The Shoemaker and the hatter

This film presents, in the form of a fable, a defence of free trade. The hatter and the shoemaker are neighbours; the hatter makes one hat which he intends to sell at a high price; he secures a ban on the importation of hats. The shoemaker, on the contrary, believes in mass-production, but finds that trade restrictions and tariff barriers prevent him from paying with shoes for the machinery he has acquired from a neighbouring country. In his travels, he discovers that each country is unable to sell what it produces to buy what it needs. Thanks to his initiative, action is taken to bring this state of affairs to an end, and the result is general prosperity.