Measures which serve to abridge the free competition of foreign Articles, have a tendency to occasion an enhancement of prices.
Interpretation
Regulating foreign competition can lead to higher prices for consumers.
This quote by Alexander Hamilton suggests that when measures are put in place to limit or control foreign competition in markets, it often results in increased prices for goods. This is because reduced competition can lead to a lack of alternatives for consumers, allowing sellers to raise prices without fear of losing customers to foreign providers.
In practice
In a discussion on international trade policies at a conference, this quote could illustrate the unintended consequences of protectionism.
When men, engaged in unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a quarter which bare apprehension of opposition from doing what they would with eagerness rush into if no such external impediments were to be feared.
The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.
It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.
The Achaeans soon experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.
The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.
The true principle of a republic is that the people should choose whom they please to govern them. Representation is imperfect, in proportion as the current of popular favor is checked. The great source of free government, popular election, should be perfectly pure, and the most unbounded liberty allowed.
After the 1929 crash, the Federal Reserve mistakenly focused its policies on preserving the gold value of the dollar rather than on stabilizing the domestic economy.
When the economic well-being of their nation demanded a strong and creative response, my colleagues at the Federal Reserve... mustered the moral courage to do what was necessary.
The shortage of buyers, which the world is suffering from, is readily understood, not as due to people not wishing to obtain possession of goods, but as people being unwilling to part with something which might earn a regular income in exchange for those goods.
We can no longer prosper by increasing human productivity. The more we try to do, the more poverty we will create.
There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life.
Economics is a choice between alternatives all the time. Those are the trade-offs.
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