For_England

I am now, I fear, going to utter a politico-economical heresy. I have great respect for political economy. I entirely believe as you may have seen in the law of supply and demand and free exchange and safety of capital, which are the first conditions of industry; but there is one point on which I am sorry to say I am a very lame political economist, and I cannot keep pace with others. I find political economists denouncing all interference, as they call it, of Parliament with the supply and demand in any form of any article whatsoever. They argue that as a reduction of the price of bread gives the poor more food, and as the reduction of the price of cloth gives the poor more clothing, so the reduction of the price of intoxicating drink gives the poor a greater abundance of comfort Now, gentlemen, I do not introduce this for the purpose of giving any expression on the Permissive Bill. I have done that at other times and elsewhere; this is not the place for it, neither was I invited for that purpose. But I give that instance to show that the principle of Free Trade is not applicable to everything.

Continued at:

The ChesterBelloc Mandate: Cardinal Manning Speaks - On Political Economy

Interesting. While I spent years soaking up the free-trade libertarianism of reconstructionalists like Gary North and Rousas Rushdoony, it was Catholics who were pointing in the right direction, and still are!