Quiz: On the Question of Free Trade

All 35 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Who won the struggle over the Corn Laws in England, according to Engels?

   Neither side; Parliament settled on a compromise fixed duty on corn The landed aristocracy; the manufacturers had to accept a sliding scale The Chartists; the League had to adopt their demand for the suffrage The industrial capitalists; the landed aristocracy had to give in
2. 2. What does Marx say about the fines in the manufacturers’ factory regulations?

   They are paid into a sick fund that the workers themselves elect and administer They are fair and moderate, rarely applied, and returned at the end of the year They always exceed the damage, and infractions are manufactured to make money They were abolished by the Factory Act of 1844 at the insistence of the League
3. 3. Which example of distress caused by English power-looms does Marx quote from Bowring himself?

   The silk weavers of Lyons The lace makers of Nottingham and Leicester The hand-loom weavers of Dacca (Decca) in India The linen weavers of Silesia and Bohemia
4. 4. Does Marx’s criticism of free trade mean he defends protection?

   No: he favours a fixed duty on corn as a compromise between the two Yes, but only for agriculture, to keep the peasants on the land No: one may oppose constitutionalism without favouring absolutism Yes: protection is the workers’ only shield against foreign competition
5. 5. How does Marx open the speech?

   Protection is the only means by which the workers can defend their wages against capital The Corn Laws were repealed by the landlords themselves to win over the workers Free trade has everywhere failed to keep the promises it made to the working class Repeal of the Corn Laws is free trade’s greatest triumph of the century
6. 6. What does Engels say the Russian protective tariff chiefly served?

   To supply the pauper government with hard cash, as duties were paid in gold To raise money for railway building, since the main lines were state-owned To punish England for her policy in Central Asia and on the Black Sea To shelter the peasants’ domestic industry against English and German goods
7. 7. How does Engels describe France’s trade policy over nearly two hundred years?

   No consistent policy at all, changing with each ministry Free trade in luxuries, protection for grain alone A perfect Chinese wall of protection and prohibition Complete free trade
8. 8. According to the workers’ reply that Marx quotes, how far did the hand-loom weaver’s weekly wage fall between 1815 and 1843?

   From 28s. to 5s. From 10s. to 8s. From 50s. to 40s. It rose from 5s. to 28s.
9. 9. How did the Anti-Corn Law League answer the worries of farmers and agricultural labourers?

   It offered prizes for the three best essays on the benefits of repeal to agriculture It promised them compensation out of the League’s funds for any loss of rent or wages It offered them places in the factories at the full wages paid to spinners in Manchester It offered them free passage to the colonies to take up new land of their own there
10. 10. What does Marx say happened to the cotton spinners of Manchester between 1829 and 1841?

    They fell from 1,088 to 448, though they tended more spindles They doubled in number, as the mills added new spindles Their wages tripled, though their numbers stayed the same They rose from 448 to 1,088, as output grew year by year
11. 11. Who, according to Marx, “entirely agrees with the workers” that cheaper corn means lower wages and higher profits?

    Malthus Dr. Bowring, the League’s statistician Adam Smith Ricardo, the apostle of the free traders
12. 12. What, according to Marx, is free trade under present conditions of society?

    Freedom of the worker Freedom of the consumer Freedom of nations Freedom of Capital
13. 13. According to Engels, under what system was modern English industry hatched in the last third of the eighteenth century?

    Guild regulation Free trade Mercantile laissez-faire Protection
14. 14. Why does Engels say the question of free trade or protection has no direct interest for socialists?

    Socialists are bound to support free trade as the cause of cheap bread It concerns only the farmers and landowners, not the industrial workers Socialists are bound to support protection as the defence of national labour It moves wholly within the capitalist system they want to abolish
15. 15. How does Engels quote Marx on the system of protection?

    “The highest stage of capitalism” “An artificial means of manufacturing manufacturers” “The natural defence of national labour” “A conspiracy of landlords”
16. 16. In what sense alone does Marx say he is in favour of free trade?

    The economic sense: it raises wages The national sense: it strengthens Germany The revolutionary sense: it hastens the social revolution The moral sense: it brings nations together in brotherhood
17. 17. What were the free-trading manufacturers still busy fighting at the same time, according to Marx?

