The Online Library of Liberty

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• Arthur Goddard, Preface to the English-language Edition
• Henry Hazlitt, Introduction
• First Series, Chapter 1: Abundance and Scarcity
• First Series, Chapter 2: Obstacle and Cause
• First Series, Chapter 3: Effort and Result
• First Series, Chapter 4: Equalizing the Conditions of Production
• First Series, Chapter 5: Our Products Are Burdened With Taxes
• First Series, Chapter 6: The Balance of Trade
• First Series, Chapter 7: A Petition
• First Series, Chapter 8: Differential Tariffs
• First Series, Chapter 9: An Immense Discovery!
• First Series, Chapter 10: Reciprocity
• First Series, Chapter 11: Money Prices
• First Series, Chapter 12: Does Protectionism Raise Wage Rates?
• First Series, Chapter 13: Theory and Practice
• First Series, Chapter 14: Conflict of Principles
• First Series, Chapter 15: Reciprocity Again
• First Series, Chapter 16: Obstructed Rivers As Advocates For the Protectionists
• First Series, Chapter 17: A Negative Railroad
• First Series, Chapter 18: There Are No Absolute Principles
• First Series, Chapter 19: National Independence
• First Series, Chapter 20: Human Vs. Mechanical Labor and Domestic Vs. Foreign Labor
• First Series, Chapter 21: Raw Materials
• First Series, Chapter 22: Metaphors
• First Series, Chapter 23: Conclusion
• Second Series, Chapter 1: The Physiology of Plunder 1*
• Second Series, Chapter 2: Two Systems of Ethics
• Second Series, Chapter 3: The Two Hatchets
• Second Series, Chapter 4: Subordinate Labor Council
• Second Series, Chapter 5: High Prices and Low Prices 17*
• Second Series, Chapter 6: To Artisans and Laborers 23*
• Second Series, Chapter 7: A Chinese Tale
• Second Series, Chapter 8: Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc 33* 34*
• Second Series, Chapter 9: Robbery By Subsidy 36*
• Second Series, Chapter 10: The Tax Collector
• Second Series, Chapter 11: The Utopian 53*
• Second Series, Chapter 12: Salt, the Postal Service, and the Tariff 65*
• Second Series, Chapter 13: Protectionism, Or the Three Aldermen a Demonstration In Four Scenes Scene 1.
• Second Series, Chapter 14: Something Else 91*
• Second Series, Chapter 15: The Little Arsenal of the Freetrader 96*
• Second Series, Chapter 16: The Right Hand and the Left 101* (a Report to the King)
• Second Series, Chapter 17: Domination Through Industrial Superiority 108*

First Series, Chapter 17

A Negative Railroad

I have said that as long as one has regard, as unfortunately happens, only to the interest of the producer, it is impossible to avoid running counter to the general interest, since the producer, as such, demands nothing but the multiplication of obstacles, wants, and efforts.

I find a remarkable illustration of this in a Bordeaux newspaper.

M. Simiot74* raises the following question:

Should there be a break in the tracks at Bordeaux on the railroad from Paris to Spain?

He answers the question in the affirmative and offers a number of reasons, of which I propose to examine only this:

There should be a break in the railroad from Paris to Bayonne at Bordeaux; for, if goods and passengers are forced to stop at that city, this will be profitable for boatmen, porters, owners of hotels, etc.

Here again we see clearly how the interests of those who perform services are given priority over the interests of the consumers.

But if Bordeaux has a right to profit from a break in the tracks, and if this profit is consistent with the public interest, then Angoulême, Poitiers, Tours, Orléans, and, in fact, all the intermediate points, including Ruffec, Châtellerault, etc., etc., ought also to demand breaks in the tracks, on the ground of the general interest—in the interest, that is, of domestic industry—for the more there are of these breaks in the line, the greater will be the amount paid for storage, porters, and cartage at every point along the way. By this means, we shall end by having a railroad composed of a whole series of breaks in the tracks, i.e., a negative railroad.

Whatever the protectionists may say, it is no less certain that the basic principle of restriction is the same as the basic principle of breaks in the tracks: the sacrifice of the consumer to the producer, of the end to the means.

[74.][Alexandre Étienne Simiot, author of Gare du chemin de fer de Paris à Bordeaux (Bordeaux: Durand, 1846), and subsequently representative of the Gironde in the Constituent Assembly.—TRANSLATOR.]