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Their maimfactures ruined, their land impoverished, like all lands that export their chief products in raw material, the people, starving at home and without employment, have fled in hundreds of thousands to the manufactuiing towns and fields of England, offering their labour for their food. To protect England against these starving myriads. Parliament had to interfere against the new-born creed, the let-alone creed of free-traders, and by Act of Parliament force Irish landlords to retain and feed those to whom they could give no work. Thus the fatal effects of the Manchester theories, enly partially put in force, must be restrained by the strong hand of government. In Ireland, as in India, there has been ruin pure and unrelieved by any of those modifying and saving resources for the displaced laborers so surely predicted by the dis- ciples of free-trade. Neither in India nor in Ireland have the operatives, counted by millions, driven from, their old employment, found new ones in their own land. A member of the British Parliament and a free-trader. Dr. Bowring, gives us this picture : "I hold,he says,in u.y hand the correspondence on the subject of the Dacca hand-loom weavers. It is a melancholy story of misery. Some years ago the East India Company annually received of the produce of the looms in India, six or eight millions of pieces of cotton goods. The demand gradually fell, and has now nearly ceased. (A similar result is given as to the trade of the West Indies and Portugal.) Terrible are the accounts of the wretchedness of the poor India weavers, reduced to absolute starvation, and what was the sole cause ? The presence of the cheaper English manufactures. Numbers of them died of hunger ; the remainder were for the most part transferred (only to a limited extent as appears from the correspondence from India) to other occupations." In this correspondence the Governor-General says : " European skill and machinery have superseded the pro- r^ 12 duoe of India. The Court declare that they are at lasfc obliged to abandon the only remaining portion of trade in cot- ton manufacturefi in both Bengal and Madrad, because the British goods have a decided advantage in quality and price. The Dacca muslins, celebrated over the whole world for their beauty and fineness, are annihilated from the same cause, and the present suffering to numerous classes in India is scarcely to be paralleled in the history of commerce." A natural result, say free-traders. Let the poor Hindoos seek other employment. This they could not do ; but what ■ mattered it so long as Lancashire prospered ? It would have been wiser, certainly more humane, to aid or encourage the Hindoos to adopt modem improvements. By impoverishing communities the English freetrader destroys his own markets. He makes a desert in India and calls it freetrade ; one hundred thousand well to do Canadians or Australians are better cus- tomers of Manchester than one hundred million Hindoos after a twenty years tutelage in the school of Cobden & Bright. The cheaper manufactures of the continent are doing for England's operatives what she did for the Deccan, Jamaica and Ireland. .i| Her million and a-half unemployed cannot be absorbed into other business. They most go abroad or perish. We don't ask any increase of our taxes, we merely advocate such an adjustment as to encourage those industries for which our country is well adapted, leaning always towards custom duties lather than to excise or income tax. The most uncompromising protectionist would not advoc?,te the imposition of discriminating duties for the purpose of build- ing up, in the present state of the industrial arts in Canada, manufactures of articles of mere luxury, those in little demand, or requiring vast capital — such, for example, as silks, fabrics of high price, or the finer cutlery. These, besides not being bulky, are of easy and cheap transit. I The question of protection would at first arise as to wures in general use, of simple manufacture, and those for which 4 .' I V T ' % 13 we have the raw material, or where it is easily obtainable. Take here but one example : We now send our wool and flax — and until recently all of it — to England, as England sent hers to Flanders two and a-half centurioE ago. We pay all the costs and charges on these on land and on the ocean, and on both sides of the Atlantic, from the field to the factory. We send breadstuffs after them to feed the operatives while working up our raw materials ; and agricultural products are heavy and their transit costly. We then pay all the expenses of bringing back the fabricated wares to our doors. But if we were to protect these manufactures, we would draw the capital and labor to our own shores, as formerly Old and more recently New England did, and reap, as they have, the con- stantly expanding