Searles did not answer.  Clearly, he was interested in Harris’s novel line of argument for free trade.

“Well,” said Harris, “England is inhabited by a virile people, who evidently believe in God’s command to ’Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.’  England, with her centuries of rising civilization, her charm of landscape, and her command of the world’s affairs, offers at home magnificent attractions for her sons and daughters, that make them loyal and law-abiding citizens.

“It is true that annually many thousands seek fame and fortune in new countries, but most of her citizens prefer poverty even, and, if need be, poverty in the gutters of her thriving cities, to a home of promise in distant lands.  Hence, a rapidly increasing and dense population obtains in all the British Isles, and labor becomes abundant and cheap, and often a drug in the market.  The repeal of the Corn Laws first became a necessity, then a fact, and the cheaper food made cheaper labor possible.  Lynx-eyed capital, in the financial metropolis of the world, was quick to discover surplus labor.

“Already English inventors had made valuable inventions in machinery for the manufacture of iron, cotton, woolen and other goods, which further cheapened labor and the product of labor.

“England with cheap capital and cheap labor, now had two of the four things needed to enable her to go forward to larger trade with the world.  The third requisite, cheap and abundant raw material, she also secured.  Material, not furnished from her own mines and soils, was brought in plentiful supply at nominal freights, or as ballast, by her vessels, whose sails are spread on every sea.

“For three centuries Great Britain has vigorously and profitably pursued Sir Walter Raleigh’s wise policy:  ’Whosoever commands the sea, commands the trade, whosoever commands the trade, commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.’

“On the ceiling of the reading-room of the Liverpool Cotton Exchange is painted the pregnant words:—­’O Lord, how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches.’  Under divine inspiration, therefore, English capital seeks investment everywhere, and with cheap capital, cheap labor, and cheap raw materials, she finds herself able to compete successfully with the world.  It is possibly pardonable then that the British manufacturer and politician should seek earnestly the fourth requisite, viz., a large market abroad.  Hence the necessity of free trade.

“To advocate publicly that other nations should adopt free trade, that England might have an increased number of buyers, and consequently greater profit on her products, perhaps would not be judicious; so the principle of free trade for the world at large must be sugar-coated, to be acceptable.  Therefore your philanthropic and alert Richard Cobden, and John Bright, and your skilled writers, both talked and wrote much about the ‘brotherhood of mankind,’ hoping that the markets of the world might willingly open wide their doors to British traders.  Of course, advocates of free trade reason that the larger the number of buyers the larger the prices.