    The abolition of slavery The Reform Act The Ten-Hours Bill The income tax
18. 18. What does Engels call protection, because protecting one industry harms others that then also need protection?

    A house of cards An endless screw A double-edged sword A sinking ship
19. 19. What did German protection lead to, according to Engels?

    The ruin of German industry, cut off from its cheap English raw materials A customs union with England, organised by the great Hanseatic towns of the north Exports at the cost of home consumers, organised by “rings” or “trusts” Higher wages for German workers, paid for out of protected profits
20. 20. Why did Engels think an English translation of the speech useful in 1888?

    The speech had never been published The tariff question was then on the order of the day in America Britain was about to abandon free trade for imperial preference The Corn Laws were about to be restored by the Tory government
21. 21. Who declared at a public meeting that “Jesus Christ is Free Trade, and Free Trade is Jesus Christ”?

    Dr. Bowring Dr. Ure Mr. Cobden Mr. Bright
22. 22. At what event was Marx due to give the speech on free trade?

    A Free Trade Congress at Brussels at the end of 1847 A Chartist rally in London The Frankfurt Assembly in 1848 The founding meeting of the International in London, 1864
23. 23. How does Marx sum up the free traders’ “doctrine of compensation” for workers who perish?

    The class will not perish; it will always be numerous enough for capital to decimate it The displaced workers will rise into the class of small masters with their savings The state will find work on the land for all whom the new machinery has displaced Every displaced worker will be compensated in cash by the manufacturers who replaced him
24. 24. In England, what name does the struggle between Liberals and Democrats take, according to Marx?

    The struggle between the Church and Dissent The struggle between Free Traders and Chartists The struggle between town and country The struggle between the Whig and the Tory parties
25. 25. What did Engels tell an American protectionist about free trade?

    Free trade would help America only once England had gone back to protection With free trade America would in ten years beat England in the world market If America went for free trade, English goods would ruin her industry in ten years America should keep her tariff until she had overtaken England in every branch
26. 26. What did English workers say the manufacturers would do “if the landlords were to sell our bones”?

    Give them to the Church for burial Be the first to buy them and grind them into flour Bury them with honour at their own expense Refuse to buy them
27. 27. How do the English people regard the free traders who want to give them cheap food, according to Marx?

    As their benefactors and natural allies As fellow Chartists in the struggle for the People’s Charter They see in Bowring, Bright and Co. their worst enemies With indifference
28. 28. Which enthusiastic free trader does Marx quote as saying every improvement of mechanism aims to do without the labour of men or reduce its price?

    Mr. Greg Dr. Bowring Dr. Ure Richard Cobden
29. 29. What does Engels say is the worst thing about protection?

    It is unconstitutional in America Once you have it, you cannot easily get rid of it It raises the price of bread for the workers It ruins the landlords
30. 30. What does the manufacturer tell the shopkeeper he will do once corn is cheaper?

    Reduce wages, while they rise in the countries supplying the corn Share his larger profits with the workers through a system of bonuses Take on more hands, since cheaper corn will widen the home market Raise wages, since workers will spend more of their income in the shops
31. 31. What rule does Marx lay down against Bowring’s import figures?

    Always take the latest year, since earlier figures reflect a different tariff Use only the official returns of the Board of Trade, never private estimates Never base general laws on one year; take the average of six or seven Ignore import figures and judge only by the wages actually paid to workers
32. 32. What does Marx call the workhouses built under the new Poor Laws?

    Houses of correction Palaces of charity Schools of industry Bastilles of the proletariat
33. 33. What did the prize essayist Mr. Morse argue, contrary to the others?

    That agriculture would vanish That the price of corn would rise after repeal That the price of corn would collapse That rents would double
34. 34. What example does Marx use against the idea that free trade gives each country the production that suits its natural advantages?

    Wine, once thought the natural destiny of Portugal and the south of France Wool, once thought the natural destiny of the English shires Tea, once thought the natural destiny of China and of nowhere else on earth Coffee and sugar, once thought the natural destiny of the West Indies
35. 35. Which cheaper substitutes does Marx say the progress of industry has introduced into workers’ consumption?

    Spirits for beer, cotton for wool and linen, potatoes for bread Coffee for tea, silk for cotton, and white bread for black bread Tea for spirits, wheat for potatoes, and leather for wooden shoes Meat for bread, wine for beer, and woollen cloth for linen