Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-15
1.-THE
GERMAN
ADVANCE


BERLIN. August when Colbert. the
great minister of Louis XIV in 1854, re-
vised the French system Of taxation on
the basis of the theory that the labor OF
its people is the greatest asset of a state,
he laid the foundation for modern COM
mercial systems, and. as bi-product. he
produced the doctrine of the protective
tariff Until that time the tariff had
been used only as a means OF raising
revenue and had been levied solely with
respect to how much the king happened
to need. In the two and a half centu-
ries since Colbert's day the tariff question
has been the chief concern Of fiscal legis-
lation in every commercial country. In
that $50 years the protective tariff has
built new nations and has wrecked old
ones; ii has encouraged manufactures
and discouraged agriculture; it has fat
tened the farmers and starved the manu-
facturers: il has fostered commerce ana
IL has killed trade; 1t has caused nations
to go to war and II has prevented wars
one thing or another according to how,
when and by whom it has been USED.
Statesmen of every nation now generally
admit that the German tariff policy, In
the selfish interest of Germany. is the
most scientifically wrought and most
skillfully applied tariff system yet evolv-
ed. The Importance OF the German en-
pire among the nations of the world is
great, not in the ratio of the strength of
its military establishment, but accor ding
to it's industrial and economic condition.
That the German empire now is the most
highly organized industrial nation OF the
world, and that il has attained this SUI
premacy in only thirty years. cannot be
~1aRn nA ~
the German tariff policy.
The zollverein-the German customs
uniOn-was formed in 1893 to put an end
to the restraints laid upon trade by the
excessive tariffs levied by each one of
the twoscore German states and which
practically prohibited general internal
commerce. AS il was the first purpose of
the zollverein to remove restrictions from
commerce. 1t was inevitable that German
fiscal thought should have inclined to-
ward free trade rather than protection.
BY the time the German native industries
had begun thoroughly to recover from
the exhaustion of the Napoleonic wars.
Golden was leading the free trade move
ment in England and was affecting the
fiscal policies of all Europe. as well as
of America.
Thus i'm 1865, when Prussia had gained
the supremacy of Germany. and had ex-
cluded Austria from
Evolution of the the nation. the zoll-
German Policy. wa was CONTROLLED Se't nv
the anti-protectionists, and the tariff re-
vision accomplished at that time making
the formation of the empire economically
certain. was tariff for revenue only.
Bismarck at that time was an earnest adj
vocate of a strict revenue tariff. At that
time Germany was concerned only with
the problem of freeing its commerce from
every possible restriction in order that
trade might exist whether its profits were
small or large Nevertheless, the inclu-
sion of the German states within a tariff
wall, providing absolute free trade for do
mestic commerce and levying the neces-
sary revenue tariffs on foreign trade. had
the result of furnishing some degree of
incidental protection to the nascent Ger
man manufacturers.
After the new empire had been estab-
lished for five years, and II had become
anparent that German union was perma-
nent. and that Internal dissension need no
longer be feared. Bismarck's economic
policy changed from subjective to OBJ
iectiye. Imperial unity assured the pros
perity of domestic commerce. 1t now be-
came necessary for Germany to develop
its industries and to foster and encourages
the nature of the problem before him.
Bismarck, wholly without warning, went
back on his free-trade record and became
an ardent protecionsst. At that time the
will of the Iron Chancellor was law in
the German parliament, and as soon as he
had worked out the details OF his pro-
tective scheme the reichstag passed the
first German protective tariff bill, In May
1879. II Is a curiously interesting coinci-
dence that most writer's Of histories say