312 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



and cheese she requires for the consumption of her people 

 there is not a shadow of doubt. It is but a question of time. 



Then we are told the Protected countries which are our trade 

 competitors import hardly any corn because — they groio their 

 own. Tlieir imports consist almost entirely of manufactures, 

 materials for manufactures and luxuries, on which the pressure 

 of duties is less severely felt than would be the case if they 

 were levied upon the immediate necessities of life. 



This seems to be giving the Free-trade case away with both 

 hands. In the first place, if the imports of Protected countries 

 consist largely of materials for manufacture, it argues that 

 they have a considerable manufacturing industry — in spite of 

 the fact that they groiv their oivii corn and of their ring of 

 tariffs— whioh require to be fed by large imports of ra\\^ 

 material. It further follows that if they can launch into 

 existence and maintain in a state of progressive prosperity 

 large manufacturing industries which, in nearly every instance, 

 exceed the proportionate rate of progression of our own trade, 

 it becomes clear, even to the most casual observer, that these 

 countries found no necessity to sacrifice tltcir agriculture and 

 import their food from foreign States, 



The unpleasant fact, moreover, reveals itself that if these 

 countries could continue to provide themselves with all their 

 own food and, at the same time, create and carry on in pro- 

 gressive prosperity large manufacturing industries — for it must 

 not be overlooked here that most foreign countries had but few 

 manufacturing industries sixty-two years ago — there was not 

 the slightest reason why Great Britain, which at that time was 

 far ahead of any other nation in existing manufacturing 

 industries, should have discontinued growing her corn and 

 other food staples. 



^^ Free-trade ivas therefore a necessity prior to thefidl and profitalle 

 expansion of those industries which have enriched Great Britain during 

 the lastfftg years,''^ * 



said the same Free-trade economist only a year or two ago, and 

 this remarkable idea, which time, and the examples of other 

 nations have shown, contains an elementary economical error 

 of enormous importance, evidently took firm hold of the 

 manufacturer-reformers of Cobdeu's time. 



Foreign Duties less Burdensome than Ours 



Then it further becomes apparent that if the economical 

 condition of these countries enables them to levy duties on a 



* " The Free-trade Movement," p. 132. 



