By its Zollverein, the German nation first obtained one of themost important attributes of its nationality.But this measurecannot be considered complete so long as it does not extend overthe whole coast, from the mouth of the Rhine to the frontier ofPoland, including Holland and Denmark.A natural consequence ofthis union must be the admission of both these countries into theGerman Bund, and consequently into the German nationality, wherebythe latter will at once obtain what it is now in need of, namely,fisheries and naval power, maritime commerce and colonies.Besides,both these nations belong, as respects their descent and wholecharacter, to the German nationality.The burden of debt with whichthey are oppressed is merely a consequence of their unnaturalendeavours to maintain themselves as independent nationalities, andit is in the nature of things that this evil should rise to a pointwhen it will become intolerable to those two nations themselves,and when incorporation with a larger nationality must seemdesirable and necessary to them.
Belgium can only remedy by means of confederation with aneighbouring larger nation her needs which are inseparable from herrestricted territory and population.The United States and Canada,the more their population increases, and the more the protectivesystem of the United States is developed, so much the more willthey feel themselves drawn towards one another, and the less willit be possible for England to prevent a union between them.
As respects their economy, nations have to pass through thefollowing stages of development: original barbarism, pastoralcondition, agricultural condition, agricultural-manufacturingcondition, and agricultural-manufacturing-commercial condition.
The industrial history of nations, and of none more clearlythan that of England, proves that the transition from the savagestate to the pastoral one, from the pastoral to the agricultural,and from agriculture to the first beginnings in manufacture andnavigation, is effected most speedily and advantageously by meansof free commerce with further advanced towns and countries, butthat a perfectly developed manufacturing industry, an importantmercantile marine, and foreign trade on a really large scale, canonly be attained by means of the interposition of the power of theState.
The less any nation's agriculture has been perfected, and themore its foreign trade is in want of opportunities of exchangingthe excess of native agricultural products and raw materials forforeign manufactured goods, the deeper that the nation is stillsunk in barbarism and fitted only for an absolute monarchical formof government and legislation, the more will free trade (i.e.theexportation of agricultural products and the importation ofmanufactured goods) promote its prosperity and civilisation.
On the other hand, the more that the agriculture of a nation,its industries, and its social, political, and municipalconditions, are thoroughly developed, the less advantage will it beable to derive for the improvement of its social conditions, fromthe exchange of native agricultural products and raw materials forforeign manufactured goods, and the greater disadvantages will itexperience from the successful competition of a foreignmanufacturing power superior to its own.
Solely in nations of the latter kind, namely, those whichpossess all the necessary mental and material conditions and meansfor establishing a manufacturing power of their own, and of therebyattaining the highest degree of civilisation, and development ofmaterial prosperity and political power, but which are retarded intheir progress by the competition of a foreign manufacturing powerwhich is already farther advanced than their own -- only in suchnations are commercial restrictions justifiable for the purpose ofestablishing and protecting their own manufacturing power; and evenin them it is justifiable only until that manufacturing power isstrong enough no longer to have any reason to fear foreigncompetition, and thenceforth only so far as may be necessary forprotecting the inland manufacturing power in its very roots.
