Torrens, Senior and the Controversy Over Protection and Free Trade
Rogério Arthmar &Taro Hisamatsu
History of Economics Review, 93(1)
https://doi.org/10.1080/10370196.2026.2679305
摘要
1846 年英国废除《谷物法》（Corn Laws）之前，议会内外就贸易政策展开了激烈的辩论。
在政治经济学家群体中，这场争议的导火索是，托伦斯（Torrens）呼吁对那些对英国商品施加限制的国家征收报复性关税（retaliatory duties）。
这一主张引发了西尼尔（Senior）等自由贸易倡导者的鄙夷，他们指责托伦斯在复兴过时的重商主义思想。
在这场论战中，广义版本的萨伊定律、休谟的价格 – 铸币流动机制（price-specie-flow mechanism），以及亚当・斯密对自然自由体系（system of natural liberty）的辩护，被证明是自由贸易论者论证的核心工具。
托伦斯关于英国关税同盟（British Zollverein）的设想，由于其推理的高度理论性，在英国立法者中几乎未获得支持，最终在 1846 年《谷物法》废除后逐渐淡出视野。
The repeal of the Corn Laws by Britain in 1846 was preceded by fierce debates on trade policy both within and outside Parliament. Among political economists, the controversy was sparked by Torrens’s plea for retaliatory duties against the countries that imposed restrictions on British goods. The suggestion aroused contempt among free trade advocates, such as Senior, who accused Torrens of reviving outdated mercantile ideas. Amid the fray, a broad version of Say’s Law, Hume’s price-specie-flow mechanism, as well as Adam Smith’s defence of the system of natural liberty, proved essential tools for the free traders’ arguments. Torrens’s vision of a British Zollverein, owing to the highly theoretical nature of his reasoning, gained little traction among British legislators, and eventually faded out after the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws.