Tariffs, Trump and the French.

In the French Old Regime there were internal tariffs: shipping wheat from the provinces to Paris meant paying a tax. The people of the capital were often hungry, and they blamed greedy speculators for their misery. The anger about speculation tore French society apart at the time, and it was good that the internal trade barriers were abolished. The truth was that these taxes were prohibitive; no one could make any money by selling grain, not even to hungry people who had cash.

The substantial enrichment of the whole world during the last few decades is largely the result of two policies: abandoning socialist economic planning, and abandoning tariffs. The author of a tariff inevitably sets us against one another and impoverishes almost everyone on both sides of the barrier. But like Paris and the provinces, the US and Europe should also be friends, not enemies.