Thomas Allnutt Brassey

“ While Colonies are in their infancy their whole resources are needed for their internal development, and it is the duty of the mother country to charge herself with their defence. But our Colonies have now become important self-governing communities, and it appears only reasonable that the Colonial taxpayer should stand shoulder to shoulder with the taxpayer of the mother country, and assume his share of the responsibility for the common defence of the Empire. ”

“ In a paper read before the Colonial Institute in November last, I pointed out that a commercial federation which did not impose a duty on foreign foodstuffs for the benefit of the Canadian wheat-grower, or the Australian meat-producer, would be of little value to our Colonies. Mr. Chamberlain has frankly acknowledged that preferential trade means a tax on food. The question therefore which the British people have to ask themselves is whether there are any reasons which make it worth their while to submit to a tax on the necessaries of life with a possibility of a rise in price. ”

“ That the British manufacturer is being beaten, even in the home market, by goods produced in highly protected countries, is attributed to the superior efficiency of the workshop management and the labour of his competitors; but it is also a proof that free trade is not essential to cheapness of production. Even were the management and the labour as efficient in British workshops as it is represented to be in the United States, it is doubtful whether the British manufacturer can hold his own. ”

“ The population of Ireland consumes a rather large amount, in proportion to its wealth, of spirits, tea, and tobacco. This being so, it does not appear that a fiscal system which raises no revenue from foreign foodstuffs, but does raise a rather large revenue from spirits, tea, and tobacco, is advantageous to the population of Ireland, although it may be advantageous to the population of the United Kingdom, looked at as a whole. ”

“ Customs duties the chief revenue of the ColoniesCommercial federation on the basis of free trade within the Empire is out of the question in the immediate future for the obvious reason that most of our Colonies raise the greater part of their revenues from customs duties, that British goods form a large proportion of their imports, and that it would take time for the Colonial Governments to substitute other sources of revenue which they now derive from duties on British goods. ”

“ A powerful Navy may give us command of the sea, but in the event of war with the United States, the command of the sea would not ensure the maintenance of our food supply. The United States Government by prohibiting the export of wheat to the United Kingdom—and such a prohibition, if the American people were with their Government in the cause of dispute, would assuredly be effective—could compel us to submit to whatever terms it chose to dictate. ”

“ Lecky, as an 'ebullition of intense commercial selfishness.' If we bear in mind that, while during the era of free trade there has been an enormous increase in the commercial prosperity and the material well-being of the people of Great Britain, the population of Ireland diminished to nearly one-half, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the British fiscal policy of the nineteenth century has been as selfish and as detrimental to Ireland as was the policy of the centuries which preceded it. ”

“ The vital importance of an agricultural population.3. 'In the decline of agriculture,' said Bismarck, 'I see the greatest danger to our permanence as a race.' Conservatives naturally wish to prevent the policy outlined by Mr. Chamberlain from being represented as protection to a particular industry. But it is on the agricultural industry that the strength of the nation to a great extent depends; for it is from the agricultural population that the best fighting material, whether for the Army or Navy, is drawn, and that the urban population is recruited. ”

“ The future of British manufacturing industries is as important as that of agriculture; and the fact that during the last ten years of the 19th century the imports into the United Kingdom increased by over 100 millions sterling per annum, whereas the exports of British produce, apart from the increased value of coal, remained practically stationary, does not indicate a satisfactory condition. ”

“ The duties on tea and sugar, which are as much necessaries of life for the people as wheaten bread was sixty years ago, are heavy. The rate of excise duties on beer and spirits has probably reached the limit beyond which they cannot be increased with advantage to the revenue. The late Chancellor of the Exchequer has told us that new sources of income must be found. Expenditure on Imperial purposes is growing rapidly; while for the solution of social problems fresh demands are being constantly made on the public purse. ”

“ The fall in the value of agricultural produce, the large conversions of arable land into pasture, the throwing of land out of cultivation, and the consequent diminution in the demand for agricultural labour have driven workmen from the country into the towns in search of employment, competing with the labour already there, and aggravating all the difficulties of the housing problem with which the social reformer is endeavouring to grapple. ”

“ Such a position is not satisfactory for a great Empire. Since the failure of the Colonial Conference to adopt any arrangement as regards preferential trade, some of the strongest Imperialists in Canada have urged the refusal of any Canadian contribution to Imperial defence (Canada alone of the Colonies has done nothing) until the British people put their food supply on a secure basis. ”

“ From this point of view the larger the amount of foodstuffs we can produce under the British flag, and preferably in the United Kingdom, the greater the equanimity with which we can face the possibility of war. ”

“ There is only too much reason for believing that the decline in the agricultural population and the yearly increasing proportion of children bred and brought up under the unhealthy conditions of town life is having its effect on the stamina of the race. ”

“ The American manufacturer (and the same remark applies to a lesser extent to the German manufacturer) possesses an enormous home market protected by duties well-nigh prohibitive, and through the formation of Trust companies, with their huge aggregations of capital under single control, is able to make an enormous profit on goods sold in the home market. ”

“ I say this because, whenever I have alluded to the subject at the immense number of Liberal meetings which I have addressed in the last three years in the great centres of population in England and Scotland, its importance has been appreciated by my audiences, which have been mainly composed of working men. ”

“ Although the standard for the Army has been reduced to that of a well-grown girl of 16, in Manchester in 1899, 8000 out of 11,000 men who presented themselves for service had to be rejected as physically unfit, while for the three years 1899, 1900, 1901, the percentage fit for service was only 28 per cent. ”

“ Chamberlain and Sir Robert Giffen, the following appear to be worthy of their consideration.
Responsibility of the Colonial taxpayers towards Imperial Defence.1. The burden of defending the Empire is becoming too heavy for the taxpayers of these islands alone. The estate duties from which a large part of our revenue is now derived, press very hardly on a particular class. Many families, by their imposition, have been taxed out of their homes. An income tax of nearly five per cent, on the profits of commerce and industry is a great handicap to British trade. ”