They conceived that the best way to increase foreign commerce is to encourage the industry of foreign nations by admitting at low duties their produce. They complained that the system of restrictive commerce had been followed by the governments of other nations; and they expressed their opinion that whatever might be the perseverance of other nations in this system, the British Government should begin a more liberal and wise commercial policy without regard to reciprocity of benefit between us and any particular nation. These were noble sentiments, reflecting the highest honour on a city which, though not so conspicuous for trade as London or Liverpool, has nevertheless been always distinguished by its learning and sagacity.

The presentation of these petitions to both Houses of Parliament was attended with the happiest effect. A committee of the House of Commons was appointed to enquire into the means of improving and extending the foreign trade of the country; and a Royal Commission was appointed to examine and report on the routine of business of the customs; on the warehousing system, on the management of customs in Scotland, and the outports; on the import and export department of the excise; and on seizures in the excise department. The session being far advanced, the committee had not sufficient time to exhaust the enquiry; but they conferred a great service by exposing the numerous restrictions which fettered the trade of the country, and their report laid bare important facts for further consideration. The restrictions then in force had been imposed for the improvement of British navigation and the support of the British naval powers; for the purpose of drawing from commerce, in common with other resources, a proportion of the public revenue, and also to afford protection to various branches of domestic industry with a view to securing for them the internal supply of the country and a monopoly of the export trade to the several colonies. Upwards of a thousand laws were, moreover, in force, hindering trade in every direction, and upon a review of all these circumstances the committee had no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that by far the most valuable boon that could be conferred on trade was freedom from all these interferences, as unlimited at least as was compatible with what was due to the vested interest, which had grown up under the existing system. This the committee recommended, and they concluded their report with a brilliant passage entirely subversive of the principle of protection and of the grounds on which it had hitherto been defended. The time when monopolies could be

The committee consisted of Mr. Frederick Robinson, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Tierney, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Baring, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Thomas Wilson, Mr. Irving, Mr. Canning, Mr. Finlay, Mr. Wilmot, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Althorp, Mr. Wallace, Lord Milton, Sir John Newport, Sir N. W. Ridley, Mr. Keith Douglas, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Sturges Bourne, Mr. Astell, and Mr. Alexander Robertson.

successfully supported, or would be patiently endured, either as respects subjects against subjects, or particular countries against the rest of the world, seems to have passed away. Commerce, to continue undisturbed and secure, must be, as it was intended to be, a source of reciprocal amity between nations, and an interchange of productions to promote the industry, the wealth, and the happiness of mankind. If it be true that different degrees of advantage will be reaped from it according to the natural and political circumstances, the skill and the industry of different countries, it is true also that whatever be the advantages so acquired, though they may excite emulation and enterprise, they can rouse none of those sentiments of animosity or that spirit of angry retaliation naturally excited by them when attributed to prohibitions and restrictions jealously enacted and severely maintained. They feel that a principle of gradual and prospective approximation to a sounder system as the standard of all future commercial regulations may be wisely and beneficially recommended, no less with a view to the interests of this country than to the situation of surrounding nations. Upon them the policy of Great Britain has rarely been without its influence. The principles recognised and acted upon by her may powerfully operate in aiding the general progress towards the establishment of a liberal and enlightened system of national intercourse throughout the world, as they have too long done in supporting one of a contrary character by furnishing the example and justification of various measures of commercial exclusion and restriction. To measures of this nature her pre-eminence and prosperity have been unjustly ascribed. It is not to prohibitions and protection we are indebted for our commercial greatness and maritime power; these, like every public blessing we enjoy, are the effect of the free principles of the happy constitution under which we live, which, by protecting individual liberty and the security of property, by holding out the most splendid rewards to successful industry and merit, has in every path of human exertion excited the efforts, encouraged the genius, and called into action all the powers of an aspiring, enlightened, and enterprising people.'

Mr. Wallace, the chairman of the committee, on June 18, 1820, brought up the report of the committee. He spoke of the evil effects of the navigation law, of the restricted nature of the warehousing system, and of the multiplicity of acts trammelling the action of the merchant, and concluded his remarkable address with these words:-It had been a reproach to us among foreign nations that our mercantile system was so full of restrictions against them that they were compelled in self-defence to impose similar restrictions against us. I trust, however, that it will be so no more; and if we should still be compelled to continue any of our present restrictions, either from the pressure of taxation, our

compacts with foreign nations or with our own countrymen, or from any other cause whatsoever, it will be understood that we do so from a principle of justice, that it is a sacrifice to our sense of duty, that it is a matter not of option but of necessity, and not caused by any ideas on our part of promoting our own commercial interests by it; and whatever may be the exclusion or restrictions which foreign states may think it expedient to keep up upon trade, they will no longer have the opportunity of justifying themselves by saying, "Such is the example and such the conduct of England.

