Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Through Preference to Protection: An Examination of Mr. Chamberlain's Fiscal Proposals
T is now more than ten years since Protection put off its unsuccessful disguise of Fair Trade and made an appeal to Imperial sentiment by assuming the garments of a Zollverein or Customs Union. It was, however, not a true British Imperial Zollverein which was advocated - not a Customs Union of the German pattern, with a total abolition of internal barriers, and duties against the world outside it, but that pale shadow of a Zollverein - a scheme of preferential trading. The idea of the Preference is that each part of the Empire should remain an independent fiscal unit, and levy such duties for revenue or Protection as may seem good to it, but should relax them in part in favour of the rest of the Empire, thus taxing foreign goods on a higher scale than British goods. To a self governing Colony like Canada, with a protective tariff, it is easy, if not agreeable, to put such a scheme into operation - the machinery exists, and it is only necessary to determine the reduction to be given to Imperial products. For the United Kingdom. To favour Colonial goods at the expense of foreign goods entails an entire reversal of our fiscal policy and the abandonment of Free Trade.
We are at once confronted with the fact that Imperial reciprocity demands two strongly contrasted sacrifices. It demands of us in the mother-country that we should sacrifice Free Trade. It demands of the Protectionist Colony that it should sacrifice Protection against the chief competitor of its manufacturers, the United Kingdom.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
