Quotation of the Day

From An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Oxford World Classics Edition, Book 4, Chapter 3 (page 303):

"... though... in the case of a free trade between France and England... the balance would be in favour of France, it would by no means follow that such a trade would be disadvantageous to England...  If the wines of France are better and cheaper than those of Portugal, or its linens than those of Germany, it would be more advantageous for Great Britain to purchase both the wine and the foreign linen which it had occasion for of France, than of Portugal and Germany."