Winston Churchill Quotes
I am utterly opposed to anything which will alter the Free Trade character of this country.
Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister (Conservative), Letter to Arthur James Balfour, 1903
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Referring to NAFTA, CAFTA and other international trade agreements
Turgot was one of the most advanced economic thinkers in Europe and realized, even before most of the Americans, that by freeing itself England, that the Americans would be forced to become free traders and that in turn would make America a major Economic power despite the fact that American economic policy over the years vacillated between protectionism and free trade.
In England at the time, the liberals were for free trade and the conservatives against. In both England and America both liberals and conservatives have flip flopped their roles in foreign trade several times. Free trade is a two edged sword; it aids domestic growth, employment and prosperity in some cases and hurts them on others. And there are always winners and losers for each example of free trade within any country. The result is no long term commitment and much flip flopping.
Democratic politicians of that era mostly opposed free trade because the experience ever since NAFTA showed that many manufacturing jobs were lost in the United States although many new jobs were created but few of these were good paying jobs that Americans with limited educations could perform as they were able to with manufacturing jobs. And during that period, the requirements for fair trade and foreign workers rights have been very poorly enforced. The Democrats split between those who thought that new trade treaties could be negotiated and enforced, correcting the problems of the past, and those who did not believe that such proper free trade was very likely.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, Churchill was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, as leader from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Churchill was also well known for his military career and as a historian, painter and writer, and among his many awards was the Nobel Prize in Literature.
