The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-10-27

SIN
SIN England, orr wines have been struggling since 1860
with the alcoholic scale introduced in that Tariff by virtue OF
the Anglo-French Treaty. Without naming or specifying
where they came frOm-and here is shown the ingenuity of
our neighbors-those which go from France only pay the
duty of about one real per Ihre, while the Spanish wines pay,
as a general rule, about two and q half Is it possible to ss-
tain this competition Can our wine growers compete with
the French, who rely or the protection of treaties and the
lowering Of Tariffs p"
Here, then, we have the solution of the diff
Guilty. England, while she offers Free Trade to
all the world, has the sole control of her Free
Trade Tariff, and it turns out that this very
Tariff may immensely favor one nation at the
cost of another, according to the nature of their
trade. The Spanish wines, sherry and port
(the latter Portuguese wine being assimilated,
in this case) contain a much greater quantity of
alcohol than the light French wines and as the
British Free Trade Tariff establishes an 90 alco-
holic scale, - by which imported wines are taxed
according to their alcoholic strength, it follows
that the staple of the lberian Peninsula
wines-is driven out of the British market by
the high duties levied on them by a partial one
sided Free Trade Tariff. Thus the British Free
Traders are in a regular % fiscal difficulty and
their own Tariff becomes to them a downright
commercial trouble. The Times says =
.The present discriminating duty on wine of great alcoholic
strength is maintained Tor the protection OF the spirit duties,
and its abolition would probably be viewed with as much re-
pugnance in France as it would be hailed with satisfaction in
Spain"
This is a humiliating admission, by the great
organ of public opinion in England, of the in
suficiency of a Free Trade policy in one country
which establishes its own Tariff to meet the real
commercial interests of each and every one of
the rest.
The Epoea even goes the length of accusing
the trainers of the British Free Trade Tariff
with a design to arrange the alcoholic scale
with artiice''-arti Observation-Disclosures
as to favor the entrance of French wines into
England to the detriment of Spanish wines. 1t
is for the British Free Traders to answer this
charge of the EpOca. The conclusion we draw
from this Spanish assault on British Free Trade
is, that any commercial nation is quite right in
throwing overheard Free Trade practically
applied to industry, whenever its adoption is
found to be opposed to its own industrial devel-
opment. In Spain, the staple product, wines, is
driven out of the British market, by the British
Free Trade Tariff. Hence, Spain at once falls
back on a Protectionist Tariff. In the same way,
in our own Hawaiian Islands, the staple product
-sugar-inds a near and profitable market over
the pond with the best prices and sure custo-
mers that pay down on the square, for the sole
condition that we agree to buy exclusively from
them our foreign necessaries. How preposterous
it would be for any people to expect US to re-
nounce these sterling advantages, in Difference to
abstract principles of Free Trade, which, it
appears after all from the case of Spain, may in
their practical application be made &" artfully''-
as the EpOca says-by means of a huckstered
Tariff, to ruin one commercial nation for The 6ene-
fit Of another!
In the Times issue of August Both, there is
another long editorial article on the subject of
the new Spanish Tariff, or rather a running
comment on a Parliamentary paper, containing
the text thereof with an explanatory letter from
Sir John Walsham, the British Charge
d'Afaires at Madrid. As the Times writer is
out of humor about Free Trade, he begins by
calling Sir Johns letter an unsatisfactory
story" which some people might term g poor
spite" Then he tries to derive some selfish con-
ISOLATION from the reflection that "we (the
English) are not the only sufferers France and
the United States are in the same position as our
selves" One cannot help smiling at the cava-
lier way in which the sturdy countrymen of Don
Quixote have treated the three great commercial
nations Of the world. Their discomfort with
France is explained by the demand of their gov
eminent that 1" Spain shall have the treatment
accorded by France to the most favored ma
ton. Their complaint against the United
States is '' that they Omitted States) levy duties
on wines varying according to their alcoholic
strength the same as in England. The Times
writer, in an injured tone, says: "As for our
selves, we make no discrimination among the
countries with which we deal we have the same
eao1o 80 I,k;~z xnlokaro, L oo,okru ~ orini nf
the commodities imported into the United King
DOM" To this the Spanish trader replies You
frame your own scale of duties so as to favor our
competitors in the wine trade, (the French) to our
total ruin. So, to meet your grand Free Trade
policy, ruinous to us-we shall just adopt our
own Protectionist Tarif-without asking your
leave either Thus the matter stands and it
must be owned by the Free Traders themselves
that the framing of the Tariff will always be a
great difficulty in the way of Free Trade itself.
While the British government and the Free
Traders of Great Britain are thus held at bay by
the Spanish Protectionists, a division in their
own ranks occurs to complicate their difficulties.
A movement, it seems, is on foot on the North
American Continent, to establish a Reciprocity
Treaty between the Canadian Dominion and the
United States. This movement will occasion a
smile we think. amongst the supporters of our
own Reciprocity Treaty. The London Times
issue of August 25th has a long editorial article
on this subject. The writer in question refers to
the recommendation of &c the National Board of
Trade at Milwaukee following on that of the
New York Chamber of Commerce, to obtain a
Reciprocity Treaty between Canada and the
United States" The Times writer adds
"If the Dominion and the Union could agree together on the
terms on which the Customs line (between Canada and the
United states) should be abolished, the contamination would
be attended with many advantages to both, and we in Eng
land should certainly not stand in the way of it,"
We think it needless to follow the writer of
the Times any further. Here we find an admis-
sion emanating from the leading official journal
of Great Britain that a British Colony may be
benefited by a Reciprocity Treaty-the grand
principle of Free Trade being conveniently
shelved for the time being. The same writer
remarks go Il the Canadian Delegates assented