“Free Trade! What is it? Why, breaking down the barriers that separate nations; those barriers, behind which nestle the feelings of pride, revenge, hatred, and jealousy, which every now and then burst their bounds, and deluge whole countries with blood; those feelings which nourish the poison of war and conquest, which assert that without conquest we can have no trade, which foster that lust for conquest and dominion which sends forth your warrior chiefs to scatter devastation through other lands, and then calls them back that they may be enthroned securely in your passions, but only to harass and oppress you at home.”
Richard Cobden, Speech at Covent Garden (28 September, 1843).
1 reply on “Richard Cobden”
Say what? So is breaking down the barrios to trade a good or bad thing? I can’t tell by reading the musings of a man that appears to have hit the cognac a bit to hard one evening.