296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ceded. In July, 1887, Russia increased her duties — wbich were before 

 very high — on the imports of all foreign iron and steel, to a point that 

 is regarded as nearly or quite prohibitory of all imports ; and Germany, 

 which has heretofore had an important market for her iron and steel 

 wares in Russia, and has also been a large purchaser of Russian grain, 

 has now detei'raincd to further advance her duties upon the import of 

 all foreign cereals, her object being avowedly to shut out American 

 as well as Russian competition. Belgium, which for many years has 

 been the typical free-trade state of the world, and which, in 1885, by 

 her Chamber of Deputies, refused to entertain a proposition to restrict 

 the importation of cattle into the country, has since then, and mainly 

 by a recognition of an inability to comjjete with the prices established 

 for meats and grain by the United States and other foreign countries, 

 felt compelled to impose high duties on the importation of all live-stock 

 and dead meats — fresh, smoked, or salted. 



In Sweden and Norway, on the other hand, where, during the past 

 year, an effort was made under similar circumstances to restrict by 

 increased duties the entry of foreign flour and other breadstuffs, the 

 proposition was signally defeated by the return of a large adverse 

 majority to the lower house of the Swedish Riksdag. A new tariff, 

 embodying the extreme protective principle recently adopted by Brazil, 

 imposes high and almost prohibitory duties on the importations of rice 

 and all other cereals produced in the country, and, as Brazil has here- 

 tofore imported annually some two hundred thousand sacks of rice 

 from foreign countries, the disturbance of trade in this particular is 

 likely to be serious. 



The United States having imposed heavy duties on the importa- 

 tions of French wines and silks, France improves on the precedent 

 thus established, and excludes by relatively higher duties the importa- 

 tion into her territories of American pork. The Helvetic Confedera- 

 tion, in negotiating with Germany for a renewal of a treaty of com- 

 merce, broadly intimates that unless the result of negotiations is satis- 

 factory it M'ill take measures to check the importation of German 

 merchandise in the future into Switzerland ; while the tei*mination by 

 original stipulation of a treaty of commercial reciprocity between 

 France and Italy in 1887, has been regarded with feelings of unmixed 

 satisfaction by many persons in both countries, by reason of the oppor- 

 tunity that is to be afforded for mutually increasing the duties on their 

 respective importations. A somewhat striking illustration of the pres- 

 ent drift of popular sentiment in France on this subject is also to be 

 found in the fact, that in July, 1887, the French Government, by a 

 formal decree, absolutely prohibited the future importation of " plants, 

 flowers, cut or in pots, of fruits, fresh vegetables, and, in general, of all 

 horticultural and market-garden produce of Italian origin " ; chestnuts 

 without their shells excepted. 



It is further most interesting to note how, as the idea of the de- 



