eans of exchange,
that which would cost them more to procure by means of production.
Nations would act in the same natural manner, if you did not prevent
it _by force_.

It is _we_, then, who are the men of practice and of experience; for,
in order to combat the interdict which you have placed exceptionally
on certain international exchanges, we appeal to the practice and
experience of all individuals, and all agglomerations of individuals
whose acts are voluntary, and consequently may be called on for
testimony. But you commence by _constraining_, by _preventing_, and
then you avail yourself of acts caused by prohibition to exclaim,
"See! practice justifies us!" You oppose our _theory_, indeed all
_theory_. But when you put a principle in antagonism with ours, do
you, by chance, fancy that you have formed no _theory_? No, no; erase
that from your plea. You form a theory as well as ourselves; but
between yours and ours there is this difference: our theory consists
merely in observing universal facts, universal sentiments, universal
calculations and proceedings, and further, in classifying them and
arranging them, in order to understand them better. It is so little
opposed to practice, that it is nothing but _practice explained_. We
observe the actions of men moved by the instinct of preservation and
of progress; and what they do freely, voluntarily, is precisely what
we call _political economy_, or the economy of society. We go on
repeating with out cessation: "Every man is _practically_ an
excellent economist, producing or exchanging, according as it is most
advantageous to him to exchange or to produce. Each one, through
experience, is educated to science; or rather, science is only that
same experience scrupulously observed and methodically set forth."

As for you, you form a theory, in the unfavorable sense of the word.
You imagine, you invent--proceedings which are not sanctioned by the
practice of any living man under the vault of heaven--and then you
call to your assistance constraint and prohibition. You need, indeed,
have recourse to _force_, since, in wishing that men should _produce_
that which it would be more advantageous to them to _buy_, you wish
them to renounce an _advantage_; you demand that they should act in
accordance with a doctrine which implies contradiction even in its
terms.

Now, this doctrine, which, you argue, would be absurd in individual
relations, we defy you to extend, even in specul