New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-08-17
Is,ne British Tariff High or Low.


cody expected Protection to neutrahze the new
table consequences Of her laws OF fnthogeni'uio
and Entail her boundless extravaganza anu hS'
twentv wears Of exhaust.ng, debt-creating wars,
CARVING All Europe on her back. But, when IL
better suits their purpose, these same papers repre-
sent the British Tariff as far more moderate than
ours and the Herald mas often paraded and
nanpuvred column after column OF fgurcs Pur-
porting to prove this To put an end to this ms
Representations We take from the able Free Trade
essay in the last Edinburgh Review the following
extract Pungent as 1t IS especially with regard
to the Wanted reductions of British Duties un-
der the new British Tariff. j; does not exhibit the
whole truth since the articles virtually prohibited
by the HIGH duties asscssedon them are not mani
fest in the calculation, which IS based on the
actual importations of Great Britain, and these
are necessarily confined IN the main to those ar
tices dixie Cotton On which the duties are not at
all Protective because England has no CORES
bonding interest to protect, but must needs be as
! light as possible Take the whole range OF Anne
ricans production which in the absence OF any
British duty we should send TO Great Britain or
her dependencies, and the average duty imposed
on them exceeds one hundred per cent while our
! duties on British products DO not average nifty
oer cent.-But let us hear the Edinburgh Review :
owe will compare the British Tariff with that
nc . nation which is supposed to be distinguished
! bv the exCluslyencss OF It's commercial system,
namely with that Of France. In lS4l, the value
! of the imports of France for home consumption
amounted to SO4 ,557 ,93l francs; the duties on
them amounted TO 29,679, l25 francs-being
Gl6, IS. 4d. per cent. Aud this includes the
imports from her own colonies and dependencies.
1t may be supposed that British commodities
were unfavorably treated. The value OF the COM
modties imported by France for home comsump-
ton in lS4l, from The British islands and their
European dependencies, was lOl, 907,S14 francs;
the duties on them amounted to ll2SS,9 9b
irancs-belng Gil, Is. Cd. per cent. These
estimates, however, require some correction IN
consequence of the valuation of foreign COM
modities having been made in 1916 and 1871,
and not subsequently revised Since that period,
many of them might have altered IN value, and
some of them must have fallen. II we take ~
per cent from the value of the whole bulk OF the
commodities imported, it will leave the French
Tariff not quite IL per cent on the average value
Of the commodities imported for home consump-
ton, and not quite l25 per cent on British com
modlties. Let us turn to the British Tariff
AS the greatest part Of our duties are imposed &C
cording to quantity, it is difficult to state, with
accuracy, what proportion they bear TO the value
of the commodities imported. But we will en-
deavor to give rough approximation
/" For the ten years ending with lslO, the last
included in Mr.. Porers published tables, the
average gross revenue OF the customs amounted
~ q | had eflrr, NJ
the real value OF the imports from which this
revenue was derived, we could, Of course, state
the average dd ualorem amount of our duties.
But we have none. We have, however, an ac-
count of the real value OF our exports Their
average annual value during these ten years was
f45, 244, 407. With these exports we purchased
every year not only the tesliable to duty,
but also 2,700000 Of gold and silver, which
amount, as we have shown, is annually consumed
in the British islands, on the wear and loss of coin
and plate. After deductlng the exports which
went TO purchase this sum Of e., GOO, there
remains an annual export of the value of t42,-
514, 407, with which, our imports exclusively OF
gold and silver, were purchased The imports,
of course, on their arrival in the British islands,
were worth more than this sum; as the expenses
of carriage and the importers profit must be
added. 70 cover these expenses and this profit,
and any other inaccuracies which may have crept
INTO our estimate, we will make the large addl-
ton of 30 per cent. On these data, the imports
on which, the average annual sum OF I'll ,94l,-
767 paid Tor duty, were of the average an
nua value of f5l ,053 ,2SS making the average
amount Of our duties f42 1885, Cd. per cent. on
the value of the commodities imported-lncud-
ing, as we have done with respect 10 France, the
imports from our own colonies and dependencies.
But it may be said that we have taken into the
account only the duties imposed by France, and
not her prohibitions. Do we impose no virtual
prohibitions A duty OF ZAP, l9s, I'd. per cent.
is with respect to the vast majority of commodl-
ties, etfectual bar the most express proh-
bltlon. Or 1t may be SAID that this the state
of things under old tariff, and does not repre-
sent what now exists. In fact, however the
ne,c tariff has made no mQteriut alteration. The
most important articles which ii has affected are
corn coffee, and timber. Oac0rR, Wheat II has
practically raised the duty from IS. l0d. per
quarter. tie acreage datr preui0usly pad, 10 S..
per quarter. Coffee and timber it has left subject
TO duties OF nearly $50 per cent and the amount
of both is too small to lower the aggregate per
centage of our duties as much as the increase Of
the duty on corn has raised it.
Now, when this is the state of the commercial
relations between France and the British islands
when France imports for home consumption
f4000,000 worth Of our products, at average
duty OF less than l3 per cent.--Colone Torrens
ventures to assert that the import duties imposed
by France, limit our exports to that country to no
inconsiderable extent, and to advise Us, by the
prompt adoption and rigid enforcement OF re-
talla,ory system, to give the French producers a
lesson on the evils Of protection.
g There are fen nations nth rahom British
negotiator mast not carefully aco:d all aliusion
10 retaliation, and certainly France is not among
those few. Colonel Torrens however, goes further
still. In his patriotic blindness to the conduct OF