Transactions of section p. 703 



would be paid by the manufacturers and consumers of tlie United Kingdom, and a 

 very insignificant part by the other parts of the Empire. 



2. So far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the tax would fall almost 

 exclusively upon imports of food and raw materials of manufacture, the very 

 articles which it is most vital to British industry to procure from the cheapest and 

 most convenient markets ; whilst in the other parts of the Empire it would fall 

 almost exclusively upon manufactures the importation of which it is the policy of 

 the Colonies to discourage. 



3. The Colonies and other parts of the Empire would gain enormously by a 

 tax which raised the price of food and raw materials in the markets of the United 

 Kingdom, vv^hilst the United Kingdom would gain comparatively little by any tax 

 which raised the price of its manufactures in the Colonies. 



Secondly, there is the proposal embodied in the resolution of the New Zealand 

 Government of December 1901, in favour of the Colonies giving a rebate of duties 

 on British- manufactured goods carried on British-owned ships, and the Mother 

 Country giving a rebate of duties on colonial products now taxable. 



1. There can be no objection to the Colonies showing their good will to the 

 IMother Country by reducing their tariffs in favour of the products of the Mother 

 Country ; but what can the Mother Country do in return ? 



2. Preferential tariffs therefore, if there is to be reciprocity, necessarily involve 

 the Mother Country putting on taxes on her imports of food and raw materials for 

 the sake of remitting them in favour of her Colonies. 



3. This would involve a tremendous disturbance in our manufacturing system 

 and our foreign trade, and a rise of price all round in our food and raw materials. 



4. It would also involve us in difficulties with those foreign nations which 

 concede to us by treaty the most-favoured-nation treatment for our exports. 



5. The effect of the rebate of duties already conceded to us by the Dominion of 

 Canada does not encourage us to expect any great results from such rebates 

 elsewhere. 



6. Our whole commercial and fiscal system is founded upon principles of Free 

 Trade ; that of the Colonies is founded on Protection. The proposal under con- 

 sideration practically comes to this : that instead of the Mother Country, as in old 

 times, dictating a commercial policy to the Colonies, the Colonies should dictate a 

 commercial policy to the Mother Country. 



3. The Effects on Ireland of the Adoption of Free Trade hy the United 

 Kingdom. By Benjamin Allen, M.A. 



The principles of Free Trade have passed through many changes in public, 

 and even in scientific estimation. The refusal of the civilised world to abandon 

 the Protectional policy is among the causes which have led to this change, for 

 the prediction that the world would soon follow Eugland's example has not been 

 fulfilled. Another cause is the state of Ireland. This country shows a rapidly 

 decreasing population, while the progress of England in population and wealth 

 during the last half-century has been enormous. So far as Ireland is concerned 

 there IS ample proof that Free Trade has had some very important results. At 

 the time of the Union the population was a little more than five millions; 

 in forty years it rose to more than eight millions, and these eight millions of 

 people lived in a considerable degree of comfort, as they understood it. Ireland 

 was at one time a wheat-growing country. Its native Parliament encouraged 

 this industry by bounties on exports and inland carriage. One result was a 

 rapid increase in population. In the thirty years preceding the Union and in the 

 forty-six years from the Union to the repeal of the Corn Laws, Ireland was the 

 granary of England. It now imports grain of all kinds. This revolution in 

 the economic condition of the country was the result of the adoption of Free 

 Trade. Irish wheat ceased to have the monopoly of the English market. Mr. 

 Lecky states that the chief cause of depopulation of Ireland was the conversion 



