One of the many things that dominate the marketing scene these days has got nothing to do with marketing. It’s got to do with stupid politics (well, when was politics anything else). It’s the increasing clamour by politicians and spineless businessmen and some stupid sections of public who get swayed by the formers’ arguments – a clamour for protection – ‘save the small retailer from the threat of multinational monsters, ‘protect small industry from the tyranny of foreign competition’ etc.
All the arguments bandied about in support of protection could be rebutted with impeccable economic logic but allow me to quote a funny anecdote from the annals of economic history. It’s called ‘the Candlemakers’ Petition’.
The Candlemakers' Petition is a well-known satire of protectionism written and published in 1845 by the French economist Frédéric Bastiat as part of his Economic Fallacies. In the Candlemakers' petition, the candle makers and industrialists from other parts of the lighting industry petition the Chamber of Deputies of the French July Monarchy (1830–1848) to protect their trade from the unfair competition of a foreign power.
Guess who the foreign power is? Therein lies the satire! I have abridged the actual petition here. Enjoy.
“We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price; for the moment he appears, our sales cease, all the consumers turn to him, and a branch of French industry whose ramifications are innumerable is all at once reduced to complete stagnation.
This rival is none other than the sun!
We ask you to be so good as to pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights, inside and outside shutters, curtains, casements, bull's-eyes, deadlights, and blinds -- in short, all openings, holes, chinks, and fissures through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses, to the detriment of the candle industry.
Be good enough, honourable deputies, to take our request seriously, and do not reject it without at least hearing the reason. If you shut off as much as possible all access to natural light, and thereby create a need for artificial light, the candle industry in France will ultimately be encouraged.
Will you tell us that, though we may gain by this protection, France will not gain at all, because the consumer will bear the expense?
We have our answer ready: You no longer have the right to invoke the interests of the consumer. You have sacrificed him whenever you have found his interests opposed to those of the producer. You have done so in order to encourage industry and to increase employment. For the same reason you ought to do so this time too.”
If you wish to read the entire petition here is the place to find it:
http://www.ccsindia.org/ccsindia/lacs/25candlemakers_petition.pdf
Read this, especially the next time you feel there should be some industry that needs to be protected from competition.
2 comments:
Sorry if this sounds silly but had a small doubt.....is this "candle maker's petition" a generic term used for any situation where domestic industry is threatened by foreign players or is it specific to this pdf that you have attached?
Reliance is not the sun. A poor analogy but a good satire
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