"If goods don’t cross borders, troops will."
~Frederic Bastiat
http://www.carlahowell.org/senate2000/foreignpolicy.htm
"When goods don't cross borders, armies will."
~ French philosopher Frederick Bastiat
http://www.fivecities.com/strider/comme ... der18.html
Bastiat Was Right
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Frederic Bastiat was a French economist, a passionate and articulate believer in free enterprise, who lived from 1801 to 1850. But his writings speak to us today, and help explain why the recent conflict with China has ended through diplomacy and peace rather than belligerence and war.
The answer can be summed up in one word: commerce. Glorious, peaceful, prosperity-making, peace-preserving commerce. It was the overwhelming fact that the health of our economies are linked that made the Chinese and U.S. governments realize that both sides have more to gain from good relations than hatred and war.
It was Bastiat who observed the trade-off between trade and war. When goods don't cross borders, he said, armies will. Without trade, there is less to lose from the mass destruction that war implies. Countries that trade have a mutual stake in the preservation of open, friendly relations. This is one reason that free commercial activities promote peace, and why protectionism and trade sanctions generate war tensions.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/bastiat.html
Biography of CLAUDE FREDERIC BASTIAT
http://www.mises.org/fredericbastiat.asp
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