Protection and Tree Trade: Translated from the Revue Des Deux Mondes of Oct. 15, 1869

Protection And Tree Trade: Translated From The Revue Des Deux Mondes Of Oct. 15, 1869 by L. Alby. This work presents a careful examination of the debate between protection and free trade as it unfolded in 19th-century France. The author argues that while protection helped nurture nascent industries in the past, it eventually becomes burdensome as production outpaces domestic consumption, leading to higher prices, market distortions, and periodic crises. Drawing on Mill, Adam Smith, and Bastiat, the text advocates a gradual shift toward liberalization, warning against abrupt dismantling of tariffs and the creation of new monopolies. Through historical case studies—such as the linen, flax, and thread industries—the piece demonstrates how protection shapes costs, incentives, and national competitiveness, and underscores that the true issue is a revenue question for the state treasury rather than a simple consumer-producer dichotomy. The author proposes reforms including reducing duties toward a ten percent average, converting protections into revenue duties, and employing a commissioned inquiry to ground policy in empirical evidence. The article ultimately argues for a measured transition to freer trade, grounded in experience and careful analysis.