238 



"Tlip fiTp-triuli'is Vclipvo — and tliis is tlic fdiiiulation of tlioir doetrinr — that wlien tlu' iiiipnrt 

 duty (111 an artii'lf ol' tovcit;!! nii'iclianilizo is ri'ihu'cd, tliis icdiictidn ol' taxes will at cauv cause an equal 

 diniinutiiin in tlie ]iriee ot tlie niereiiaudize in the luaikcl, and an e<nial savin^t to tiie imi-cliasev. In 

 theory tliis ennseiiaeuee is just, iu practiee it never lai\i's plaee. It the rcducliim is eonsideralile, a 

 pan, auil that far liie smallest, jirolits the eonsuuier. the larj^er portion is divided between the l'urei;,'n 

 proilueer and the several intermediaries. If (he redaetion is small, these last entirely ahsorh it, and 

 the real consmuer, he who makes the artiele underijo its last iransformation, is in nowise lienelited. 

 The real eonsnmer of wheat is neither the nnller nor the haker, hut he who eats tlu' liread. The 

 real consumer of wool is neither the dra]ier nor the tailor, I'Ut he who wears and nr.es the clothes. 



" This discre]iancy between the variatimis of Cnstom-house duties and the sellili;,' jirices, cannot 

 be denieil, and since tlie Coinnii'rcial Treaty the experiment lia-s been tried. All proliibitiuns ba\e been 

 removed, and all duties tediiccd ; but what article is there the ]irice of which has been sensibly lowered 

 for consumption^ When economists demanded the flee imiioitalion of foreij;n cadle, tliey lioped to 

 see the ]irice of meat lowered, and for the same reason the a;,'iiculturists resisted with all their 

 strunj,'tli." 



•' As s<ion as the duties were removed, the ^'ra/.iers from the northern and eastern de]iartments 

 liasti'Ued to the market on the otlu'r side of the frontier; but the selli'is were on their Liuard ami liehl 

 firm, and, competition assislin;,' them, prices ro.se instead nf falliiii;'; all the advanla;.^e dfihe reduction of 

 duty was Ibr foreign raisers of cattle, and meat is deanu' than ever. Tin' same result followed in reterence 

 til the woiils of Aljiiers, and on this point I can i,'i\e the ojiinion of the head of one uf the oldest luaises 

 in Marseilles, an enemy, mnieover, to pioiectiim, like all the merchants of seaport towns : — ' When '.he 

 dutii's on Al.uerian wools were removed,' he said to me, ' c'c />iiji/iii.-.iil tlml tliU irim/d inn.si ironl la mil 

 I'lii-djiir ill Frmiic, hut /Iir anilrnri/ linp/n mil. There was mole ea_L;eniess for piircliasin;^ in Africa ; 

 there was more coiii]ietition, and the dillereiice in the duties was emjiloyed in jiayinj; more for the 

 Wool to make sure of f,'ettini,' it. II in nut. tlini, lh( Frnich iiuiiiii/iii'tiiir.r irlm /«(.< iirnjiUil hi/ tin- 

 rfiiioriil i)f iliiliiii, it in till' Aiiih iiliiiic' Thus the interest of the consumer, about which so much 

 noise is made, far from beiufi; the primijial element in the ipieslion, only pluys a sucoudury purt, since 

 the reduction in the t irilf only prutit.s hiiu in a small measure." 



Now we afc in a condition to understand precisely flic meaning of what one 

 of our witnesses said, Mr. Pew, that the price ol mackerel to the man who bought 

 one mackerel at a time and ate it, had not changed for ten years; that it was a very 

 small purchase; tiiat the grocer who sold it to him would not lessen the price if 

 mackerel went down, and would not raise the price if mackerel went up; that it 

 kept to him uniform ; so that alter all the question has bcjii a tjuestion where the 

 greater or less |)ro(it accrued to parties who handled the mackerel. 



If ever there was a case where it was impossible to transfer a duty once paid 

 by a man who catches iish and brings it to market, so that its incidence woidd fall 

 on the consumer, it is the one we are dealing with. Why so? Yoti cannot raise 

 the price of m^' kerel very much, because its consumption stops when you jret tibove 

 8 or It) dollars, at the highest, a l)arrel. People will not eat it in larger quantities 

 uidess they le induced to do it because it is chea|)est procurable food. That is 

 one retisoii ., hy the duty cannot be put on to the price. There is another reason why 

 it cannot be added to the price — a perfectly conclusive one, and that is, that not 

 more than one-fourth or a less part of the supply — it has been assumed in tiie 

 (|uestions as one-fourth, is imported and sid)ject to the duty. I do not care what 

 fraction it is, whether one-third, one fourth, or one-lilh, not more than a small frac- 

 tion of the mackerel that is in the markets of the United Stales at any time comes 

 from the Provinces; and in ortler to get the price u|) to a point that will reimburse 

 the E^rovincial fisherman who has paid a duty, you must raise the price of all the 

 mackerel in the market, must yoti not? That is pirlectly plain. If there are 

 ])etwecn ;<0(t,(J()0 and 4()(),(/00 barrels of mackerel in the United States, and 3(i,000 

 40,00 ■, 50,0(10, (>0,C0(), 70,000, Kl),(i(io, or 100,000 of them are ta.\"d 2 dollars a barrel, 

 do you think it is going to be possible to raise, by the tax on the Provincial catch, the 

 price of the whole |)rodtictioii in the market? if that could be done, it might come 

 out of tlie consumer, and then it would be a benefit to our fishermen, and an injury in 

 the end to our consumers. Hut it cannot be done. The price cannot be raised ; the 

 fraction is not large enough to produce any perceptible influence upon it. So the 

 result has always been, and they i ;r)w that it was so before and must be so again, 

 that s^uch a duty cuts<lown their profits to the tpiick. It cuts theiu down so that the 

 business must be abandoned, a'.id takeaway the United Stales' market, as you wouU^ 

 take it away if a higher turilf was imposed, and the fishing business of the Pro* 

 vinces would gradually die out of existence. It is not the case — lei me repeat it, 

 because there tins been so much apparent sincerity in the belief that the tax would 

 come out of the consumer — it is not the case of a tax put upon the whole of the com- 

 modity, or (he greater part of the commodity, but it is a tax put upon the smaller 

 jiart of the commodity in the only market to which both piotiiuers areeoiifined ; and 

 )ou might just as well say, if twti men mudo watches, one here and one in Uoston, 



