Protectionism is a form of regulation that effectively orders a country’s citizens to buy certain goods at inflated prices. There is no economic logic to protectionism; Ricardo formulated the “law of the formation of connections,” according to which, even if one country can produce all products more efficiently than another, trade between them still benefits both parties, because it allows each to concentrate on what it does best. Protectionism is fundamentally aimed at raising prices, since it works against the division of labor—one of the main forces that make goods cheaper. Pushed to its logical extreme, protectionism would mean everyone producing everything at home, buying and selling nothing.