At the Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire,
which held a meeting on Tuesday at the hall of the Grocers' Company, Princes' Street, E.C., Mr. Chamberlain presided as Secretary for the Colonies, and made a very remarkable speech, dwelling on a proposition which had proceeded from Birmingham to create an Imperial Council for consultation and advice. He rejected as impracticable the idea of getting our Colonies to adopt Free-trade, and so place themselves on the same basis as the Mother-country, and also the idea that we should abandon Free-trade and impose duties on all foreign products which our Colonies produce, on condition that our Colonies should make a small discrimination in favour of British trade. Either of these proposals would require, he thought, far too great a sacrifice, the former on the part of the Colonies, the last on our own part. But he treated with some favour the suggestion that we might make a kind of Zoliverein with our Colonies, which would introduce practical if not absolute Free-trade between the various countries of the British Empire, we agreeing to impose moderate duties on a certain number of important articles which our Colonies produce in large quantities when imported from foreign countries, and which from our Colonies we should admit duty free,—such articles, for instance, as corn, meat, wool, sugar. This, which is a proposal made by the Toronto Board of Trade, Mr. Chamberlain thought might even be accepted by orthodox Free-traders, seeing that it would be the greatest advance ever made towards Free Exchange, since it would practically establish Free-trade between three hundred millions of men.
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