The Spectator at war: Comparative advantage

From ‘Free Traders and Trade Problems’, The Spectator, 30 January 1915:

There is every reason to believe that if the chemists of the country would now concentrate on these chemical problems, a solution would be found which would enable us to build up chemical industries capable of holding their own even against a German combine. In the long run it is only those industries which can bold their own that this nation wants. If, through any special capacity that our competitors possess, they are able permanently to produce any particular article of a better quality or at a lower price than we can produce it ourselves, it is to our interest as a nation that they should continue to do so, and to exchange that product against our own productions. To insist on producing things for ourselves that others can produce better or more cheaply for us is analogous to a skilled physician who would insist on doing his own housework in order to save a servant’s wages.