What Ministers have well ...
The Times, 1824-10-11T00:00:00

What Ministers have well begun, their friends atid those of the country miutt wish they woultl have courage to go on tvith. It is tiue that a breach has been made, though somewhat tardily, in the old systerim ef subjecting com- merce to as sm any taxes as there were tangible substances in the vegetable, mineral, and material world ; but a wide field still renairis open for reformation, and one wvhich the Finance Department of this kingdormi must tnake up its mind to cultivate. If (for examnple) our commercial readers passed over without notice a statement fin the letters recerntly published from Lima, we shall be mriuch surprised It was ihere affirme(d that among the articles which on the restoration of tranquility in Sosuth America wVouldL be rnOrt in deemand for tlre Peruvian and Chliban mnarkets, nIight be reckonecl the glass waare and woollen cloths of Gcernany. The letters appear to take it for granted, that glass of other countries cannot, - from its higlh rhar!e," cotr:e in) competition with lbe German. But wrhy shoul d ,he chari;e be " higher" elsewihere that] in Gezmany ? Why sliou!-i the Cerman glass mnan'rfactu'er, for insztance, 11uieTselltbe Englishman in any foreign rnarket o is it not known that the glass ware of this country equals in quality that of any other in the world ? If, then, the sale of the arti- cle be checked by an excess of price beyondl that of the foreign irmanufacturer, must not the reason be lcooked for in some dliferent cause than that of scarce materials, insufficient capital, or inferiorskifll , At the C'ustori-house, we dare say, an instructive explanation mighT be afforded of this preference given to German inidustry over Bri- lish. Enorimious excise duties, it is notorious, aie levitd here on the beautiful and most uisetil fabi ic under coiisid,r- ation ; anid inot havilig the thiek volutne u)' Cutuin-lhuuse law before Us, we do not bear in .neinYory how invucitl, or whiether any, trawback is granted upuo thie expol iatiuv uf the at ticle; but the mortifying fact is, it seeirs, Iewordedl that Germany-poor, slow, cllnsy Gernnany_beats Eng- lalani out of competition with her in a mnainuftcture which England has brougilt to as high pirfe-tion as any othcr country on the globe, an.l in a inarket which it behoves thlt British nation tO occupy bofore every other. So vith broadl clotls. Iow cotnes it that in one of our great eta plc ma- nUfactutres, the Saxotis should outsttip us in the favoar o0 taste of the South Americans 'lVWhy, it is the paradox andl humbug thatl have been played off by our systren of taxa- tiotn upon the various growths of wool: on one side we have ha(l a tax u;on the imported lforeign article, to please thst Country G(:entlemel ;-Prr Contra, there is another tax on the native article exported, to appease the jealousy of the clothirr. 11'e have encouraged this great staple trade by niarrowinig, ott both sides, the supplv of the raw mnaterial WVe scare, in the sdzne breath, tle farimer foiti qrowing and the merelLant fromi buying wliat the farn,er *loes not -growI ! It is true, again, that it' thesc taxes upon glass atid cloth were one and all removed from the statute-book to- norrow, still the two artielsa affectd by themn ight be undersold by foreigners nay invrre, they will be so, it' Mr. RItiiiNSON does not speedily IUok aabout lli.lla th,' fbrei,n jounicyinati eats at less expenise, arid eaii thertfore i atisagte to wvork for less wages thani the miore deitrous aliti in- telligeit Etnglishmnan. But thli advantage on- tho side of the fbreiginer is,t in its nature, permalaneit, while that of' our couinrytman diminislles every tlay. 'Ilhe G er- man ac(luires more ktnowledge Vitlh experience, amid cnii- lates the Englrshiuaia, at last, in skill atil iin dexterity while, un'ortutlatcly, the English workman conitiues pretty stationary in point of stoinach: expeieiLce rdoes not refite his appetitce, so as to content itself with a smaller loaf; he camisot, theretfore, the price of' bread being th(e saine, retrograde in the price of labour, as the foreignei ad- vances in its quality. This comes of tihe corn la''s. It i vain to talk about the reductiott of' this tax or that. Loweer the iinpost oil all goods whatever-lighten your raw mate- rials of every incumbrance, at(I lower them tO their origi- nal cost: tile exp)eniuIent must prove a miserable failure, utitil the great atid primary raw material-that which citers irmto the composition, and deeeides the cost of every ttiallufactured substance-cven f'ood itself-tlio sprinig ol all power, and action, and prosperity, shall be brought for the British workman to the saine terms coni which it is procured by the Frenchll-lan, the Flemitig, or the Germlani. That, in plaiti Englisli, is the '1 righlt nail to drive." Those well-born monopolists, the Country Gentlemen, mnst give way to the common sense an(l gcneral interests of the na- tionl; for ilever can we have twelve months' security for thie flourislhing state o' any one manufacture, or against the dle- clisc of every one of them, with that of our comrmerce an(i marine besides-never will the proprietors of land them-. selves ascertain the true and itttrinsic value of their acres, until the clogs and barriers raised with so mach barbarous ingenuitv between the loaf and the poor mati's mouth, shall have been abolished; and the English artisan permitt;d to get food like the rest of the world.