1207
Free trade brings to smaller nations all the advantages of empire without the disadvantages.
Adam Smith acknowledged that one advantage of empire was that goods and people could be readily moved internally, wherever they were needed. But he noted that you can get all that by each nation voluntarily adopting a policy of free trade.
Posted December 21 2016
1208
David Hume encourages politicians to put away their distrust of other countries, and allow free trade to flourish.
Politicians waste years and squander billions thrashing out grudging trade deals in an atmosphere of mutual distrust. But back in the 1740s, Scottish philospher David Hume argued that if we wish to be prosperous ourselves we should welcome prosperity in our neighbours.
Posted December 20 2016
1209
John Buchan’s dashing adventurer Sandy Arbuthnot didn’t think much of foreign policy after the Great War.
John Buchan was not only a writer of entertaining adventure tales, but a Governor General of Canada and a first-rate military historian. Here, he gives his take on the break-up of the Ottoman Empire after the Great War through his dashing hero Sandy Arbuthnot.
Posted December 20 2016
1210
One of the twentieth century’s greatest pianists, who put himself and his art at the service of his adopted country.
Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963) was born in Odessa in the Russian Empire, but settled in England with his family when he was eight. He became one of the twentieth century’s truly great pianists, and his selfless contribution to his adopted country in the two World Wars went far beyond the call of duty.
Posted December 18 2016
1211
William Pitt the Elder berates Parliament for treating the public like know-nothings.
In June 1770, the Spanish invaded the Falkland Islands. The Government was inclined to sell the islanders out, and smooth over public outrage with words of assurance from King George III. But veteran statesman William Pitt ‘the Elder’, Earl of Chatham, warned them that such a patronising attitude risked losing public trust.
Posted December 17 2016
1212
Marko adopts drastic measures to get out of repaying the loan of a penny.
Marko the Rich and his daughter Anastasia enter into other Russian folk-tales, in which he is not necessarily as amiable as he is in this one. On this occasion, he goes to extreme lengths to sidle out of a negligible debt.
Posted December 15 2016