The remedy proposed for the relative decline and for "
dumping " is, of course, a tariff, or, rather, three tariffs :— (1) A general tariff, which is to be a low scale of duties on im- ports from foreign countries which admit British wares on "fair terms "; (2) a preferential tariff lower than the general tariff, and framed to help " those of our Colonies which give an adequate preference to British manufactures" ; and (3) a maximum tariff directed against nations who " shut out our goods by practically prohibitive duties." The " provisional scale of duties" recommended for the general tariff in respect of the iron and steel industries is most instructive. Pig-iron is to pay 5 per cent. ; iron and steel ingots, blooms, billets, &c., &c., &c., are to pay 61 per cent. ; wire rods 71 per cent. ; " sheets " 10 per cent. What the maximum tariff is to be we are not told. Those who know anything of English industries will realise what, effect such duties must have in raising the price of the raw material of some of our most flourishing industries. The reply will, we suppose, be that they are only " secondary industries," and so not worth considering. Well, we confess to being such poor-spirited Free-traders that we cannot regard secondary industries as inherently vicious and worthless.
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