It was found by the Financial Relations Commission that Ireland
contributed a revenue in excess of her relative capacity. Mr. Childers,
in his draft report, suggested that practical steps might possibly be
taken to give Ireland relief or afford her equitable compensation in
three different ways--[78]
(1) By so altering the general fiscal policy of the United Kingdom
as to make the incidence of taxation fall more lightly on Ireland.
It was suggested that the taxation upon tea, tobacco, and spirits,
which weigh more heavily on Ireland in proportion to her relative
capacity, because of the habits of the people, and the larger
proportion in Ireland of the poorer classes, might be reduced and a
part of the burden transferred to other commodities. It was,
however, felt, he said, that this would open up questions of such
magnitude--like Free Trade and the incidence of taxation as between
different classes--that it would be inexpedient to urge it, when
the object in view was the solution of a pressing difficulty with
regard to Ireland taken apart from the rest of the United Kingdom.
But that difficulty will be removed under Tariff Reform--one-sided
Free Trade is no longer a sacrosanct fetish--and the case of
Ireland must be taken not as apart from, but as part of, the United
Kingdom. Irish interests, Agricultural and Industrial, can be far
better promoted, furthered, and secured under a scientific tariff
system than under the so-called free trade system, which insists on
the fallacy that identity of imposts means equality of burden, and
concentrates its pressure on the great Irish industries of brewing,
distillery, and tobacco manufacturing; a system which taxes heavily
tea--the great article of consumption--and has brought peculiar
disaster on agriculture. Therefore, the remedy which Mr. Childers
thought impracticable in 1896 will become eminently practicable
with a Tariff Reform Ministry in power.
(2) The second suggestion then made was that there should be a
policy of distinct customs and excise for Ireland as apart from
Great Britain. This would involve a customs barrier between the two
islands. The inconvenience of such a course would be immeasurable
and disastrous under modern conditions. It would certainly come
sooner or later under Home Rule, but it would be a reversal of the
policy of the Union.
(3) The third method which most strongly recommended itself to Mr.
Childers was to give compensation to Ireland by making an
allocation of revenue in her favour, to be employed in promoting
the material prosperity and social welfare of the country.
This is the course which has been pursued by Unionist statesmen, and
finds practical expression in their Constructive policy. The results
cannot be better proved than by the fact that within the six years from
1904, during which the statistics of Irish Export and Import trade have
been kept, her commerce has increased in money value by more than
twenty-seven millions. At least four-fifths of that great increase
represents a corresponding increase in British trade with Ireland.