Excerpt from The Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement The story of the rise and decline of the Free Trade movement has a practical bearing which renders it a matter of general interest at the present time; but it has also a special attraction for students of political phenomena. The agitation may be said to have been unique, for it had its basis in a scientific doctrine. The history of all ages of the world has shewn the play of human aspirations and passions, of racial an tipathies and moral ideals; but it was left for the eighteenth century to make a great advance in formu lating the knowledge of human society and of the conditions of its prosperity. The Free Trade move ment as a political force owed its strength to the fact that it had a scientific character: this seems also to account for its limitations and defects. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.