragraph now
  under examination; I cannot determine whether it is a fallacy
  pure and simple; or the half of one fallacy supported by the
  whole of a greater one; so that I treat it here on the kinder
  assumption that it is one fallacy only。
  16。 I take Mr Helps' estimate in his essay on War。
  17。 Also when the wrought silver vases of Spain were dashed to
  fragments by our custom…house officers; because bullion might be
  imported free of duty; but not brains; was the axe that broke
  them productive?  the artist who wrought them unproductive? Or
  again。 If the woodman's axe is productive; is the executioner's?
  as also; if the hemp of a cable be productive; does not the
  productiveness of hemp in a halter depend on its moral more than
  on its material application?
  18。 Filigree: that is to say; generally; ornament dependent on
  complexity; not on art。
  19。 These statements sound crude in their brevity; but will be
  found of the utmost importance when they are developed。 Thus; in
  the above instance; economists have never perceived that
  disposition to buy is a wholly moral element in demand: that is
  to say; when you give a man half…a…crown; it depends on his
  disposition whether he is rich or poor with it  whether he will
  buy disease; ruin; and hatred; or buy health; advancement; and
  domestic love。 And thus the agreeableness or exchange value of
  every offered commodity depends on production; not merely of the
  commodity; but of buyers of it; therefore on the education of
  buyers; and on all the moral elements by which their disposition
  to buy this; or that; is formed。 I will illustrate and expand
  into final consequences every one of these definitions in its
  place: at present they can only be given with extremest brevity;
  for in order to put the subject at once in a connected form
  before the reader; I have thrown into one; the opening
  definitions of four chapters; namely; of that on Value (〃Ad
  Valorem〃); on Price (〃Thirty Pieces〃); on Production (〃Demeter〃);
  and on Economy (〃The Law of the House〃)。
  20。 Perhaps it may be said; in farther support of Mr Ricardo;
  that he meant; 〃when the utility is constant or given; the price
  varies as the quantity of labour。〃 If he meant this; he should
  have said it; but; had he meant it; he could have hardly missed
  the necessary result; that utility would be one measure of price
  (which he expressly denies it to be); and that; to prove
  saleableness; he had to prove a given quantity of utility; as
  well as a given quantity of labour: to wit; in his own instance;
  that the deer and fish would each feed the same number of men;
  for the same number of days; with equal pleasure to their
  palates。 The fact is; he did not know what he meant himself。 The
  general idea which he had derived from commercial experience;
  without being able to analyze it; was; that when the demand is
  constant; the price varies as the quantity of labour required for
  production; or;  using the formula I gave in last paper  when
  y is constant; x y varies as x。 But demand never is; nor can be;
  ultimately constant; if x varies distinctly; for; as price rises;
  consumers fall away; and as soon as there is a monopoly (and all
  scarcity is a form of monopoly; so that every commodity is
  affected occasionally by some colour of monopoly); y becomes the
  most influential condition of the price。 Thus the price of a
  painting depends less on its merits than on the interest taken in
  it by the public; the price of singing less on the labour of the
  singer than the number of persons who desire to hear him; and the
  price of gold less on the scarcity which affects it in common
  with cerium or iridium; than on the sunlight colour and
  unalterable purity by which