Part 6 (1/2)

With regard to the figures for cotton in the above table, it is only necessary to remark that the British manufacturer, whether for sale abroad, or for sale at home, is clearly working up more stuff than ever before. The figures for wool have already been explained. With regard to coal, the figures necessarily include both domestic and industrial consumption; but whichever be the more important element, the totals are remarkably healthy.

PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC EXPENDITURE.

An even better test of the increased spending power of the nation is furnished by the figures giving the rate of consumption of such articles of everyday use as tea, sugar, and tobacco. It will be seen from the following table how rapidly our national consumption of these staple articles has increased during the past decade-the decade of alleged ruin:-

TEA, SUGAR, AND TOBACCO.

-------------------------+-------------------------- | Lbs. consumed by every | 100 persons.

Year ending March 31st. +-------------------------- | Tea. | Sugar. | Tobacco.

-------------------------+------+--------+---------- 1876 | 451 | 6,078 | 147 1886 | 465 | 7,028 | 144 1896 | 574 | 8,916 | 169 -------------------------+------+--------+----------

It is useless to worry the reader with further figures. Evidences of the prosperity of the country are around us on every side for those to see that have eyes to see-a higher standard of dress in every cla.s.s of the community; better built and better furnished houses for artisan and labourer, as well as for millionaire; new public buildings, new libraries, new hospitals; improved paving, improved water-supply, improved drainage; more newspapers, more theatres, more lavish entertainments; in a word, a higher standard of comfort or of luxury in every domain of life.

CHAPTER VI.

LET WELL ALONE.

The preceding chapters have been mainly statistical. Their object has been to show, by producing the best evidence available, that alarmists like the author of ”Made in Germany” have no real ground for their fears, that British trade is not going to the devil, but that, on the contrary, the nation as a whole is in a condition of marvellous and still rapidly-growing prosperity. If that be so, if there be no disease, then obviously is there no need for the remedy which Mr. Williams and other Protectionists are anxious to foist upon the country. But though that conclusion will be sufficiently obvious to most minds, there are among us hypochondriacal persons who never think that they are quite well, and these unfortunates will still hanker after some patent medicine to cure their imaginary ills. It is worth while, therefore, briefly to point out how utterly unsuited to our alleged ailments, even if they existed, is the remedy which the Protectionists propose.

THE CASE FOR PROTECTION.

Personally I am not a fanatical believer in Free Trade, or, for that matter, in anything else except the law of gravitation and the rules of arithmetic. I am quite willing to admit that there are circ.u.mstances under which a Protectionist tariff might be advantageous to a country.

But the practical question is whether, under the present circ.u.mstances of Great Britain, Protection is likely to bring any advantage to her. In dealing with that question I will venture at the outset to deny that Protection has been any real advantage to Germany. The Protectionists are fond of arguing that the heavy import duties which Germany levies on British goods have enabled German manufacturers in the first place to secure their home market, and in the second place to build up an enormous export trade at our expense. The argument is plausible, but it suffers from one fatal defect: it is unsupported by facts. As one reads the writings and listens to the talk of Protectionists, one's mind becomes unconsciously saturated with the notion that British trade is rapidly declining and German trade as rapidly increasing. It is upon this implied proposition that all their arguments are based; this is the primary postulate upon which rests their whole house of cards.

THE ALLEGED EXPANSION OF GERMAN TRADE.

But what are the facts? I have looked carefully through the figures showing the progress of German trade during the last ten or fifteen years, and I can discover no difference in character from the figures which show the progress of British trade. Let the reader look for himself. He will find the figures for fifteen years set out in the following table, and a diagram to ill.u.s.trate them. Let him notice that what is called the _entrepot_ trade, consisting of goods merely pa.s.sing through the one country or the other, is in these figures excluded from the comparison. Thus ”British imports” here means the total imports into the United Kingdom, _minus_ those goods which are subsequently re-exported; ”British exports” means all articles of British production exported from the United Kingdom. The same interpretation applies to the German figures, all goods in transit through Germany one way or the other being excluded. The comparison is therefore complete. And what does it show? That, so far from Germany's export trade increasing by leaps and bounds, while ours is steadily declining, German trade has followed, though at a lower level, the same general course as British trade. Therefore, whatever else Protection may have done for Germany, it certainly has not improved her export trade as compared with that of the United Kingdom. An even more striking demonstration of the utter hollowness of the Protectionist case can be seen when we turn from exports to imports. If Protection is to do anything for a country it must at least diminish imports from abroad while increasing exports from home. That is the whole object of Protection, the great ambition which every Protectionist statesman sets before him. Has Protection done this for Germany? Once again let the reader look for himself at the figures and the diagram. He will see that while German exports have remained stationary, German imports have very largely increased, and moreover that their increase has been relatively greater than the increase of imports into Free-Trade England.

BRITISH AND GERMAN TRADE COMPARED.

Fifteen Years' Imports and Exports, exclusive of Goods in Transit.

In Millions Sterling.

-------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--- |1880|'81|'82|'83|'84|'85|'86|'87|'88|'89|'90|'91|'92|'93|'94 -------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--- Brit. Imports| 348|334|348|362|327|313|294|303|324|360|356|373|360|346|350 Brit. Exports| 223|234|242|240|233|213|213|222|234|249|263|247|227|218|216 Ger. Imports| 141|148|156|163|163|147|144|156|165|201|208|208|202|199|198 Ger. Exports| 145|149|160|164|160|143|149|157|160|158|166|159|148|155|148 -------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

These figures may be ill.u.s.trated diagrammatically as follows:-

[Ill.u.s.tration]

WOULD PROTECTION HELP US?

So far, therefore, as Germany is concerned, Protection has been, for the general ends for which it was intended, a complete failure. Is there any reason to believe that it would be more successful in Great Britain?

Every consideration of common sense points the other way. What Germany had to do was to build up comparatively new industries, in face of the overwhelming compet.i.tion of Great Britain. In some instances she has been successful, and in some instances it is possible that Protection may have helped her by giving particular manufacturers an advantage in their home market at the expense of the whole German nation. But in England we have no such task to undertake. Our industries are already established; our wares are already known in every quarter of the globe; it is our compet.i.tion that every other manufacturing country dreads. Nor is that the only difference. In Germany and in France and in the United States it is the home market that Protectionist manufacturers and Protectionist statesmen are anxious to secure. All their efforts are directed towards preventing their own citizens from purchasing British or other foreign goods. But with us the home market is not the primary consideration. Our business is with the whole world: our customers are of every race and colour from the patient Chinaman to the restless New Englander, from the supple Bengalee to the African savage. If we can keep their custom we need have no fear of our power to satisfy the wants of our own countrymen.