RECIPROCITY THE ESSENCE OF FREE TRADE 



commercial restrictions," &c. Surely this is a very vague 

 and unsatisfactory reason why our home and colonial sugar 

 manufacture should be left at the mercy of a foreign 

 Power. For if the French Government at any time and 

 for any reason still further increase the sugar bounties, 

 they might completely ruin many of our manufacturers. 

 Then, some future Ministry might abolish these boimties 

 altogether, and later, when fresh capital had been drawn 

 to the manufacture in England, it might be again ruined. 

 Are we to submit to this, on account of the shibboleth of 

 what is miscalled " free trade," when the imposition of an 

 import duty of the same amount as the bounty would 

 prevent all such fluctuations ? By this course we should 

 leave to France the full benefit of her natural sugar- 

 prochtcing capacity, only taking away from her the power 

 to cause commercial distress in our country and our 

 colonies by a course of action which is liable to unforeseen 

 changes at the whim of a Minister or a political party. 

 Exactly the same arguments apply to our paper- 

 manufacture, which is injured in the same way by foreign 

 export duties on the raw material and import duties on 

 the manufactured article ; and, on the true principles of 

 free trade, it is entitled to have those duties neutralised, 

 until the countries which impose them think fit to abolish 

 them altogether. 



In almost every civilized country, including our own 

 colonies, the people naturally wish to develop their own 

 resources to the utmost ; and we must all sympathize with 

 this desire. But as they have in the first instance to 

 struggle against old-established industries in other 

 countries, the difficulties and risk are too great to attract 

 the necessary capital, and they therefore endeavour to 

 restore the balance in their favour by means of protective 

 duties, professedly as a temporary resource till the new 

 industry is well established. But Professor Fawcett 

 assures us that, in the United States, in no single instance 

 has a protective duty when once imposed been voluntarily 

 relinquished, but, on the contrary, each case is made a 

 ground for seeking, and often obtaining, further protection 

 and for about a century American protective duties have 



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