PREFACE xv 



all worry and responsibility. In taking the returns for 

 the County of Argyll, it will be found that the rental 

 of agricultural land in 1906-07 as compared with 

 1876-77 is reduced from ,302763 to ^168760, show- 

 ing a loss of "134-003, leaving only 5574 per cent, of 

 the rental of 1876, or a loss of 44-22 per cent. This 

 is very serious, and is entirely due to our bad business 

 system of free imports. The capital loss at twenty- 

 five years' purchase is ,3340-325 : at twenty years' 

 purchase, "2672-260. Then rates have all increased. 

 Poor, Sanitary, Road, and County in 1855 amounted to 

 ^3*345 ; in 1905* including school rates, they amounted 

 to ^77,000, or an increase of 245 per cent, over those 

 imposed in 1855 : surely land is no monopoly, nor is 

 over-rented. 



To the boys of Scotland, to whom this volume is 

 dedicated, I would finally say, you are the trustees of 

 posterity. Tariff Reform in a nut-shell is summed up in 

 the following unanswerable arguments : 



Production is the primary source of wealth. 



The home producer pays local and Imperial taxa- 

 tion, averaging from 10 to 15 per cent, on his 

 produce. 



Imports from abroad pay us no taxation. There 

 can be therefore no protection to the home producer 

 till foreign imports pay the same rates of taxation 

 for the use of the market as the home producer 

 pays. 



At present the foreigner has the protection in this 

 * 





