Show BRITISH F FREE TRADE OPERATE CONDITION OF GREAT BRITAIN IN 1840 popular error on tile tho subject in the h united culled states ITLY the nich kith grew richer udd the poor poorer rapid iro I 1 ro pro ernect under un tau improved sa ertem stein Avery A very common but utterly erroneous idea prevails in this country that grest grent britain only ave up tile the s system tech called protection when by means of this system she had attained condi eions of great prosperity and a substantial commanding pusi position tion in c buies and commerce the very reverse is true tho the protective system ten was vas gi given ven up by groat great britain under tho the pressure of pauperism and bankruptcy iu in which it culminated in the years immediately 1815 1842 when sir robert peel pre presented presente d and carried his first fint great masuro fox foi tile tho reform of the british tariff tile the origin of customs in england was in the time of edward 1 I thence forward duties were added and multiplied each rato rate being devoted to a ape specific purpose until in 1 1784 84 as many as a fifteen separate duties were levied upon the same article arli clo in 1787 william pitt carried through an act of consolidation without red reducing neing the number of articles taxed this measure left lct 1200 articles at subject to duty and iu in order to bring the act into force resolutions were required in tile the house of con commons inions in 17 ua however tho the laws relating to customs filled six large folio volumes un provided with an index indes the cical subsequent wars rendered nugatory nil 11 pitts efforts to relieve commerce 1 be e tween 1797 and 1815 GOO additional act were passed and in fifty three years of 0 the I 1 eign of george III the total number of acts relating to duties on imports was I 1 1300 at length taxes became so I 1 nu berous that nothing was left ini taxed even premiums offered for the sugars tion of f resh fresh subjects tor for taxation failed to stimulate invention in 1824 1124 under the lead of husak son several of the crude materials necessary to british industry had been put nto the free list of which the most im ila was waa wool this chai chaie e had worked great benefit to both wool woo grower and manufacturer the price of if domestic wool advanced while the manufacturer was enabled to reduce the c coit of goods through the opportunity given him by f freedom from taxation on imported wool to buy sort and mis inix hip hi wool in the most effective manner the first fint decisive step in tax iff reform was brought about in 1810 18 10 by the ap of a par lia commit committee teo at the instance of mr joseph hume the condition of the country was then desperate the most concise account of the case is given in nobles fiscal legislation of great britain but all authorities liberal and tory alike ire are substantially at an agreement upon this point it is written that e deiy interest in the country was alike depressed sed in the manufacturing district mills and workshops were closed and property daily depreciated in value in ill the seaports blaip shipping ping was laid up useless in harbor agricultural laborers were eking out a miserable existence upon starvation wages ind and parochial relief the revenue was as insufficient to meet tho thi national expenditure the country was brought to the verge of national and universal bankruptcy the protective system which was a supported with a view to rendering the country independent of the foreign sources of supply and this it was hoped fost fostering cring the growth of a home trade had most effectually destroyed that tirade trade by reducing tile entire population to beggary destitution and want the masses mases of the population were un able to procure food and had bail consequently nothing to upend spend upon british manufactures part of the burden of taxation rested either upon necessary articles of food or else upon articles article s which were necessary component ma serials in british industry at that very time when the protective system culminated in the desperate conditions of great britain in it wil be observed that it was at tuo the end of a period of profound peace which had lasted oi 01 er t twenty cuty five years in which the personal wealth of tile the upper classes in great britain had become immense when his first measure of the tariff reform sir robert peel remarked after stating the deficit arid and the financial difficulties to bo be met you will bear in mind that this is no casual and or occasional cas ional difficulty you will bear in mind that thui e are indications amo among ng all the upper classes of society of increased in comfort an and 1 enjoyment of increased prosperity and wealth and that concurrently with these indications there exists a mighty evil enil which lias has been growing up for the last seven years and which you are now called upon to meet this evil was the increasing poverty and destitution of the great greal mass of the working people the remedy was sought i in n a redistribution ol 01 f tile burden of taxation tho the tariff then covered 1200 separate subjects of taxation of which seventeen yielded 91 01 per cent of the revenue the rest were petty obstructions to commerce imposed for the purpose of protection with incidental revenue that purpose was n not 0 I 1 however avowed in these exact terms it at that time as it has lately in this country by the tha advocates of McKinley ism in the first measure e sir robert peel wholly abated or reduced tho the duty a cosi consistent stent plan on articles aud and also caked an income tax of seven pence on the pound to bo be put upon classified incomes which is a fraction less than a 3 per cent all incomes below being exempt from this in income conle tax ho bo anticipated a revenue of in tho the first year it 3 eded ic 1 conclusively provi proving 13 that under the previous system whilo the poor had born bern rapidly reduced to pauperism the bieh had become richer like causes produce like effects under tho the pretext of protection to tho the miners aas of this country conr try anil and especially 0 ot I 1 pennsylvania a duty has hag lon lony been maintained upon the import of foreign iron ores it is now seventy five cents a ton which is precisely equal to tho the labor cost cs of producing a ton of iron oro ore in in aug to t the sworn ments of tho the iron masters mastera of penn sylv Byl rania ailia by whom its iron mines aio aie worked the result of bf this system in the last census year a year of tile tho greatest greata e activity known was that iron Il miners Liners anil and workmen secured an income of 1259 each amounting in all to al 1141 an 2 9 there are iron masters in the state slate of pennsylvania whose single incomes in a single year have exceeded the w hole sum earned by tho the protected iron miners the effect of the first measure of tari barill 1 reform in great britain that of 1812 was not immediately perceptible the vu nril effect of the previous conditi conditions om being very deep seated but before 1813 1815 the beneficial influence upon every branch of industry agriculture manufactures fac tures and commerce alike had become so manifest that little op opposition was met to peels second great act c of tariff reform of 1815 18 15 by which 4 0 arti cles consisting of tho the crude and partly materials which entered into the processes of domestic industry were nere n ere put on the free list the duties on tho the lessening number of dutiable imports being at the same time reduced and adjusted to those new conditions in III 18 ag tho the irish famine forc forced edthe the abatement of f all taxes on food by orders in council subsequently followed by the repeal of the corn law lit in 1847 sir robert peel left office but tile the immense benefits to every branch of british industry rendered it a comparatively easy matter to bring the tariff substantially to its present condition in 1833 coupled with the I 1 depeal of the navigation laws under the lea lead d of I 1 mr I 1 r G gladstone la d since that date the people of the united states havo have been forbidden by their own acts to compete with great britain in the construction and uso use of ocean steamships while tho the commercial supremacy of the latter is insured by freedom from all restrictions and by virtue of the protection which is given give by the exemption from taxation on all the materials used in construction and in the subsistence of the vessels edward atkinson in new york times |