THE TINPLATE INDUSTRY.
LTO TRIM EDITOR OF THE "SPRCTATOR.1
Sul,—The letter from Mr. Thomas Rees in the Spectator of July 18th is very opportune. Will you allow me to supple- ment what he has so well said about the tinplate trade ? The Protectionists are constantly instancing the tinplate trade as, a British industry ruined by hostile tariffs. I see, indeed, that the Tariff League has issued a special handbill dealing with this ruined industry. To those who are conversant with the tinplate trade the statements in this handbill are, ludicrously absurd. Since the McKinley Tariff came into operation in the year 1891 the tinplate trade, like other industries, has had its vicissitudes; but in the twelve years that have elapsed since then the profits of the tinplate manu- facturers have been by no means contemptible.
I do not say that the McKinley Tariff did not have for a time an adverse effect on the tinplate industry. Before this high Protectionist Tariff came into operation three-fourths of the export of tinplates from South Wales went to the United States. Shrewd commercial men, of whom there are many in the tinplate trade, realised that this was a state of things that could not continue. The time was bound to come when America with its large resources would manufacture its own tinplates. The McKinley Tariff gave a stimulus to the establishment of the tin- plate industry, but the subsequent history of this trade in the
U nited States shows conclusively that the artificial stimulus given by Protection has brought many evils in its train. Of this more anon. "
The effect of the large shrinkage in American purchases of Welsh tinplate was to drive Welsh makers back on their own initiative. They found out new markets, they found an expand.. ing home market; they were compelled to resort to the most skilful processes of management. The result was that in a few years the trade rapidly adjusted itself to the new conditions, and I believe it is fuller of vitality at the present time than at any period in its history.
For the sake of those of your readers to whom the expression " tinplates " may be misleading, will you allow me to say that a tinplate—literally, "tinned plate"—is a thin sheet of iron or steel coated with tin? In the United States of America the tinplate trade is controlled by the huge Steel Trust. With its unique facilities for the production of steel, and with its large home market, it might be thought that America's tinplate-makers would be able to produce an article equal in quality to, and lower in price than, Welsh tinplate. It is a striking illustration of the wastefulness of Protection that they have not been able to do either the one or the other. Welsh tinplates are barred out of the American market by an ad valorem tariff of nearly 100 per cent., and the price of tinplate in the States, carefully regulated by the Steel Trust, is so fixed as to be a few cents lower than the coat of Welsh tinplate plus the duty. As you will know, a considerable quantity .of tinned goods, such as tinned fruits, tinned meats, tinned fish, and tinned oil, is exported by the United States of America. On this tinplate there is a rebate of the duty to the extent of about 95 per cent. It is a remarkable tribute to the tenacity and the skill of the Welsh makers that the bulk of this tinplate is still supplied from Wales. Last autumn the Standard Oil Trust invited tenders from the American and the Welsh tinplate-makers for the supply of tinplates for a year's consumption. Owing to the rebate on the McKinley Tariff, the Welsh makers were able in this matter to compete on better, though still unequal, terms with the American ;manu- facturers, and the Welsh tenderers obtained the contract. I observe from the trade and navigation returns that the value of tinplates we exported to the United States for the six months ended June 30th was £384,520. In spite of the McKinley Tariff, the United States is still the largest purchaser of Welsh tin- plates.
British steel producers have been complaining for some time that their interests are injuriously affected because American and German steel is "dumped" down on the British markets and sold here often below cost price. There is some justification for these complaints: The Trusts in America and the Cartels in Germany represent new phenomena in the economics of trade; and I, a con- vinoed Free-trader, am willing to admit that there is cause for inquiry as to the effect on British industries of these huge industrial corporations. The problem is a most difficult and complex one. -The Daily Mail, which is doing good service in fighting the battle of free food and free raw material, calls for a tax on manufactured goods. A tax on manufactured goods would undoubtedly include steel, yet steel is essentially a raw material for the tinplate industry. Cheap American steel is at the present time the source of a great deal of strength to the Welsh tinplate trade. Many of our best-equipped tinplate works have provided themselves with steel plant, and thus produce the steel for their own consumption; but the smaller works have to buy their steel in the open market, and to these cheap steel is a most important consideration. It is no exaggera- tion to say that a tax on steel imports would deal a heavy blow to many tinplate manufactories. We have then this curious result, that the tinplate trade is benefited by the huge Trusts which at one time appeared likely to jeopardise its existence. It is one of the virtues of Free-trade that, like Nature, " it reoom- penseth one defect by redundance in another."
On the general question as to the effect of the Trusts on our home industries I think there is room for inquiry. The Steel Trust in America recently made a daring effort to capture the sources of the world's supply of tin. Of the entire quantity of tin produced in the world over 70 per cent. comes from within the British Empire. Cornwall supplies only a small quantity, the vast proportion coming from the Straits Settlements. I believe I am correct in saying that the effort of the Steel Trust to obtain control of the tin industry in the Straits Settlements was check- mated by our Colonial Office only a few months ago. Supposing the attempt had succeeded, the Steel Trust would have been able to charge what it pleased for its tin, with consequences that might be disastrous to British industries; Perhaps you, Sir, will deal with this subject in the Spectator. There is no disloyalty to Free-trade principles in recognising that the Trust is a new phenomenon in international trade, and a phenomenon whose influence may have a disturbing effect.
Mr. Benjamin Kidd in the Nineteenth Century remarks that "the ultimate conditions, as the world draws together, are those of amalgamation of trade interests irrespective of frontiers, of attempted monopoly, control in production, with the regulation of prices throughout the world as against the consumer!' I do not accept Mr. Kidd's conclusions, but up to a point he sees with clear vision. Let us by all means have inquiry into the effect of the Trusts on British commerce and industries.
[We welcome our correspondent's letter as one of the most interesting contributions made to the present controversy. By all means let there be inquiry into the working of the Trusts. We would never check honest inquiry into any subject, but we feel confident that inquiry will only show that the way to . fight Trusts is by Free-trade, and that those ill-omened children of Protection are not amenable to any but Free-trade weapons. Again, there are plenty of signs that the Trade are dying of industrial indigestion. Of their influence spread- ing here we are not in the least afraid unless we adopt Protec- tion. Still, as we have said before, let us turn all the bull's-eyes we can on the Trusts,—it can do no harm.—En. Spectator.]
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