cam . # .

I dont think Reid was absolutist about it: None of them really are. IIRC Japan made the step to modernization and industrialisation while having open markets. They wanted to become protectionist but got locked into some pretty nast trade deals. With the US IIRC. I will have to go and look it up.

The Japanese industrialisation came off the backs of those that couldnt say no. Daughters of peasant farms supplied the sweatshop labor. In England during the industrial revolution it was women and children too.

One of the reasons why the world wars led to massive industrialisation was because of constant government investment and government basically indenturing labor (national emergency and all that).

I will have to read more on George Reid, and find out how free-market the Free Trade Party was, or whether the free traders and protectionists were like our current Liberal/Labor and represent the same side of the same coin.

cam