There is hope that the biggest and worst scheme of
mono- poly yet started in England will fail. A syndicate has been trying to get possession of all the salt-mines, and raise eating. salt from 2s. 6d. to 108. a cwt. Its members are ready with three millions, and hope to make of their tax on the poor £800,000 a year. 'The consequences of their success, if we may judge from the history of salt-taxes in Europe, might be very serious; but Mr. Corbet, the great salt- manufacturer of Droitwich, has refused to join in the plot. As his output is said to be equal to that of all other manufacturers, this is a blow to the project, and another will be found in the greed of the promoters, who are talking of rates which would render freight of little importance, and bring the Indian Government into the field. To ship home from Calcutta and Kurrachee two or three millions' worth of salt, save the whole loss on exchange for a year or two, and smash an abominable effort to plunder the people, would be an operation creditable to democracy. It is, we believe, quite a possible one if salt speculators grow unendurably thirsty for gain. These schemes are more dangerous to capital than reams of Socialist lectures.
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