Protection creates losses for the national consumer that are way above the profits it grants to the national producer.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 128 to 130 (in French)
Courrier français, August 29th, 1846

In his pamphlet Two Losses versus One Profit, Frédéric Bastiat explains through an invented example the theory according to which tariffs destroy wealth, in total opposition to what protectionists believe. However, he was largely criticised for the theoretical aspect of his principles. This letter to the Moniteur Industriel gives him the opportunity to use the real figures reported by his protectionist opponents to show that, beyond theory, his reasoning is indeed applicable in practice and that reality supports his assertions.

What is extraordinary is that, still in the 21st century, the supporters of tariffs keep on using the same arguments that are wrong and proven wrong, be it in theory as well as in practice. In general, I am not comfortable with the quality of figures that come out from the modelling of economic phenomena but when Mark J. Perry calculates that the costs of tariffs per job saved varies between a few hundreds of thousands of dollars and two million dollars, thus confirming what Frédéric Bastiat announced 170 years before (see quote), I cannot help but give it some credit and my jaw drops!