Or, to put it in general terms before proceeding farther, we may say that when we find that in a problem depending entirely on the exports and imports of a country, none of the above particulars in reference to the character, composition, quality, or proportions of these exports and imports are considered to matter; when we find that all the things which a chartered accountant or auditor would take into consideration in arriving at the economic status of an individual trader, - in so far as his future solvency or insolvency, the bright or gloomy prospect of his business is concerned, - are regarded as of little or no importance when the future economic status of a nation is concerned (even when in the same breath it is admitted that the economic relations of a nation when trading with other nations depend on precisely the same principles as those of an individual trader doing business with other traders), and strangest of all, when we find that it does not matter whether you regard the imports as depending on the exports, or the exports on the imports; whether you regard as of primary importance what you have to sell to other people, or what they will give you for it; when we find them arguing that protection against foreigners, - who, be it remembered, will only continue to supply you with imports so long as you have exports to give for them, - is the same thing as the protection which the tallow-chandlers in Bastiat's classical illustration demanded against the competition of the sun, which supplies the world with its light without money and without price; - when we find that nothing of all this matters, except only that the gross sum-total in pounds, shillings, and pence, of these exports and imports combined shall keep about the average or above it; and that even if it fell below it, that would not matter either, inasmuch as the deficiency would be sure to be made good by a corresponding increase in the home trade, - but of which they can know nothing, as there is no record kept of it in the Board of Trade returns; - when we find all this, it is evident, is it not, that we have here an instance of a science which is like no other science known to us; one that does not, like medical science for example, draw its diagnosis of its patient's present or future state of health from a minute inspection of particulars, of signs and symptoms and of the internal condition of this organ and of that, but like 'Christian Science' relies rather on some hidden fountain of reserve power capable of renovating all the organs alike however diseased, and in presence of which, in consequence, neither the signs nor symptoms, nor yet the actual state of organs and functions, healthy or diseased, need give us the least concern, inasmuch as they can neither interfere with the miracles that are being performed through them, nor have they the power to help or hinder the result.

And now if we proceed to enquire what this fountain of reserve power may be which the Free Traders believe they possess, we shall get our first hint of the direction in which to look for it by recalling to mind the principle which they have all along put in the very fore-front of their propaganda, - the principle namely, that the Free Trade which is best for the world in general is also necessarily the best for each particular nation in it; - which means, being interpreted, that there is a reservoir of wealth common to the world in general,, which if nations will only keep their gates freely open, and throw down their tariff walls, will diffuse itself equally over all, like a liquid manure poured out on a level field. Now if this really were so, it would explain the peculiarities, the absurdities and contradictions that have so often puzzled us.

It would explain why orthodox Political Economy, dealing as it does entirely with the exports and imports of a particular country, can afford to ignore all particulars in reference to them except the single circumstance of whether their combined amount keeps up to the normal average or not. For this is just what we should expect from anything fed from a common reservoir - like a town with its water supply - which will flow into every workshop and household whether they are engaged in competing with each other or exchanging complementary and friendly offices, in fighting or merrymaking, in producing or consuming, and where no one need give himself any concern in the matter except to see that the general level of water supplied to the whole body of inhabitants is not decreasing.

Now this hypothesis of some hidden reservoir of economic power which is so automatic in its working that by flushing all exports and imports alike, it enables the Free Traders to dispense with all concern about details, is also regarded by them as so axiomatic that it were a slight to the intelligence of their readers should they condescend to point it out; - like the proprietors of the bank of Monte Carlo who, with the steady advantage of the zero in their favour, can afford to smile at the ups and downs of gains or losses of the individual players with their feverish anxiety over difference of colour, sequence of spins, doubling of stakes, and what not, and can sail away in their pleasure yachts for indefinite periods without concern, as knowing well that these gains and losses of the players (like the exports and imports of a nation's trade) will always balance each other, while their steady reservoir of gain in the zero (like the increasing wealth of the world in general on which the Free Traders rely to add to their nation's wealth, whether it comes by exports or imports matters not), will always come home to them.