Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

"We do not expect perfection either in the New World or in the Old. All we ask is, that when an abuse is pointed out, it may be fairly and openly inquired into, and, if it be proved to be an abuse, honestly abated."-JOHN BRIGHT (Dec. 19, 1845-Speeches, p. 418).

[blocks in formation]

'FREE TRADE: AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF ITS OPERATION

[ocr errors]

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MDCCCLXXXIX

All Rights reserved

Reclass. 9-19-29 M. V.P.

PREFACE.

THE development of free trade may be considered relatively or absolutely. "Free trade under protection" was the system pursued by our statesmen up to 1846. Amongst them, William Huskisson stood preeminent as the first of our commercial reformers. The repeal of the Corn Laws inaugurated an entirely new policy. The principle of free trade, instead of being controlled by the protective system, was left to act without restraint of any kind. It influenced, with varying and not known degrees of power, all those industries which, in course of time, were brought within scope of its operation. It affects our trade and commerce nowadays generally—the exceptions being some few industries "protected" for the purposes of State

revenue.

Now there were certain steps in the process of making trade more free under the system of protection, very liable to be overlooked. The first was the subversion of the policy of prohibition. The second

α

« PreviousContinue »