protection, protexcion

[Fr. protec tion, from Lat. protectionem, acc us. of protectio, from protect us, pa. par. of protego = to protect (q. v.); Sp. proteccion; Ital. protezione.] I. Ordinary Language: 1. The act of protecting; the state of being protected; defense; shelter from danger, hurt, injury, or evil; preservation from anything hurtful or annoying. "No one doubts that both sexes of many birds have had their colors adapted for the sake of protection ."- Darwin : Descent of Man , pt. ii., ch. xvi. 2. That which protects, shelters, or preserves from danger, injury, or evil; a shelter, a defense; as, Clothes are a protection against the cold. †3. A writing which a ured safety or protection; a pa port, a safe-conduct. II. Polit . Economy: Protection in this sense is said to have been derived from the name of the Society for the Protection of Agriculture (England, 1844-53). But the idea is old, and has been known to a greater or le extent in all ages and in all lands. Taxes levied solely for the raising of revenue operate in restraint of free trade, and are therefore a form of protection, but the term is generally limited to cases in which these taxes are imposed for other than fiscal purposes. Their most common aim is to shield some languishing trade, oссиpation, or profe ion from open competition. As to the practical effect of protection the opinions of politicians and political economists are much divided. On the one hand it is claimed that in this country protection is absolutely nece ary to protect home industry and enable the producers of a protected article to receive in return for their serva erted that the uniform effect of the policy is to render the article produced both dear and bad, a fair remuneration. On the other hand it is Protection to the farmer, free-traders say, makes every loaf smaller, thus taxing for the benefit of a cla the very poorest person in the country, and aggravating the effects of any famine that may arise. [CORN-LAWS.] Navigation laws, they say, make it more expensive to work a ship, and diminish the probability of its being largely employed in the carrying trade of the world. NAVIGATION LAWS.] A bounty on exportation it is claimed is a present made to foreign countries, and vice vers a . [BOUNTY.] It is believed that the protectionist system on a large scale was first proposed by the Chanceller de Birague, an Italian, in the suite of Catherine de Medici. It was developed by Colbert in 1664, and has not since pa ed away. In 1692 England retaliated on France, according to Adam Smith, taxing goods imported from that country in 1696 75 per cent. or more. Bounties were abolished in Britain between 1818 and 1824, and this, with the repeal of the Corn and Navigation Laws, gave the protectionist system in that country its deathblow. In this country protection still carries with it the ma of the people and the government, IMG:content-1638.png:[blocks in formation]