benefits arising from such new industries and increased populations. Some of the advantages to this country from such an adjust- ment of our tariflfas would secure the establishment of manu- factures like those named may be briefly stated. It does not come within the scope of this essay to trace the origin and history of the industrial arts in those nations where they have flourishea most ; but we have said enough 'co show that they have sprung up and grown chiefly, almost exclusively, under the aegis of protection. Successively in Holland, in Belgium, in France, in England, in Russia, in Germany, and in the United States, protection was extended, not only to their industries at home, but in their navigation laws, extre- mely exclusive, in fostering their commerce and shipping, as well against their own colonies ^ when they had any, as against foreign nations, on every coast and over every sea. But manufactures in those countries succeeded in spite of protec- tion, not by it, say these visionaires, whose theories rest on no facts, but float in the mind, like the mirage in the clouds, unsubstantial and unsupported. We prefer, in questions of economic and political science, at least, to be guided by the teachings of experience, which, in the founding and develop- 14 ing of manufactures, is all on the side of protection, leaving the free-traders nothing but visions to build their theories upon. A cursory glance at the development of one of England's great industries will suflScientlj illustrate this point. Now, nearly two centuries ago, in 1679, Parliament first imposed a duty of ten shillings a ton on foreign iron ; eleven years after the duty was increased to i52 la. 6d. per ton in English vessels, and £2 10s. in foreign ; thus giving a double protection to her interests on land and sea. The duties on foreign iron were increased fifteen times over the long period of 150 years ; and in 1819 amounted to X6 10a. in British, and £1 ISs. 6d. in foreign ships ; iron, less than three-fourths of an inch square, paying £'20 per ton. The result of this experiment, with the duties increased fourteen- fbld, and in every instance specific, was the reduction in the price of English iron to j£10 per ton ; while in France it was £25 10s.; in Belgium and Germany .£16 148.'; and in Sweden and Russia £V6 13s. This long protection gave security to capital invested in the iron works, and it gave time for new generations of operatives to grow up with those facile habits — that second nature — which only long practice can impart, and which had given the British iron workers auch pre-eminence over their fellow-artizans in other countries. Then, and not till then, was the cry of free-trade heard. And what ia the result in one quarter of a century of this new policy upon the manufactures which the wisdom of our fathers had raised to an excellence and reduced to a cheapness that drove all competitors out of the market ? Let the late English papers and periodicals answer the question. Two facts stated tell the whole tale : The Custom-house oflficers along the Thames, says a writer (a free-trad'^r, too, be it understood,) in Blackwood j (Dec, 1869,) will tell you as they told me, that England has become, in the main, a country which exports raw materiala, and tSiat the bulk of p . ■ 4 16 maimfactured goods consumed by the people of England U of foreign production. The second statement is a necessary consequence of this, that never, within the memory of living men, were there so many of the working classes out of employme it. " Sir," was the remark of the Custom-house officer, " we are going down hill as fast as we can. The foreigner not only beats us in the cheapness of his articles, but he imitates our trade marks, and sells in England many a bale of his own cotton cloth." The tale is a very simple and natural one. The foreigner can manufacture cheaper than the Englishman. Free-trade England exports the raw material, imports the manufactured stuffs, ruins her industries, throws her artizans out of employment, and then supports them by alms or drives them abroad. Recent numbers of the London Times give accounts of the most heartrending destitution in Manchester, in that great centre of free-trade I as many are now receiving alms as in the worst period of the Lancashire distress during the American war. The ship- building trade, — we quote from Blackwood, (Dec, 1869) — once so flourishing on the Thames has almost entirely deserted its banks. Machine-making both in London, and elsewhere, which used to keep so many hearths warm, is passing rapidly to the continent ; and in all the iron districts many furnaces are extinguished. In Lancashire the factories' are closed, or work at half time ; Spitalfields, Coventry. and Machlefield swarm with paupers. The great industries of Ireland, linen excepted, have perished under this free-trade policy ; for