Of the general histories of England in the nineteenth century, that by *Spencer Walpole, 5 vols., London, Longmans, 1878-86, devotes considerable attention to economic developments, and is worth the teacher’s attention. Justin McCarthy, *History of our own times, is better suited to attract the student; it is divided into short topical chapters, and written in an interesting style. A shorter history has been published by McCarthy in the Story of the Nations Series, 2 vols., N. Y., 1899. The last volume of Traill’s Social England pays but scant attention to commerce.
Of smaller books that which deserves most cordial commendation to students who desire a description of economic progress in its relation to political changes is Gilbert Slater, **Making of modern England, London, 1913, revised edition Houghton, Mifflin Co., undated.
The best history of English commerce is that of **Leone Levi, extending from 1763 to 1878; it is unfortunately, out of print. Cunningham notices some of the important commercial changes in the first half of the century, but devotes most of his last volume to other topics; and the smaller manuals of English economic history pay comparatively little attention to commercial development. *Bowley’s small volume is a useful contribution, noteworthy for a number of graphic charts; it is, however, too statistical in treatment to serve the needs of the ordinary reader. Chapman’s book, like Bowley’s an outgrowth of a successful essay written for a Cobden prize, is confined to a special aspect of the trade with a particular country.
William Smart, *Economic annals of the nineteenth century, London, 1910-17, covering the years 1801-1830, treats commercial policy at length and the history of commerce proper briefly. The same tendency marks Commerce and industry, A historical review, 1815-1914, ed., W. Page, London, 1919, 2 volumes, of which the second, **Tables of statistics, is a very useful compilation. Other statistical sources, of importance to a student making a careful study of the subject, are Porter, **Progress of the nation and M’Culloch, **Commercial dictionary, of which various editions have been published. A revision of Porter by F. W. Hirst, London, 1912, aims to bring his statistics down to date.
CHAPTER XXXVI
ENGLAND: REFORM OF COMMERCIAL POLICY
430. Burden of tariff on trade and manufactures.—After this survey of the development of English trade in the first half of the century we must attend to a most important change in English commercial policy, which lies mainly in this period. We shall consider three groups of topics: the reform of the general tariff; the repeal of the corn laws, protecting agricultural products, especially wheat; and the repeal of the navigation laws, protecting shipping.
England entered the nineteenth century with a cumbrous mass of tariff regulations inherited from the past, from which only the worst excesses had been pruned by statesmen like Walpole and Pitt. Customs laws had accumulated for 500 years to the amount of 1,500 statutes, “often confused, often contradictory, sometimes unintelligible.” Hardly any ware which was obtainable abroad, whether it was a raw material or a manufactured product, escaped the duties levied under one or another of these laws. The duties were heavy and were enforced with unreasoning severity; a man who imported a mummy from Egypt was told that it was a non-enumerated manufacture, dutiable at nearly $1,000. Internal taxes reached articles which escaped the customs tariff. The taxes on the publication of books were so heavy that they amounted on an ordinary edition to one seventh of the whole cost, and exceeded the remuneration of the author. The cotton manufacturer had to pay not only an import duty on his raw cotton (higher when it was brought in a foreign ship); he had to pay an excise or internal tax on calico which he printed; and he had to pay taxes, in one form or another, on all the important materials he used in manufacture,—flour, starch, leather, soap, dyestuffs, paper, timber, brick, tiles. A man could not build a factory, or run it, or feed and clothe his workmen, without paying taxes at every step.
431. Prevalence of smuggling.—A partial relief from the burden of the customs was obtained by smuggling. Tariffs could hinder but could not absolutely stop the natural movement of commodities. Smuggling was a regular profession, with a tariff modeled on the regular tariff, but enough lower to invite business; the smuggler’s charge varied ordinarily from 15 to 40 per cent ad valorem. Large numbers of the common people were leagued with the smugglers to defy the law, and the upper classes, even the legislators themselves, accepted smuggling as a matter of course. A member of the House of Commons once flourished his silk bandanna handkerchief before the House, saying: “Here is a foreign ware that is totally prohibited. Nearly every one of you has a similar illicit article in his pocket. So much for your prohibition.” The government framed its duties with an eye to the ease of evading them; it laid a higher duty on fancy silks than on plain, because the smugglers were at a disadvantage in handling the former, which had to be brought in at once, before the fashions changed, while plain goods could wait the smuggler’s convenience.
432. Beginning of the reform movement, 1820.—More and more as time went on, and England’s commercial capacity increased, were the evils and abuses of the system appreciated. By 1820 the times were ripe for a change, and the movement to reform was initiated in that year by a petition from a group of London merchants. The petition urged the principle of free trade which the economist Adam Smith had supported in his “Wealth of Nations” (published in 1776), and prayed that all restrictive regulations, not imposed on account of the revenue, including all duties of a protective character, might be repealed at once.
433. Reform of the tariff under Huskisson.—The early stages of tariff reform, effected under the leadership of Huskisson about 1825, included the following: (1) The simplification and condensation into manageable form of the customs laws. (2) Reduction or removal of the duties on raw materials. (3) Reduction of the duties on manufactures, generally to 30 per cent or less, on the principle that such a duty was ample for protection, if a ware could be made at home to advantage. (4) The removal of most of the restrictions on export. These restrictions had affected raw materials, partly manufactured goods, and even artisans themselves. The government had tried to keep skilled workmen at home, but found that it merely made them discontented, forced them to evasions, and kept them from coming back when they had once left the country: it left them henceforth free to emigrate. It was still unwilling to allow machinery to be exported freely, for fear that other countries would build up a competition in manufactures, but it recognized the difficulty of making its restrictions effective, and relaxed them greatly.