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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

In Answer to Sir H. Vincent (Sheffield, Central)

In Answer to Sir H. Vincent (Sheffield, Central).

Mr. Chamberlain said: I have no official information as to the feeling of the Government and people of Canada in regard to the results of the preferential tariff accorded to British goods. My attention has been called to the declaration of the New Zealand Premier, and it is proposed to discuss the commercial relations of the Empire with the representatives of the self-governing Colonies when they come here for the Coronation.—Times, March 4th, 1902.

The above extracts prove that the promotion of trade within the confines of the British Empire has ceased to be a question of academic interest, and has entered the domain of practical politics. The discussion of this subject by the Colonial Premiers gathered in London in 1897 produced, it is true, no immediate result, but this must not be taken as an indication that the conference page 44 proposed for the present year, 1902, will be equally barren. There has undoubtedly been a growth of opinion in favour of the movement, not only in the Colonies but also in the Mother Country, during the years that have intervened. The protective policy of our chief rivals in trade—Germany and the United States—is undoubtedly hampering the expansion of our commerce, and the figures given on page 47 show that our export trade has ceased to keep pace with the growth of our population. The enormous increase in the national expenditure, largely due to the growth of the permanent annual charges for the army and navy, has shown the need for widening the basis of revenue, and has prepared the popular mind for a reimposition of the taxes and duties upon imports, discarded during the middle years of the last century. The letters of Sir Robert Giffen to the Times and the paper by the same author, entitled "A Financial Retrospect," read before the Royal Statistical Society on March 18th, 1902, may be cited in proof of this change of public opinion.1 Finally, the war in South Africa has awakened the imperial sentiment in all parts of the British Empire, and has paved the way for a closer commercial and political relationship between the Colonies and the Mother Country. Many far-seeing statesmen have declared in the past, that this bonding together of the scattered Colonies and dependencies of the British Empire ought to be the aim of our Colonial and foreign policy; but few realised that the Boer War would prove such a remarkable stimulus to the imperial idea.

The subject of the trade relationships of the British Empire is a large one, and it is impossible to deal with it, in all its aspects, within the limits of this Chapter. In the following pages the writer has therefore confined his attention to one of these, and has dealt alone with the influence that a change in our fiscal policy might exert upon the commerce of the Mother Country. He is aware that the effects page 45 upon the commerce of our Colonies and dependencies are equally deserving of attention. The commerce of the United Kingdom, however, far outweighs in value and importance that of the separate Colonies and dependencies of the Empire, and it is therefore fully deserving of the first place in any careful study of the means to be adopted for promoting trade within the Empire.

1 Times, January 7th, 9th, and 10th, 1902.