— « 



v-F- ^:w York. 



THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JANUAEY, 1888. 



GOYEKNMENTAL mTERFERENCE WITH PRODUC- 

 TIOIST AND DISTRIBUTION. 



By Hon. DAVID A. WELLS, LL. D., D. C. L., Etc. 

 ECONOMIC DIST[JRBANOE SERIES, No. VIL 



ANOTHER factor of the economic disturbance of recent years 

 (i. e., since 1873), and one which, in the opinion of the members 

 of the British Commission " On the Depression of Trade and Indus- 

 try" (1886), and also of most European writers, has been largely in- 

 strumental in occasioning universal depression of business, has been 

 the increasing tendency among nations to favor and practically carry 

 out the policy, that the prosperity of their respective people can be 

 best promoted by artificially stimulating domestic industries on the 

 one hand, and imposing restrictions on international commerce or the 

 free interchange of products with foreign nations on the other. 



After the repeal of the " Corn Laws " by Great Britain in 1846, and 

 the subsequent gradual abandonment by that nation of its former 

 illiberal commercial policy — followed, as were these measures, by a re- 

 markable development of British trade and industry — the tendency of 

 popular sentiment and the policy of governments throughout the civ- 

 ilized world was unquestionably in the direction of emancipating 

 international trade from all arbitrary restrictions ; and between 1854 

 and 1870 the leading nations negotiated numerous treaties for interna- 

 tional commercial reciprocity for the achievement of this object, and 

 at the same time materially reduced their duties on imports. This 

 movement (as is now almost forgotten), first found expression in the 

 form of positive legislation in the United States, which in 18.54 nego- 

 tiated a treaty which provided for a free exchange of nearly all crude 

 materials, and mutually free fishery privileges with the British prov- 

 inces of North America ; and, in 1857 (by a vote of 33 to 12 in the 

 Senate, and 124 to 71 in the House) reduced its average duty on all 



VOL. XXXII. 19 



