Tariffs

The act of 1913, however, proved to be of little practical significance. The outbreak of the World War in 1914 made im possible all competition from abroad with United States industries. This situation endured for a year or two after the close of the war, and it was not until the collapse of 1920-21 that serious consideration was again given to the tariff problem. By that time the Republicans were again in power, and were so firmly en trenched, after their decisive victory at the polls in 192o, that they did not hesitate to restore the protection of pre-war days and even increase it. The agricultural regions of the Central West were hardest hit by the great decline in prices, and clamoured for some remedy. The Republicans followed their traditional policy of holding forth a high tariff as the remedy for all ills, and at once enacted the Emergency Tariff Act of 1921, which pro visionally reimposed the duty on wool, and raised those on sugar, wheat, corn, meat. In 1922 a general revision was made, and a new complete tariff act was passed. The duties on agri cultural products were still further increased, and those on manu factured goods, such as woollens, cottons, silks, pottery, hardware, were either put at the level of the tariff act of 1909 (the last preceding high tariff act) or raised above that level. Some articles previously admitted at low rates were now subjected to high ones, such as dyestuffs and chemicals. All in all, the protective policy was carried higher than ever before. At the same time a new administrative policy was introduced, by giving the tariff corn mission certain powers as regards modification and adjustment of duties.

Great Britain.

England emerged from the mercantilist poli cies of the 17th and 18th centuries with a tariff system that not only imposed high rates but was extraordinarily complicated and confused. The first steps toward the radical change which was to come in the 19th century were taken by Pitt. In 1787 he caused the Consolidation Act to be passed, which codified the previous intricate mass of scattered, inconsistent and cumulative duties. In 1786 he also arranged a commercial treaty with France pro viding for substantial reciprocal reductions of duties ; but this measure, unlike that for consolidation, was swept away by the French Revolution. After 1815 English tariff history is marked by two great changes : on the one hand the modification and finally the repeal of the corn laws ; on the other, the steady succession of acts which gradually cut down the duties on all other goods and led eventually to the complete adoption of free trade. The corn laws, it is true, were first strengthened; then experiments were made with sliding scale duties, designed to keep the price of corn stable ; and finally they were suddenly wiped out at the time of the Irish famine of 1846. They had political support because of the predominance of the gentry and the landed interests in both houses of parliament. But industrially as well as politically they were vulnerable, and inevitably collapsed in a crisis like that of the famine. The other series of events began with Huskisson's measures of 1824, which reduced duties, especially on raw mate rials such as wool, and went on with a succession of measures until the last remnant of protection disappeared in 186o. The notable steps were Peel's act of 1842, an important and far reaching measure; Peel's second important act, in 1846, con temporaneous with the corn law repeal ; Gladstone's famous budget of 1853 ; and finally in 186o the removal of the silk duties, the last of the protective duties which had been retained. This final

step of 186o was taken in connection with the Cobden-Chevalier treaty with France, noted below. For half a century thereafter, England was on a free trade basis and was the stronghold of free trade. The system was suited to her industrial development dur ing the period, enabling her manufactures to develop at an extraor dinary rate, while foodstuffs and raw materials were imported in ever increasing volume. The system seemed entrenched beyond attack, and this notwithstanding the fact that the landed interest was hard hit by the decline in agricultural prices from 1873 to the close of the century. It was not until the World War of 1914-18 that a change took place, and it then took place to an extent which could not have been expected and, indeed, was not ex pected when the initial steps were taken. Very shortly after the outbreak of the war in 1915 certain duties were imposed upon luxuries, the so-called McKenna duties ; being at. the rate of 333% on watches, pleasure motors, cinema films and the like. Immediately after the war some further changes were made in the same direction, yet still susceptible of interpre tation on other grounds than that of a return to protection pure and simple. In 1919 imperial preference to the colonial products, long urged by the colonies themselves, was granted on tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, the most important being the pref erence on sugar. In 192o, again, the imports of dyestuffs and coal-tar dyes were completely prohibited, this being in the nature of a war measure, designed to ensure the domestic produc tion of military explosives, and also that of dyestuffs whose im portance to textile industries was deemed cardinal. In 1921 came the Safeguarding of Industries Act, which went a step further, imposing a duty of 331% on the product of the so-called key industries, such as optical instruments, barometers, wireless appa ratus. In the same year came the anti-dumping act, imposing a 331% duty on goods sold in England below cost or sold at particu larly low prices because of depreciated currency elsewhere. Some of these duties were repealed by the Macdonald Labour govern ment in 1924. But all were re-enacted in 1925; and then at last the Baldwin government took steps which clearly were not expli cable on political or military grounds, or as means for meeting special emergencies. In 1925 not only were the McKenna duties restored, but, what was more important, the safeguarding of indus tries provisions were given a wide scope. In advocacy of them, most was said about the desirability of preventing unemployment through the protection of established industries. The board of trade was made a sort of tariff commission which should investi gate particular cases and recommend to parliament advances in duties ; not merely for key industries or because of special cir cumstances, but as part of a general industrial policy. A more radical departure from the old free trade regime was marked by the Import Duties Act, 1932, which imposed an ad valorem duty of o% on all imports, with certain exceptions, into the United Kingdom.