AGRICULTURE UNDER FREE TRADE, 1846-96. 39 



subject into which I will not enter — the great 

 development of the means, and the cheapening of the 

 cost, of transport from the uttermost ends of the earth, 

 have obviously been a potent factor in bringing food 

 supplies to compete with the products of British land. 

 We know also that in neighbouring countries where agri- 

 culture is protected prices have fallen, and depression 

 has been keenly felt. 



On the other hand, it is also clear that if import duties 

 on corn had been continued they would, to the extent 

 of the duties, have kept prices for corn higher, and if they 

 had been sufficiently high they would have prevented a 

 large breadth of arable land from being laid down to 

 pasture. But just as we know that in the United States 

 the tariff on wool has been a very doubtful boon to 

 farmers, by diverting their attention from other branches 

 of production, and even checking efforts to improve 

 the mutton qualities of their sheep, so it might have been 

 that the live stock and dairying interests of this country 

 would have been stunted in their development by the 

 existence of Protection on corn-growing. And of course 

 it must be remembered that if import duties had been 

 continued on wheat they would certainly have been 

 continued on articles which farmers buy, and we can 

 only speculate about the precise effects upon a particular 

 industry if this country had never adopted Free Trade. 



If I refrain from dogmatising about the past, still more 

 do I hesitate to forecast the future. 



Twenty or thirty years ago it was hardly possible to 

 discuss Protection. Free Trade was elevated upon a 

 kind of pinnacle, as if it were a fetish which it was impious 

 to examine. We have, happily as I think, outgrown 

 that stage. It is now generally recognised that Free 

 Trade is not a divine revelation but a human device, 

 possessing obvious advantages, but having also certain 

 imperfections and limitations. Events of late years have 

 seemed to indicate that the working classes — who in the 



