CHAPTER VI
TRADE RELATIONS AND CURRENCY
§ 1. TRADE RELATIONS
THERE can be no clearer proof of the autonomy of the
Colonies than their fiscal arrangements. When self-govern-
ment was accorded to Canada, though there was no idea
and had been no idea since 1778 of taxing the Colony
without spending all the proceeds therein, it was bound
by a tariff exacted from it by the Imperial Parliament
and raised under laws enacted by the same authority! In
18462 an Imperial Act allowed the British Colonies in Canada,
to reduce or repeal by their own legislation duties imposed
by Imperial Acts upon foreign goods imported from foreign
countries into the Colonies in question. Canada soon availed
herself of the privilege, while in 18492 a further Imperial Act
added to the control of duties the control of the Colonial post
office, allowing Canada full power to dispose as she would of
her postal arrangements, a matter of great commercial impor-
tance in a growing Colony where communications were
difficult, and where Imperial legislation was obviously utterly
out of place. In 18494 the remains of the navigation laws
went, and the St. Lawrence was thrown open to the vessels
of all nations. The Legislature had addressed the Imperial
Government on the subject, and had urged that it was
impossible to maintain the system of protection in the
Colonies for British shipping when Great Britain had aban.
+ Colonial legislation could also impose duties, and there was confusion
and conflict ; see 5 & 6 Vict. c. 49, Imperial customs officers disappeared
largely in 1850, and practically wholly by 1855. Cf. Parl. Pap., February 4,
1851, p. 42; July 1, 1852, p. 97 ; Hannay, New Brunswick, i. 410 seq. : ii.
23, 172 ; Grey, Colonial Policy, ii. 870, 379.
* 9 & 10 Vict. ¢, 94. Cf. Adderley, Colonial Policy, p. 28 ; 8 & 9 Vict. c. 93.
' 12 & 13 Viet. c. 66. Hitherto it had been an Imperial monopoly.
12 & 13 Vict. c. 29. The control of customs law was given by 20 & 21
Viet. ¢, 62. and see now 36 & 37 Vict. c. 36. sa. 140-51.
