Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1891 — Mercantilism and McKinleyism. [ARTICLE]

Mercantilism and McKinleyism.

E. Benjamin Andrews, President of Brown University, defines mercantilism in his excellent book, Institutes of Economics, as follows: “This (the mercantile system) neglecting agriculture magnified other busines es, and commerce in particular, yet regarding money as the most real form of wealth, insisted that in order to profit by trading a nation must have the ‘balance of trade’ in its favor, work mines, tax impoits, subsidize exportation, and conduct its whole policy with the view of amassing the greatest possible hoard of the precious metals To ths end übiquitous governmental regulation of industries was necessary, with privileges and monopolies to all inland business deemed important, also encouragement to domestic shipping, discourazement to foreign. These notions, while more explicit in France, were common to all Europe, and determined the character of economic and international politics for centuries.” Were one asked to write a definition of McKinleyism one could: not do better than to substitute for mercantilism the word McKinleyism in the above definition. It was not until about 1775 that the statesmen of England saw where the blind worship of mercantilism was leading them. Adam Smith did more to opei their eyes than any other person. At the dawn of the present century England began those reforms of her fiscal system which have made her the greatest manufacturing and commercial nation in the world. The abolition of

her absurd and narrow navigation law* was the first step, the second being the fr< e importation of raw materials for her manufacturers. The last great measure of reform was the removal of such import duties as favored the few to the detriment of the many. Cn the other hand, the French carried mercantilism to its logical conclusion, and refused to discard it when its disastrous effects were becoming apparent. The result was the French revolution. The masses in France had been so robbed and plundered on all sldei that they rose in their power and swept royalty and aristocracy out of existence. With these examples before the people of the United States, will they longer tolerate McKinleyism—the chief results of which are tariff-protected monopolies and trusts, which, unless checked, will bring about the same results.