The candle-makers of Europe are petitioning against a flood of cheap imports. In this they follow Europe’s makers of energy-efficient light-bulbs, who already enjoy protection against the dumping of lamps. What then is the force of darkness, or lightness, that threatens them? The answer is: China.

Yet how pathetic seem these complaints. Frédéric Bastiat, a 19th century French observer of protectionism, reported a far more ambitious petition to the chamber of deputies from the “manufacturers of candles, tapers, lanterns, candlesticks, street lamps, snuffers and extinguishers ... and generally of everything connected with lighting”.