184 - STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



have been written " consists in the assertion that my 

 proposal, even if carried out, would be quite inoperative, 

 because, when foreign countries protect any class of manu- 

 factures, they thereby acknowledge that they cannot 

 compete with us in our own or in any neutral markets, 

 and that " by the conditions of the problem it is impossible " 

 that they should do so. 



But the fact that such protected goods are' imported 

 into this country, and do compete successfully with our 

 own, must surely be known to Mr. Lowe ; and I am afraid 

 the most charitable view we can take is, that his article 

 was written with some of that want of consideration which 

 he so confidently alleges against myself. What does he 

 say to the fact that the United States sent to this country 

 in 1877 manufactured goods to the value of 3,559,521, 

 including large quantities of cotton and iron goods, sugar, 

 and linseed oil-cake, although every one of these manu- 

 factures is protected by almost prohibitive duties ? 

 Again, we have paper imported to the value of more than 

 half a million a year, although the manufacture is heavily 

 protected in every country but our own ; and the competi- 

 tion of this protected foreign article, which, according to 

 Mr. Lowe, cannot compete with ours, has yet ruined many 

 of our paper manufacturers. So iron goods of all kinds are 

 heavily protected in France, Belgium, America, and some 

 other countries ; yet iron and steel in various forms were 

 imported in 1877 to the value of over 1.500,000. Our 

 total imports of manufactured goods (including metals) in 

 1877 amounted to 64,635,418 ; and almost the whole of 

 these goods are protected in the countries which export 

 them. Most of them, in fact, are sent to us because they 

 are protected, the manufacturers finding it to their advan- 

 tage to work to the full power of their plant and capital, 

 selling the larger portion of their output at a good profit 

 in the home market, and, with the surplus, underselling 

 us, which they are enabled to do because all the fixed charges 

 of the manufacture are already paid out of the profits of the 

 domestic trade. 



Having thus disposed of Mr. Lowe's main attack, and 

 shown that what he declares to be " impossible " neverthe- 



