A poor farmer lovingly tended his vineyard in the Gironde. After much toil and effort, he finally succeeded in harvesting enough grapes to produce a bottle of wine, and he forgot that every drop of this precious beverage cost him a drop of sweat on his forehead. "I'll sell it," he told his wife, "and with the proceeds I'll buy some thread with which to sew our daughter's dowry."

The honest farmer goes into town and meets a Belgian and an Englishman.

The Belgian says to him, "Give me your bottle of wine, and I'll give you fifteen skeins of thread in exchange." The Englishman replies, "Give me your wine, and I'll give you twenty skeins of thread, because we Englishmen buy yarn cheaper than the Belgians." But the customs officer standing nearby said:
"My dear sir, trade with the Belgian if you wish, but it is my duty to forbid you to trade with the Englishman."

"What!" said the peasant, "you want me to settle for fifteen skeins of Brussels thread when I can get twenty skeins of Manchester?"
"Of course! Don't you see that France would be a loser if you received twenty skeins instead of fifteen?"
"I find it difficult to understand," replied the winemaker.
"And I find it difficult to explain," countered the customs officer, "but it is true, because all deputies, ministers, and publicists agree that the more a people receive in exchange for a given quantity of their goods, the poorer they become."

So he has to trade with the Belgian. The villager's daughters sewed only three-quarters of the dowry, and the good man, her father, still asks himself: how come we are ruined, getting four instead of three, and why is the one who has three dozen napkins richer than the one who has four?

#economy #libertarian