Brown's “solution” was the solution of the “British system”, i.e. the solution of imperialism. To illustrate an alternative approach, I would like to draw your attention to Henry C. Carey's “Harmony of Interests”.
Carey first published the following pamphlet in 1851 after editing a series of articles he had written for the Plough, Loom and Anvil, a newspaper published by his associate William Skinner and intended for distribution primarily in the southern and western United States:
The following excerpt is from the final article in the series and served as a rallying cry for the restoration of the American economic system.
This brings to mind the stark contrast between the American system as originally envisaged and the Anglo-Dutch liberal financial system represented by the City of London.
There are two systems in the world: one aims to increase the proportion of men and capital engaged in trade and transportation, with the result that the proportion engaged in the production of tradable goods will decrease, and therefore the return to labour of all; the other aims to increase the proportion engaged in productive activities, decrease the proportion engaged in trade and transportation, increase the return to labour of all, give good wages to labour, and give profits to the owners of capital goods.
One aims at increasing the amount of raw materials exported, reducing the inducements to import, and impoverishing both farmers and planters by placing the burden of freight on them, while the other aims at increasing the number of importers, reducing the exports of raw materials, and enriching both farmers and planters by freeing them from the payment of freight.
The one aims at offering the products of millions of acres of land and the labour of millions of men in exchange for the services of hundreds of thousands of distant people; the other aims at enabling distant people to consume the products of the land locally, and to exchange a day's labour for a day's labour.
“One, to compel the farmers and planters of the Confederacy to continue to pay contributions to support the fleets and armies, and the poor, nobles, and princes of Europe; another, to enable the same means to be applied to the moral and intellectual improvement of American princes; one, to continue that bastard freedom of trade, which denies the principle of protection, while distributing it as taxes; another, to extend the scope of lawful free trade, by establishing complete protection, followed by the annexation of individuals and communities, and finally the abolition of customs.”
Consider exporting people to occupy desert lands acquired through diplomacy or war aid, then importing millions of people to occupy them.
One is the concentration of wealth and power in great commercial towns comparable to the great modern cities, which have been and are supported by the aid of endowments which have impoverished all subject countries: the other is the enrichment of the peasants and planters by the creation on the land of markets for the products of the land.
The one aims at increasing the necessity of commerce, the other at increasing the power to sustain it.
One aims at suppressing Hindu labour and dragging the rest of the world down to their level; the other aims at raising the standard of the rest of the world to our own.
The one side seeks poverty, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; the other side seeks wealth, comfort, intelligence, a combination of behavior, and increased civilization.
One wants global war, the other wants global peace.
I am proud to call the one the British system, and the other the American system, because it is the only system which has a tendency to level and improve the condition of people all over the world.
This is the true mission of the people of the United States. They have been granted the privilege, never before granted to man, of the exercise of complete self-government. But rights and duties are inseparable, and when the former are granted, the obligation to perform the latter arises. Happily, that performance is pleasant, profitable, and without sacrifice.
To increase the value of labor in the world, we simply need to increase the value of our own labor.
To increase the value of land around the world, we simply need to take steps to increase the value of our own land.
To spread intelligence and promote morality throughout the world, all that is required of us is to pursue the path of spreading education throughout our country and making it easier for all to acquire property, with the attendant respect for property rights.
To improve the political situation of the peoples of the world, it is necessary for us ourselves to maintain peace, avoid taxation for the maintenance of fleets and armies, and live in abundance and prosperity.
To improve the status of women around the world, all we are asked to do is pursue a path that allows men to stay at home, get married, and have happy children and grandchildren.
To substitute true Christianity for the abominable system known as Malthusianism, it is necessary to prove to the world that it is population which produces food from the fertile soil, and that food tends to increase more rapidly than population, and thereby justify God's policy towards mankind.
If we do these things, we will see a rapid increase in population by immigration to many millions, and the desire for perfect freedom of trade which will result from incorporation into the Union will yearly spread and grow in strength, and gradually the most extensive and magnificent Empire the world has ever seen will be established, an Empire founded on the principle of maintaining the peace itself, and powerful enough to insist on the maintenance of the peace by others, yet an Empire capable of operating without the aid of fleets or armies or taxes, and sufficient to defray the expenses of government by the sale of the public lands alone.
The establishment of such an empire – to demonstrate that there is a perfect harmony of interests among the peoples of the world, whether farmers, manufacturers, or merchants, and that individual happiness as well as national greatness can be promoted by perfect obedience to the greatest commandment, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – will be the object and result of that mission.
Whether that result will be immediately attained or postponed to a distant future depends largely on the men charged with the performance of the functions of government. If their actions are governed by an enlightened self-interest, which seeks its own happiness by promoting the happiness of others, the result will be immediate; if, on the other hand, they are governed by an ignorant self-interest, which believes that the interests of individuals, parties, or nations are promoted by means which worsen the situation of others, it will be too late.
