George Webb Medley

“ For some time past incessant attacks have been made on our Free Trade policy. At first these attacks were made doubtingly, hesitatingly; but lately, speakers and writers have become emboldened, the banner of "Protection to Native Industry" has once more been unfurled, and the air resounds with cries for "Reciprocity or Retaliation." This is an astonishing phenomenon to those who understand and appreciate what Free Trade has done, and is doing, for this country. The most striking feature about the agitation is, to their minds, its extraordinary inopportuneness ”

“ During all these years, England alone among the nations has maintained a system of free ports, the only changes in her fiscal policy being in the direction of greater freedom, while other nations, such as the United States, France, and Germany, have raised round themselves the barriers of prohibitory tariffs. With one exception, every conceivable economical condition that could constitute a test of the principles and practice of Free Trade has occurred, the one condition untried being universal Free Trade. ”

“ Then let me ask, what would our Neo-Protectionists say if the products of our industry were annually exported to the extent of 411 millions, and we received back from the foreigner only 286 millions worth in exchange?
Look at the question in yet another light. How can it be otherwise than that our imports should exceed in value our exports? If a merchant export £100 worth of goods, and in exchange for them imports goods worth only £100, he must make a dead loss under the heads of freight, insurance, interest, and profits. ”

“ Why should the bare fact of our importing 411 millions of commodities in exchange for 286 millions be held, ipso facto, to involve a loss?
To get in more than one gives out seems, primâ facie, to ordinary minds, the only way of making a profit! It cannot be pretended that Great Britain stood indebted at the end of 1880 for the excess of imports. ”

“ Until the immense and increasing excess of imports over exports, is considerably diminished, there can be no return of general prosperity. We may for a time draw upon our capital and our accumulated wealth, but for how long? If we cannot get as much for our goods as we are compelled to pay for foreign food, the deluge must be at hand. ”

“ As we have seen from all these facts and figures, it is quite possible that important interests may suffer, and yet that the community as a whole may be prospering. No Free Trader denies, or wishes to deny, that certain interests have suffered.
What the Free Trader asserts is that the nation as a whole is prosperous and thriving, and that the proofs abound on every side. ”

“ Year by year we have more and more of the world's obligations in our strong box.
The fallacy under which our Neo-Protectionists labour lies in the terms "buying of the foreigner," "selling to the foreigner."
They fancy that our imports are what we "buy" and our exports what we "sell;" and, that as there is an excess of the former there is a balance of trade against us, which, somehow or other, out of our wealth, we have to liquidate, and that this process impoverishes the country. ”

“ It is the interest of the community that the keenest competition should reign, so that energy, enterprise, and invention shall have full play, and shall work for the benefit of ourselves and the rest of mankind. ”

“ Our one-sided Free Trade has done all this for us, at all events. And no Protectionist nation can divest us of what we have thus got. And of the advantages we enjoy we cannot be deprived except in one way—by other nations becoming also Free Traders. ”

“ The fact that year after year the money value of our imports vastly exceeds the money value of our exports, and that this excess tends to increase is, to many minds, not only a puzzle, but a rock of offence, and a cause of alarm. ”

“ Free Traders deny these propositions, and, on the contrary, affirm that Free Trade has been, and is, a source of vast prosperity, and an unmitigated blessing to the country, and that Protection has been, and is, a source of loss to those countries which have established it. ”

“ But, the most astounding thing is, that some of the very same facts which are appealed to by one party as evidence of our abounding prosperity, are held up by the other as the certain proofs of our decay! ”

“ There is not a single year, for the last twenty years, in which our imports have not exceeded our exports by at least 50 millions, the amount of the excess in the aggregate being something like 1,500 millions. And yet, at the end of this period, which comprises more than half the Free Trade epoch, and during which the country is said to have been getting rapidly impoverished, he makes out that we have in our strong box 2,000 millions of the world's obligations! ”

“ I speak, of course, of the nation as a whole. Certain interests have suffered, and are suffering. The agricultural interest, and the manufacturing and commercial interests which depend on it, have suffered, and are still suffering, from the combined influences of bad harvests and low prices. But, large and important as these interests are, they cannot be allowed to outweigh the interests of the whole community. ”

“ While, on the one hand, the Free Trader contemplates with satisfaction the position which his country has attained by her commercial policy, and appeals with confidence to the facts which abound on every side, and which, to his mind, verify to the fullest the theories he has embraced; on the other we find a school of neo-protectionists lamenting what seems to them to be the decadence of their country, and appealing also to facts which appear to them to bear out their views. ”

“ At present, as regards cheapness of production, we stand supreme everywhere in all these things. Protection, in this respect, handicaps and kills our competitors. Free Trade would breathe life into them. ”

“ It never seems to strike them that if Protection be once started, it must be extended to all commodities, and embrace all interests. It never seems to strike them that to protect one interest to the exclusion of the rest, is to commit a gross injustice. It never seems to occur to them that the interests, or supposed interests, of a class may be incompatible with, or opposed to, the interests of the community ”

“ No other nation enjoys the advantages which flow from this state of things. We find constantly that commodities are cheaper here than in the countries which produce them. The poor among us are thus enabled to fight the battle of life on the most favourable terms possible. Our labourers are thus fed, housed, and clothed, as cheaply as possible. They are thus enabled to produce cheaply, more cheaply than any other workers; so cheaply that they have become the dread of every Protectionist nation:—so cheaply that ad valorem duties of 50 to 200 per cent. ”

