Brewer's: Fair Trade

Smuggling.

“Neither Dirk Hatteraick nor any of his sailors, all well known men in the fair trade, were again seen upon that coast.” —SirWalterScott: Guy Mannering, chap. x.

Latterly the phrase has been introduced into politics to signify reciprocity of protection or free-trade. That is, free-trade to those nations that grant free-trade to us, and vice versa.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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