~
oD
fan] pOUBLE OPEBATION OF THR TREATY, ZC
by a mistaken conception of what it is that economic gene
ralization can do for us, as to believe that they nullify
Substantial service thus rendered by commercial treaties of
Oobden’s type to the beneficent end of international co-Operation,
by the mere utterance of some formula of
Sconomic incantation. If the practical effect of the comlercial
treaties after 1860, as conceived and inspired by
Cobden, has been, without any drawback worth considering,
to lead Furope by a considerable stride towards the end
Proposed by the partisans of Free Trade, then it is absurd to
Quarrel with the treaties because they do not sound in tune
with the verbal jingle of an abstract dogma. It is beside
the mark to meet the advantages gained by the international
action of commercial treaties, by the formula, © Take care of
your imports, and the exports will take care of themselves.”
The decisive consideration is that we can only procure
imports from other countries on the cheapest possible terms,
on condition that producers in those countries are able to
receive our exports on the cheapest possible terms. Foreign
Producers can only dothis, on condition that their governments
tan be induced to lower hostile tariffs; and foreign governments
are only able, or choose to believe that they are only
able, to lower tariffs in face of the strength of the protected
interests, by means of a commercial treaty. The effect of a
chain of such treaties—and the chain is automatically linked
together by the favoured nation clause—is to lower duties all
round, and lowering duties all round is the essential and
indispensable condition of each country procuring for itself
on the lowest possible terms imports from all other
Gountries.
It is an economic error to confine our view to the imports
or exports of our own country. In the case of England,
these are intimately connected with, and dependent upon,
the great circulating system of the whole world’s trade.
Tey
—
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1200.
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