“ We have now had thirty-five years' experience of Free Trade, with their ups and downs of inflation and depression. In the course of these years we have witnessed all sorts of political and social changes. We have seen the overthrow of dynasties, the uprising of peoples, and wars waged on an unprecedented scale. ”

“ That while agriculture remains depressed, trade is reviving, the figures for 1880 and 1881 for England and Wales bringing the fact into strong relief; 2, that as while in 1870 this part of the kingdom had a million of paupers to support, in 1881 it has only 800,000, although the population has in the meantime increased 3,340,000, a marvellous proof of progress; 3, that we appear to be once more embarked on the rising wave of prosperity as a trading and manufacturing nation. ”

“ The reasons which hold against Protection to agriculture apply with tenfold force to other and minor interests. If these interests clash with those of the community they must give way. There is no other possible method of attaining to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. And on no other ground can a Free Trader argue the question as regards Retaliation, or whatever form Protection may take; whatever net gain it might bring to a class, the loss to the community would be much larger. ”

“ The manufacturing organs clamour for protective duties on the foreign products which compete with their own, but scout the notion of taxes on the food of the people, or on the raw material they use. Each one wants his own industry protected, while anxious that freedom shall rule in every other department. ”

“ He says:—"We have about 2,000 millions invested in American and other foreign bonds, and with this we are paying for a large part of the difference between our imports and our exports. We are constantly told that gold is disappearing, and we know that instead of being an importer of the precious metal we are now obliged to export it. The theorists who uphold the wonderful dogma just referred to are lost in wonder over the 'drain of gold,' and are always asking some one to tell them what becomes of it. ”

“ That the fact of a nation's imports exceeding in value the exports, indicates, other things being equal, that this nation is a creditor of some other country.
2. And, conversely, that an excess of exports, other things being equal, indicates that the nation is an indebted nation.
3. That, among the older States, those who are advancing in wealth are gradually increasing their excess of imports, while in those which are economically decaying, there exists either an excess of exports, or a gradual decrease in excess of imports ”

“ That, among the younger nations, the United States stands out, at the present moment, as a great exporter on balance; but that, as she is a heavily indebted nation, she cannot avoid exporting on balance until she has redeemed her obligations, and has recovered her share of the ocean-carrying trade ”

“ It must be contrary to the general interest that the price of any commodity should be artificially raised. To raise prices is, on the one hand, injurious to producers by checking consumption, and thus diminishing the demand for the article produced, and for the labour which produces it ”

“ Ib. p. 288.—To buy more than we sell, and to make that not a mere accident of our trade but its permanent condition—the end above all others to be sought for and desired—this, according to the economists is a most excellent thing for the country. Practical men who look at such matters from a strictly-business point of view, come to a different conclusion. They hold that we cannot persevere in this system without plunging the country into disaster. ”

“ The largest, the most important interest among us is agriculture. If any interest could claim protection as a matter of justice or policy, it is this. But, it was seen that to protect agriculture would be injurious to the general interest, and on this ground the Corn Laws were abolished. ”

“ Under protection America is accumulating annually £165,000,000. Under protection France is accumulating annually £75,000,000. Under Free Trade England is accumulating annually £65,000,000. Many experts maintain that since 1875—1876 she was losing money instead of accumulating. Protective America now exports more than she imports. Protective France imports annually £4,000,000 more than she exports. (The balance against her is £40,000,000 in ten years) . Free trade England imports annually £130,000,000 more than she exports! ”

“ If the competition of foreigners be keen now, notwithstanding the weight they carry in the shape of enhanced cost of production, arising out of Protectionist tariffs, what would it be should the weight be removed? ”

“ At all events, he admits that France imports more than she exports. But, this is in direct contradiction to his fellow in the Quarterly, who, as we have seen, asserts that France exports more than she imports! ”

“ Then there is France, she also should have been sinking deeper and deeper in the slough of despond, for in her case also the exports exceed the imports."
This statement about France is astounding! It is absolutely contrary to fact. In 1880 France, according to the returns, imported in excess 63 millions; in 1879, 57 millions; and in 1878, 43 millions. France is now, and has been for the last five years, an importer on balance, and her annual excess imports are rapidly mounting. ”

“ His notion that the wealth of the United States, and the virtues of protection, are proved by this excess of exports is one worthy of the Neo-Protectionist school, and "a measure of their intelligence." Is our Quarterly Reviewer ignorant, or is he oblivious, of the fact that the United States are largely indebted to Europe, and have to pay a large annual tribute to Europe, in money, or in kind, by way of interest on that debt ”

“ This ought to mean that the Americans are getting poorer, if they are not actually approaching bankruptcy; but they by no means regard it in that light. They like Mr. Bright's praises of their country, at the expense of his own, but they will not have his teaching at any price, and consequently they will go on exporting more than they import as long as good fortune enables them to do so. ”

“ Railways and telegraphs have obviated to a great extent the inconveniences of distance and time. Great perturbations in the standard of value have occurred, the gold discoveries at first causing a general rise in prices. ”

“ Of late years, however, an increasing demand for the metal, and a diminishing supply, accompanied by a partial demonetisation of silver, have caused a disturbance of values in the opposite direction of a general fall in prices. ”

“ That if our threats were effective, other nations would immediately be put on the same basis as ourselves as regards cheapness of production, with a result, probably, anything but pleasant to us as traders, carriers, and manufacturers. ”