Exchange is made of two terms, giving and receiving; suppressing one of the terms means that both are suppressed.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 199 to 206 (in French)
Libre-échange, November 21st, 1847

Frédéric Bastiat quotes in extenso a protectionist declaration made by then Conseil Général of the Nièvre in order to analyse some of its details and show how they are not worthy of the assembly pronouncing them.

Among these declarations, the argument consisting in supporting the “market” that protectionists consider should be guaranteed to them legislatively, is the topic of today’s quote. Indeed, the nationalist fallacy that is still in force nowadays is that protectionism allows national producers to sell their products, which then allows to list all the good deeds that follow. Of course, the free-traders have nothing to say against the fact that a producer is able and allowed to sell its products. However, if the way to guarantee a sale is to prohibit foreign competition, it does not only mean that imports are prohibited but also that exports that generate the financing of imports are disallowed as well. Once again, we here find the classic fallacious approach consisting in looking at commercial exchanges in a truncated way, without taking account all the consequences of an exchange.