The Forum, Vol. 10 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Forum, Vol. 10<br><br>One of the most interesting portions of Mr. David A. Wells's book, "Recent Economic Changes," is that in which he describes the progress which protectionist ideas have been making in nearly all civilized countries, except England, during the last twenty years. France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, and some of the British colonics, notably Canada, have within that period either abandoned the policy of free trade, or have begun to make further advances in the opposite direction by setting to work resolutely to stimulate domestic industry by high duties on foreign products. Twenty years ago, not only was France supposed to be irrevocably committed to free trade by the Cob-den treaty, but twenty-seven other treaties of a similar character had been negotiated between other nations. Even Russia had shown signs of abandoning her system of commercial exclusiveness. It was the general belief in England, down to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, that, in spite of the relapse of the United States, the western world was rapidly approaching a period of unrestricted commercial intercourse. Since then there has been a great reaction.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.