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Page 25
At first, it occurred to him to put an end to this abuse by his own
efforts: it was the least he could do, for he was the only sufferer. "I
will take my carbine," said he; "I will put four pistols into my belt; I
will fill my cartridge box; I will gird on my sword, and go thus
equipped to the frontier. There, the first blacksmith, nail-smith,
farrier, machinist, or locksmith, who presents himself to do his own
business and not mine, I will kill, to teach him how to live." At the
moment of starting, M. Prohibant made a few reflections which calmed
down his warlike ardour a little. He said to himself, "In the first
place, it is not absolutely impossible that the purchasers of iron, my
countrymen and enemies, should take the thing ill, and, instead of
letting me kill them, should kill me instead; and then, even were I to
call out all my servants, we should not be able to defend the passages.
In short, this proceeding would cost me very dear, much more so than the
result would be worth."
M. Prohibant was on the point of resigning himself to his sad fate, that
of being only as free as the rest of the world, when a ray of light
darted across his brain. He recollected that at Paris there is a great
manufactory of laws. "What is a law?" said he to himself. "It is a
measure to which, when once it is decreed, be it good or bad, everybody
is bound to conform. For the execution of the same a public force is
organised, and to constitute the said public force, men and money are
drawn from the whole nation. If, then, I could only get the great
Parisian manufactory to pass a little law, 'Belgian iron is
prohibited,' I should obtain the following results:--The Government
would replace the few valets that I was going to send to the frontier by
20,000 of the sons of those refractory blacksmiths, farriers, artizans,
machinists, locksmiths, nail-smiths, and labourers. Then to keep these
20,000 custom-house officers in health and good humour, it would
distribute among them 25,000,000 of francs taken from these blacksmiths,
nail-smiths, artizans, and labourers. They would guard the frontier much
better; would cost me nothing; I should not be exposed to the brutality
of the brokers; should sell the iron at my own price, and have the sweet
satisfaction of seeing our great people shamefully mystified. That would
teach them to proclaim themselves perpetually the harbingers and
promoters of progress in Europe. Oh! it would be a capital joke, and
deserves to be tried."
So M. Prohibant went to the law manufactory. Another time, perhaps, I
shall relate the story of his underhand dealings, but now I shall merely
mention his visible proceedings. He brought the following consideration
before the view of the legislating gentlemen.
"Belgian iron is sold in France at ten francs, which obliges me to sell
mine at the same price. I should like to sell at fifteen, but cannot do
so on account of this Belgian iron, which I wish was at the bottom of
the Red Sea. I beg you will make a law that no more Belgian iron shall
enter France. Immediately I raise my price five francs, and these are
the consequences:--
"For every hundred-weight of iron that I shall deliver to the public, I
shall receive fifteen francs instead of ten; I shall grow rich more
rapidly, extend my traffic, and employ more workmen. My workmen and I
shall spend much more freely, to the great advantage of our tradesmen
for miles around. These latter, having more custom, will furnish more
employment to trade, and activity on both sides will increase in the
country. This fortunate piece of money, which you will drop into my
strong-box, will, like a stone thrown into a lake, give birth to an
infinite number of concentric circles."
Charmed with his discourse, delighted to learn that it is so easy to
promote, by legislating, the prosperity of a people, the law-makers
voted the restriction. "Talk of labour and economy," they said, "what is
the use of these painful means of increasing the national wealth, when
all that is wanted for this object is a decree?"
And, in fact, the law produced all the consequences announced by M.
Prohibant: the only thing was, it produced others which he had not
foreseen. To do him justice, his reasoning was not false, but only
incomplete. In endeavouring to obtain a privilege, he had taken
cognizance of the effects _which are seen_, leaving in the background
those _which are not seen_. He had pointed out only two personages,
whereas there are three concerned in the affair. It is for us to supply
this involuntary or premeditated omission.
It is true, the crown-piece, thus directed by law into M. Prohibant's
strong-box, is advantageous to him and to those whose labour it would
encourage; and if the Act had caused the crown-piece to descend from the
moon, these good effects would not have been counterbalanced by any
corresponding evils. Unfortunately, the mysterious piece of money does
not come from the moon, but from the pocket of a blacksmith, or a
nail-smith, or a cartwright, or a farrier, or a labourer, or a
shipwright; in a word, from James B., who gives it now without receiving
a grain more of iron than when he was paying ten francs. Thus, we can
see at a glance that this very much alters the state of the case; for it
is very evident that M. Prohibant's _profit_ is compensated by James
B.'s _loss_, and all that M. Prohibant can do with the crown-piece, for
the encouragement of national labour, James B. might have done himself.
The stone has only been thrown upon one part of the lake, because the
law has prevented it from being thrown upon another.
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