The Royal Commissioners on the customs and excise likewise made some excellent reports. On the subject of warehousing they said that the practice of warehousing certain goods commenced in 1714, tobacco, rum, rice, and foreign sugars being permitted to be warehoused, for a limited time, without the payment of excise or customs duty. The regulations were intended to relieve merchants from the inconvenience of paying the duties on goods which were ultimately to be sent to a foreign country. The plan of rendering Great Britain a place of deposit for merchandise in general was not then in contemplation. Up to 1820 the system adopted was partial as to the ports where goods might be landed and warehoused, and as to the particular articles which might be landed and warehoused in any such privileged ports. From that time, however, a general law was passed, allowing goods imported to be deposited in public warehouses at a reasonable rent, without payment of the duties on importation if they are re-exported, or if they are ultimately withdrawn for home consumption without payment of such duties until they are so removed or a purchaser found for them,

CHAPTER II.

MR. HUSKISSON'S COMMERCIAL REFORMS.

Mr. Huskisson's Policy.-The Navigation Laws.-Trade with Asia, Africa, and America.-European Trade.-Plantation Trade.-Mr. Huskisson's Colonial Policy.-Retaliatory Measures.-Reciprocity Treaties.-Depression of the Silk Manufacture.-Reduction of Duties on Woollen, Iron, and other Manufactures.-Raw Materials.-Timber Duties.-Differential Duties.Mr. Poulett Thomson's Declarations of Free Trade.-Trade with the East Indies.—Appendix: Taxes Reduced or Repealed, 1823–25.

MгCH required to be done in order to develope the resources of the country after the severe straining to which they had been subjected, and earnestly did the Government and the nation give themselves to the work before them. Fortunately for the inauguration of the new policy, the president of the Board of Trade under Lord Liverpool's administration was Mr. Huskisson, a man well trained for the onerous duties of his position by his earnest studies in political economy, by his former residence in France during the first years of the turmoil of the Revolution, and by his services in other departments of the state. And now the agreeable task is before us of examining the steps he took for gradually liberating trade from the many trammels by which it was clogged.

First and foremost demanding consideration stood the navigation laws, which, although political in their scope and origin, interfered more or less with the whole trade of the country. Even after the political motive had ceased to exist, a narrow commercial jealousy for the Dutch had supported the navigation laws. merchants and shipowners, then representing one and the same interest, could not bear to see Dutch ships carrying both British and American produce into the very ports of England. They conceived it a grievance that Dutch ships should be freighted at lower rates than English ships, and they did not admit that the consumer had any right to get the produce of the world brought home as cheap as possible. Therefore, as a check to the growing prosperity of the Dutch, and for the encouragement of British shipping, the Legislature enacted that no goods or commodities whatever, produced or manufactured in Asia, Africa, or America, including the British colonies, should be imported into this country or into the colonies except in British ships. But Dutch ships regularly visited France, Germany, and other countries in Europe, to find freights for Eng

land; and from this trade also they must be excluded by providing that no goods or manufactures of Europe should be imported into Great Britain or her colonies except in British ships, or in ships of the countries to which such produce belonged. The Dutch often did the people of this country the good service of bringing in fish of their own catch, but to take such fish was to encourage Dutch fisheries. Therefore, no fish should henceforth be imported except those caught by our own fishers. Of course the people-the consumers-suffered by these restrictions, and complained; and a war with the Dutch was the immediate consequence; but that was not worthy of a thought if at any cost British shipping and navigation increased. And thus, for more than one hundred and fifty years, the navigation laws remained in the statute book.

The

The moment, however, the committee of the House of Commons began to enquire into the causes of the depression of commerce, the working of the navigation laws became most apparent, and some amendment, if not their total repeal, was felt to be absolutely necessary. The navigation laws provided that all goods imported from Asia, Africa, and America' should be in British ships, and that the produce of those countries should not be imported in an unmanufactured state from any parts of Europe. But it had long been found perfectly impossible to maintain these provisions. first part of this restriction was given up in 1796, when the ships of the United States were permitted to bring the produce of their own country direct to Great Britain.2 In 1808 the same privilege had to be granted to the inhabitants of the Portuguese possessions in South America or elsewhere.3 And again, in 1822, Mr. Huskisson extended the exception in favour of countries in America or the West Indies being or having been under the dominion of Spain.1 The second part, providing that the produce of Asia, Africa, and America should be imported only from the place of its production,

No goods or commodities whatsoever of the growth, production, or manufacture of Africa, Asia, or America, or of any part thereof, or which are described or laid down in the usual maps or cards of those places, (shall) be imported into England, Ireland, Wales, the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, or town of Berwickupon-Tweed, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or of the lands, islands, plantations, or territories in Asia, Africa, or America to his Majesty belonging, as the proprietors and right owners thereof, and whereof the master and threefourths at least of the mariners are English (12 Car. II. c. 18, s. 3).

No goods or commodities that are of foreign growth, production, or manufacture, and which are to be brought into England, Ireland, Wales, the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in English-built shipping, or other shipping belonging to some of the aforesaid places, and navigated by English mariners as aforesaid, shall be shipped or brought from any other place or places, country or countries, but only from those of the said growth, production, or manufacture, or from those ports where the said goods and commodities can only, or are, or usually have been, first shipped for transportation, and from none other places or countries (12 Car. II. c. 18, s. 4).

237 Geo. III. c. 97.

351 Geo. III. c. 47.

43 Geo. IV. c. 43, § 3.