Isaac Gervaise Quotes

Every system which endeavors, either, by extraordinary encouragements, to draw towards a particular species of industry a greater share of the capital of the society than what would naturally go to it; or, by extraordinary restraints, to force from a particular species of industry some share of the capital which would otherwise be employed in it; is in reality subversive of the great purpose which it means to promote.

We have an imbalance over how much we produce relative to how much we consume.

We discover that the fortunes realized by our manufacturers are no longer solely the reward of sturdy industry and enlightened foresight, but that they result from the discriminating favor of the government.

Nations finding the Export of Money or Bullion to pay the ballance due by Trade, a loss of so much Riches, and very hurtful to Trade, might have discharg'd the Import of such Goods as the People could best want; Or laid a Duty on them, such as might have lessen'd their Consumption: They might have given encouragement to Industry, whereby the Product would have been encreas'd and improv'd, or discourag'd extravagant Consumption, whereby the Overplus to Export would have been greater; Any one of these Methods would have brought Trade and Exchange equal

We will assist by money from our royal treasury all those who wish to reestablish old manufactures or to undertake new ones … all the merchants and traders by sea who purchase vessels, or who build new ones, for traffic or commerce shall receive from us subsidies for each ton of merchandise which they export or import on the said voyages

There are certain domains which are so vital to the well-being of citizens that they must be kept out of the private sector and the law of supply and demand.

The difficulty lies, not in finding a producer, but in finding a consumer.

In this day and age, a big economy – a modern economy – just cannot be managed from the top.

Most economic fallacies derive … from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

Let the king fix the rates for the purchase and sale of all marketable goods, having duly considered whence they come, whither they go, how long they have been kept, the probable profit and the probable outlay. Once in five nights, or at the close of each fortnight, let the king publicly settle the prices for the merchants.

When you’re dealing with a commodity, high productivity means that nobody makes any money.

The market is not an invention of capitalism …. It is an invention of civilization.

A job saved in one industry can too easily be a job lost in another.

I think proper to take notice, that a Nation must look upon a foreign Debt, as part of its All; which, tough negative, acts positively on that Nation, and, according to the Rules of this system, as long as both the Confidence and Fear of Strangers keep them in a balance. But when those two Passions fly from their Equilibrium, the Debt acts beyond the Rules, in proportion to the Distance of that Equilibrium, and to the Largeness of the Debt. Thus is an indebted Nation not only obliged to keep those strange Creditors out of its own Labor, but also its Coin and Bullion are ever subject to their Passions and Occasions; they having it in their power, at will, irregularly to turn the Balance.

The Manufactures of the World may be reduced to two sorts; that is, the Necessary, which consist in all that is wrought for Man's Necessities or conveniences; and the Superfluous, which consist in all that is wrought, and serves to gratify his Vanity or Pleasures.

When a Nation exports more or less Labour, than is imported into it, that difference between Exports and Imports of Labour, is called Ballance of Trade

We will seek to eliminate scandalous agricultural subsidies which developed nations have that harms our own agriculture.

The countries that stand to benefit most from greater competition and openness are those nations that display the highest protection.

The arguments of the protectionists in favor of creating home markets by protecting duties, operating to exclude the taxed foreign commodities, if addressed to the manufacturing and bountied States, would be impregnable. For these States pay but a small proportion of the costs, and enjoy nearly all the benefits of the home markets so created

A nation imports from a distance a manufactured commodity, which it is granted it could make as cheap, or cheaper, at home, were the manufacture introduced there. To introduce the manufacture is, however, too expensive a project to be carried into effect by any private individual. The whole society might do so, through the expenditure for a few years of a portion of its revenue, much less than what an equal number of years succeeding them will return to it in the diminished cost of the article.

The strong point of England is her cheap goods.

If you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize something, you get more of it.

Government subsidies can be critically analyzed according to a simple principle: You are smarter than the government, so when the government pays you to do something you wouldn't do on your own, it is almost always paying you to do something stupid.

The state has an active role to play in ensuring that there is equilibrium between the constituent parts of the economy, the consumers and the producers.

There is no resting place for an enterprise in a competitive economy.