2 Germany, Holland, and Belgium. * France, Portugal with Azores and Madeira, and Spain with Gibraltar. British North America. 'British West Indies, with British Guiana and Honduras. • British India, Ceylon, and Singapore. Australian colonies and New Zealand. PART V. 1860-1879. FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE TREATY OF COMMERCE WITH FRANCE ΤΟ THE STATE OF BRITISH COMMERCE IN 1878. CHAPTER I. TREATIES OF COMMERCE. II. THE ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND III. CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS IN- VIII. COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS, 1860-1870. IX. REVIVAL AND DEPRESSION OF TRADE. X. WORK AND WAGES. XI. 99 COMPARATIVE PROGRESS OF COMMERCIAL NATIONS. XII. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES. XV. COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS, 1870-1878. CHAPTER I. TREATIES OF COMMERCE. The Budget of 1860.-Economic Policy of France.-The Emperor's Letter.Negotiations for a Treaty of Commerce.-Conclusion of the Treaty.Reception of the Treaty in England.-Reception of the Treaty in France, -More Treaties of Commerce.-Commercial Treaties with Belgium, the Zollverein, Italy and Austria.-Negotiations with Spain and Portugal.Results of the Treaties of Commerce.-Reduction of Tariffs.-Progress of Free Trade. Effect of Free Trade on Shipping.-Local Charges on Shipping.-Tax on Shipping passing Elsinore. Effect of the Sound Dues.The Stade Dues.-Discriminating Dues.-Appendix, Text of Treaty of Commerce. Comparative Foreign Tariffs in 1854, 1859, and 1879. THE budget of 1860 was a remarkable one. It abolished the paper duty, so long the object of popular animadversion; it swept away the duties on manufactured articles, silk manufacture included the last anchor of protection; it removed from the customs tariff many hundred articles; it reduced the wine duties; it reimposed the income tax; and, above all, it inaugurated a new treaty of commerce with France. Hitherto our trade with France had been comparatively small, and France consumed only small quantities of British produce and manufactures. Railways, steampackets, and telegraphs brought us closer to one another. The universal exhibition had shown how varied were our respective productions, and how useful we might be to each other, yet a custom barrier kept us asunder. Any remission made in this country of duties on French produce met with little or no response from our neighbours. While we opened our ports, and left our manufacturers and producers exposed to an unlimited competition, while we repealed every restriction in our navigation laws, and threw open to foreign vessels our direct and indirect trade, our colonial, and even our coasting trade, France persisted in a policy of prohibitions; she adhered to the old principles of protection; she excluded from her markets our chief manufactures; and, at the very time when she was reaping the fruits of a policy of freedom, which she did not understand, her parliament and her press were casting upon us the severest invectives and the most wanton abuse. In the British Customs tariff in 1840 there were 1,046 articles, and subdivision of articles, charged with distinct rates. In 1859 the number was 397, and in May 1875, only 53. Nevertheless, the gross customs revenue in the year ending March 31, 1879, was 20,316,0007. EE |