ISOLATION OF JUGERNATH.
Carlyle has said--“There are thirty millions of people in Great
Britain, _mostly fools_.”
You remind me, my friend, of the Irishman who complained that he
never served on a jury without finding himself associated with
eleven of the most obstinate pig-headed men conceivable.
Are all other nations, except England, obstinate, and pig-headed?
Is the shrewd American blind to his own interest? Are the
phlegmatic Dutchman, the thrifty Belgian, the clever Frenchman,
the philosophical German, simpletons and idiots, as Mr. Bright is
pleased to call all those who do not implicitly accept the gospel
of free trade.
Might not Carlyle’s pithy remark teach a little humility?
No country except England is free-trader. Free trade, at the
present time, after a trial of thirty-eight years, is either an
English, or a barbarous custom. All other civilized nations are
obstinate protectionists; and the worst of it is, that they are
growing more and more obstinate in their adherence to protection,
as they find they are making greater relative advance in prosperity
than England with its free trade. Even Mr. Gladstone himself admits
that “_America is passing us by in a canter_.”
Is not Mr. Gladstone somewhat ashamed to admit that the country,
in the government of which he has had so large a share during the
present century, should be “passed in a canter” by a country so
terribly handicapped by protection. Does not it suggest the idea
that the country which he has governed may possibly have been
misgoverned. “Passed by at a canter!!” What a damning admission of
failure!
His excuse is, that America is a young country with abundant room
for its surplus population; but this excuse, like the majority of
his ingenious evasions, is utterly fictitious.
England, taken as a whole, with its colonies and dependencies, is
two and half times as large as America.[32] She has every advantage
that America possesses.[33] She had a good start, and if she had
only been governed by statesmen of comprehensive grasp, she ought
to have outstripped America in wealth and progress, quite as much
as America has now outstripped us.
If England had but carefully protected the interests of its
colonies and dependencies, studied their interests as identical
with her own, she would now have been foremost in the race.
She drove America from the union with her by her selfish policy,
and she is pursuing the same, or rather far more, suicidal policy
now.
What is the use of the colonies? our Liberal politicians now
cry. What indeed? I echo; so long as free trade neutralizes all
possible benefit to be obtained from them or by them; but, properly
governed, they would have enabled us to do to America that which
Mr. Gladstone admits America is doing to us--“passing us by at a
canter.”
Unfortunately we are lagging in the race with other protectionist
countries, as the following statement will show.
Free-traders compare our wealth and commerce with what it was
before the introduction of free trade, and claim the increase as
the result of free trade. If the claim were just, other nations
ought to have stood still, or retrograded under protection; let us
see if they have done so. The only fair comparison is to take the
condition of each country at a given date; assuming its relative
condition at that date as 100, and then comparing it with its
advance at the present time.
_Relative Advance of Nations._
Commerce generally-- Years 1860 1880
Free trade England 100 to 180
{ France ” ” 205
{ Germany ” ” 197
Protectionist { Holland ” ” 216
{ Belgium ” ” 242
{ America ” ” 201
Exports-- 1860 1882
England 100 to 177
France ” ” 158
Germany ” ” 200
Belgium ” ” 274
Holland ” ” 295
America ” ” 197
Railway Construction-- 1860 1882
England 100 to 176
France ” ” 290
Germany ” ” 322
Belgium ” ” 318
America ” ” 343
Railway goods traffic-- 1860 1882
England 100 to 312
France ” ” 409
Germany ” ” 654
Holland and Belgium ” ” 525
Production of Coal-- 1860 1880
England 100 to 173
France ” ” 237
Germany ” ” 421
Belgium ” ” 170
America ” ” 467
Production of Iron-- 1850 1882
England 100 to 377
France ” ” 498
Germany ” ” 789
Belgium ” ” 377
America ” ” 719
Production of Copper-- 1850 1880
England 100 to 29
France ” ” 212
Germany ” ” 615
America ” ” 750
Consumption of Raw Cotton-- Years 1860 1880
England 100 to 123
France ” ” 158
Germany ” ” 177
America ” ” 234
General Manufactures-- 1860 1880
England 100 to 139
America ” ” 280
Woollen Manufacture-- 1860 1880 1881
England 100 to -- 122
America 100 to 331 --
Number of holders of National Securities-- 1850 1880
England “consols” 100 to 83
France “Rentes” 100 ” 547
Legacy probate value-- 1860 1880
England 100 to 162
France 100 ” 193
Amount of Deposits in Savings Banks-- 1850 1882
England 100 to 267
France ” ” 1912
Germany ” ” 1950
Belgium and Holland ” ” 405[34]
For many years England did not feel the evils of free trade.
She had a good start in the race, with the commerce and markets
of the world in her hands. She had been foremost in improvement
of machinery, having secured her manufactures by a system of
protection, and she was therefore the first to reap the profits of
such improvements. It would naturally take years for other nations
to overtake her, when she had so good a start; but the capital she
recklessly employed in purchasing commodities which might have
been produced at home, was expended in arming foreign nations for
successful rivalry with us.
It was not until fifteen or twenty years ago, that this suicidal
process was sufficiently advanced to tell upon our trade; but
it is now pressing on us with alarming strides, and had not our
industries been saved, by partial suspension of free trade, in the
American and Franco-Prussian wars, we should now feel it still
more severely. As it is, we have not seen the worst. Every day
foreign industries are increasing in magnitude and efficiency,
and consequently must increase in cheapness of production. At
present they have done little more than take up a share from the
markets, which were formerly our own. Soon they will invade our own
country in force. In the present cotton strike in Lancashire, the
employers have given us a reason for the terrible depression of
trade, that cloth manufactures from Belgium can now be supplied to
the print-works in Lancashire at lower rates than the Lancashire
manufactured cloth can be purchased.[35]
You may say the depression of trade is not confined to England,
but exists in America. I admit it, but it is very different from
that which exists in England. With America it is the reaction of
a too rapid increase of new manufacture stimulated by successful
enterprise; in the case of England it is the steady decline of
old-established industries under crushing competition, of which we
have not yet felt the worst.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] Area of the United States = 3,602,300 sq. miles. Area of
England and its dependencies = 8,982,200 sq. miles.
[33] It may be argued that America is a more compact dominion,
but steam and electricity annihilate space, and England’s immense
superiority in area far more than outweighs the advantage of
compactness.
[34] It must be understood that, in all the statistics above given,
“England” and “America” are intended to mean--the United Kingdom
and the United States respectively.
[35] _The Mail_, Dec. 19th, 1883.