The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-05-14
BRITISH FREE TRADE
DESPERATE CONDITION OF GREAT
BRITAIN IN 1870.

Ai'htE " ~ p'I u tsitii I'M
provrmcrt Under Az improved system.
very common but utterly erroneous
idea prevails in this country that Great
Britain only gave up the system tech
nically called protection when by means
Of this system she had attained condi.
tions of great prosperity and a substan.
tial commanding position in manufac.
e1gao1'nd
Zho very reverse Is true. The pro-
ysN9te system was given up by Great
.IrItain unu'r The pressure of pauperism
and bankruptcy IN which it eliminated
in the years Immediately preceding
1912, when Sir Robert Peel presented
and carried his first great measure for
the reform of the British tariff.
The origin of customs in England
was in the time of Edward /. Thence
forward duties were added and multi
piled. each rate being devoted to a spe-
cific purpose until III 1884 as many as
fifteen separate duties were levied upon
the same article. In 1887 William Pitt
carried through an act of consolidation
without reducing the number of articles
taxed. This measure left 200 articles
subject to duty, and in order to bring
the act into force 5000 resolutions were
required in the house of In
1897, however, the laws relating TO Gus
toms filled six large folio volumes I'M
provided with an index. The great
subsequent wars rendered nugatory all
Pitts efforts to relieve commerce. Be
tween 1917 and 1915 GOO additional acts
the reign of George Ill the total number
of acts relating to duties on imports was
l..OO. At length taxes became so nu-
merOus that nothing was left untaxcd.
Even premiums offered for the sug2es-
ton of fresh subjects for taxation failed
to stimulate invention.
In 1924, under the lead of Huskis-
Sol several of the crude materials neces-
sary to British industry had been put
into the free list, of which the most I'M
portant was wool. This change had
worked great benefit to both wool
grower and manufacturer: the price of
domestic wool advanced, while the
manufacturer was enabled to reduce the
cost of goods through the opportunity
given him by freedom from taxation on
imported wool to buy, sort and mix his
wool in the most effective manner.
The first decisive step in tariff reform
was brought about in 1910 by the al-
pointment of IA parliamentary committee
ut the instance of Mr.. Joseph Hume.
The condition of the country was then
desperate. The most concise account
of the case is given in Mobiles Fiscal
Legislation of Great Britain" but all
authorities-Liberal and Tory alike
are substantially at an agreement upon
This point. 1t is written that "every in
terest in the country was alike de-
pressed; in the manufacturing district
mills and workshops were closed and
property daily deprecated in value; in
the seaports shipping was laid up useless
in harbOr; agricultural laborers were
eking out u miserable existence upon
starvation wages and parochial relief;
the revenue was insufficient to meet the
national expenditures; the country was
brought to the verge Of national and uni
versal bankruptcy.
THE protective system, which was
supported with a view to rendering the
country independent of the foreign
sources of supply, and thus, it was
hoped, fostering the growth of Il home
trade, had most cffectually destroyed
that trade by reducing the entire popu-
lation to beggary, restitution and want.
The masses of the population were I'M
able to procure food, and had conse-
quently nothing to spend upon British
manufactures. Part of the burden of
taxation rested either upon necessary
articles of food or else upon articles
which were necessary component ina
tcrials in British industry"
At that very time when the protective
system eliminated in the desperate con-
iitions of Great Britain in 1910 it will
be observed that it was at the end of IL
period OF profound peace, which had
lasted over twenty-five years, in which
the personal wealth Of the upper classes
in Great Britain had become immense.
When presenting his first measure OF
tho tariff reform Sir Robert Peel re-
marked, after stating the deficit and the
hhs'll'idi III " ~ V' mt. ot
will bear in mind that this is 10 casual
and occasional difficulty. You will bear
in mind that there are indications among
all the upper classes of society of in
creased comfort and enjoyment. of in
creased prosperity and wealth, and that
concurrently with these indications
there exists u mighty evil which has
been growing up for the last eve years
and which you are now called upon to
meet" This evil was the increasing
poverty and d%cstitution of the great
mass of the working people. The rem
edy was sought in IL redistribution OF
the burden of taxation. The tariff then
covered 100 separate subjects Of taxa
ton, Of which seventeen yielded - per
cent of the rcvcnue-'hc rest were petty
Instructions to m imposed for
tho purpose Of protection with inciden-
tai revenue. That purpose was not,
however, avowcd in these exact terms
at that time, rs il has lately in this coun-
$50 lao tIn. l,r., ~ as Tax