AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1623 



the amount of the duty. There was nothing in the nature or existing circumstances 

 of the trade to cause any person who understands to believe that this would Iw the 

 case; and, therefore, it would be seen that at present our fishermen labored under d'tnadran- 

 tagts which made it almost impossible for them to compete icilh their rirals in the United 

 States, and that the removal of the duty, ax proposed by this treaty, would be a great boon, and 

 enable them to do a good business where they now icer but struggling or doing a toning trade. 



And the next speaker, after depicting in glowing terms just tbe con- 

 dition of prosperity that the island of Prince Edward is enjoying now, 

 as a result sure to follow from the ratification of the treaty, goes on to 

 say that no men can compete with the provincial fishermen on equal 

 terms, because their fishing is at their own door, and asserts that only 

 an equal participation in the markets of the United States is necessary 

 to give them the monopoly of the whole business. 



Another speaker tells the story of the fleet of Nova Scotia fishing-ves- 

 sels built up under the Reciprocity Treaty, which were forced to aban- 

 don the fishing business when the Reciprocity Treaty ended and a duty 

 was put upon fish. Sjmewhere I have seen it stated that vessels were 

 left unfinished on the stocks when the Reciprocity Treaty terminated, 

 because, being in process of construction, to engage in the fishing busi- 

 ness, their owners did not know what else to do with them. 



Are we to be told that these men were all mistaken that the consumer 

 paid the duty all along that no benefit was realized to the provincial fisher- 

 men from it? Why, even the Reply to the British Case concedes that when 

 the duty existed some portion of it was paid by the provincial fisher- 

 men. It is to be remembered, too, gentlemen, that in considering this 

 question of what is gained by free markets, you are not merely to take 

 into account what in fact has been gained by the change, but the peo- 

 ple of these provinces have acquired, for a term of twelve years, a vested 

 right to bring all descriptions of fish, fresh or salt, and fish-oil, into our 

 markets. Before the expiration of that time the existing duties might 

 have been increased in amount; duties might have been put upon fresh 

 fish; there was nothing to prevent this, and there was every reason to 

 anticipate that if a harsh and hostile course had been pursued towards 

 American fishermen, with reference to the inshore fisheries, there would 

 have been duties, more extensive and higher than ever before, put upon 

 every description of fish or fish-product that could possibly go to the 

 Ujiited States. They gained, therefore, our markets for a fixed term of 

 years, as a matter of vested right. How much their industry has been 

 developed by it, their own witnesses tell us. 



Now, gentlemen, if you could consider this as a purely practical busi- 

 ness question between man and man, laying aside all other considera- 

 tions a question to be decided, pencil in hand, by figures does any- 

 body in the world doubt which is the greatest gainer by this bargain, 

 the people of this Dominion having the free markets of the United 

 States, or a few Gloucester fishermen catching mackerel within three 

 miles of the shore, in the bend of tho island, or for a week or two off 

 Margaree ? Those are the two things. 



But I am not afraid, gentlemen, to discuss this question upon ab- 

 stract grounds of political economy. I said there was no school of polit- 

 ical economy according to which there was any such rule as that the 

 consumer paid the duties. I must trouble you with a few extracts from 

 books on that subject, wearisome as such reading is. Here is what An- 

 drew Hamilton said, one of the disciples of Adam Smith, as long ago 

 as 1791 : 



If all merchants traded with the same rate of duty they experience the same gen- 

 eral advantages and disadvantages; but if the rate of a tax WHS unequal, the inequal- 

 ity unavoidably operated as a discouragement to those whom the higher tax affected. 



