Free Trade

the policy of allowing goods to be imported or exported without the payment of special taxes. It is opposed to the system of protection. By the Constitution of the United States the various states of the Union are forbidden to lay duties on goods imported from another state of the Union. The general government, however, is authorized to levy a tariff on articles imported from abroad. The leading free trade nation of the world is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Adam Smith, the Glasgow professor, advocated free trade in his Wealth of Nations published in 1775. Ricardo, a London banker whose works were extensively read, endeavored to convince the British public that the nation would be the gainer in the long run if the policy of free trade was adopted. William Pitt was a free trader. Richard Cobden and John Bright favored free trade. In 1869 Gladstone framed a free trade policy on a large scale. At the present time, 1910, the world at large is permitted to market its productions at British wharves as freely as though they were produced on British soil. Slight exceptions must be made to this statement, however. To discourage shipment abroad, an export duty is laid on coal. Imported tobacco, tea, rum, brandy, wine, coffee, currants, raisins, cocoa, sugar, and a few other articles pay an import duty, purely to provide the government a revenue, not for "protection." See Customs