Happy Independence Day! Trade Thoughts

by John Murphy

A few thoughts on trade from founders and friends of the republic:

"Any nation which leaves all her ports open to the world on equal terms will have commodities cheaper, sell its own production dearer, and be on the whole most prosperous." — Benjamin Franklin

"Our interest will be to throw open the doors of commerce, and to knock off all its shackles, giving perfect freedom to all persons for the vent [sale] of whatever they may choose to bring into our ports, and asking the same in theirs." — Thomas Jefferson

"We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India-rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads." — Henry David Thoreau

"Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions...Trade makes men independent of one another and gives them a high idea of their personal importance: it leads them to want to manage their own affairs and teaches them to succeed therein. Hence it makes them inclined to liberty..." — Alexis de Toqueville