cHAP. vi] TRADE RELATIONS AND CURRENCY 1175 
If, therefore, Article VII of the Zollverein Treaty were 
construed to prevent the Australian Colonies from imposing 
higher duties upon goods imported from the Zollverein than 
upon goods imported from each other, it is manifest that Her 
Majesty would not have exceeded her constitutional powers 
in agreeing to such a stipulation, and that the Colonies 
could not refuse to consider themselves bound by it without 
repudiating the treaty. i 
Her Majesty’s Government, after a further careful exami- 
nation of the Zollverein Treaty, remain of opinion that the 
strict literal interpretation of the Seventh Article of that 
treaty does not preclude the imposition of differential duties 
in one British Colony or Possession in favour of the produce 
of another British Colony or Possession : but they must, at 
the same time, point out that it could hardly have been 
intended that, by reciprocal arrangements between Colonies, 
perhaps far distant from each other, the produce of the 
Zollverein should be placed at a disadvantage as compared 
with Colonial produce, whilst Colonial produce should enjoy, 
in the ports of the Zollverein, all the privileges of the most 
favoured nation. 
No doubt the negotiators of the treaty thought that they 
had obtained sufficient security for the Zollverein, as regards 
the inter-colonial trade, by the provision that, ‘in the 
Colonies and Possessions of Her Majesty, the produce of the 
States of the Zollverein should not be subject to any higher 
or other import duties than the produce of the United 
Kingdom ’ ; but if the Colonies are to be at liberty to impose 
differential duties as against British produce, it is obvious 
hat this security altogether disappears. 
Apart, however, from the obligations of existing treaties, 
it is necessary to consider the effect of the general views 
expressed by the Australian and New Zealand Governments 
on the subject of Commercial Treaties. 
It is easy to understand the claim asserted in the second 
of the resolutions to which the Victorian delegates were 
parties, that no treaty entered into by the Imperial Govern- 
ment with any foreign Power should in any way limit or 
impede the exercise of the right of the Australian Colonies 
to enter into reciprocal tariff arrangements with each other ; 
but it is not at first sight so clear what is meant by the state- 
ment in the other set of resolutions that no treaty can be 
properly or constitutionally made, which directly or indirectly 
treats those Colonies as foreign communities. 
Tt scems inconsistent to object to stipulations which treat