Allow me to ransom your citizens, not only to the tune of my losses but beyond, and you will grant profits to my industry.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 50 to 53 (in French)
Mémorial bordelais, February 26th, 1846

Here, Frédéric Bastiat illustrates with funny dialogues the injustice of protection. At the time, it was embedded in tariffs and he shows here that if the “octroi” (a tariff at municipal level) were used in the same manner, it would be as bad as national tariffs. I would add that the case of subsidies can be added because it changes the form of protection but not the substance of it.

I do not know how popular was the “profits theory” then but it seems to have been supported by Le Moniteur Industriel. What is true in a free markets economy is that the profits are translating progress and value creation but it is only a symptom (the profit is made because the production costs are lower than the selling price). However, if the profit is created artificially thanks to legislation, this is not necessarily true anymore. Today’s quote reveals this truth under the guise of the interlocutor cynicism – a profit made through a sale at a mutually agreed price is beneficial but under the thumb of coercion, it is nothing less but plunder.