there once flourished in that now unhappy land, not only linen manufactures, but carpet manufactures, blanket manu- factures, hosiers, broad-ailk loom weavers, calico printers, wool-combers, &c. Free-trade with England gave the first blow to these ; but protection still remained to her agri- culture till 1846, and the Island teemed with a population of more than eight millions. In less than a quarter of a century it has fallen to a little over five, and that Island, once the Ill 16 best customer of Britain, has become a pauper, dependent upon English alms. While referring to the dechne of many manuractures in Eng- land we do not attempt to prove the failure of free-trade by its history in such a country in twenty-five years. But having quoted it as an example of rigid protection for two centuries, we have but glanced at the eflfects of free-trade (and that but partial) for a quarter of a century. If anywhere, free-trade ought to succeed in Britain. She had the start of all the world, 1. In the superiority of her iron trade which had attained such excellence under protection ; 2. In her steam power and machinery ; 3. In her mercantile marine ; and in her coal beds, iron mines and vast surplus capital. But our business is chiefly with the establishment of manufactures in a new country like Canada. What are some of the benefits, which protection, such as we have indicated, might be supposed to bestow upon this as it has upon other countries : 1. It would secure th'^ necessary capital and labor for these new industries. Food being abundant and cheap, taxes light, the raw materials at hand or easily obtainable, and unlimited water power, point to Canada as possessing facili- ties to make her one of the best manufacturing countries. 2. Competition amongst ourselves is sure to bring prices here, as it has elsewhere, to as low and probably to a lower figure than they were before. As just stated in the case of the iron manufactures in England, the price was constantly falling through a period of 160 years, with gradually increasing duties, and duties multiplied fourteen-fold. So at the present day in France, Belgium and Germany, under protection, mostly high and increasing, prices of a great variety of arti- cles have fallen so low that they can bear the expense of transit and undersell England in her own markets. The mul- tiplication of factories must necessarily reduce prices. If two bales of goods are brought into a market where there was but 1 i 17 one before, prices must fall. In a new country, where there are no home industries, the competition is solely amongsc the importers, and thoy are chary of over-importation. But native workshops, when well established, supply the wants of I the community, in whole or in part, and then commences a * •' sharp contest amongst the manufacturers, and between them and the importers, which invariably brings down prices. The cry of the free-trader, that protection is a monopoly — the taxing of the many for the good of the few — finds no support here, for the many are in the end bene- fited in the reduction of prices. And this is but one of the many advantages flowmg from the es..dblishment of native industries. 3. The existence of manufactures in the country would keep amongst us those of the population ( never an inconsiderable portion ) who, through ii^clination or in defect of physical i j strength for more 'hardy occupations, enter upon manufactur- | ing and commercial pursuits. Every year we lose a large population, mostly young men and women, who cannot find employment in a purely agricultural country ; a popula- tion, too, more valuable to us than recent immigrants. 4. These manufactures would bring to our shores some portion of the tens of thousands of skilled mechanics who now go to the Republic. If we could estimate the value of such skilled artizans to a new country, we might form some near conception of our irreparable loss. Why is it that our Govern- ment and emigrant agents send through Europe every ;year the warning voice that none should come to Canada I it agri- ' • cultural laborers ? In obedience to Manchester, we legislate to keep down manu%ctures, or at all events we do not encour- age them, and then, in obedience to our own suicidal policy, we are forced to warn oflf those workers, those chief creators of a nation's wealth ; while our neighbors protect these indus- tries, and then herald the invitation in every country and town and hamlet of Europe for artizans and skilled labor. The ■MM 18 result is that the fifty colonies of Britain get but two out of five of the emigrants from even the British Islands, the others going to the United States ; that during the last seven years three millions of immigrants have landed in New York alone— a number equal to the entire population of Canada before Con- federation. These three millions, all of whom bring more or less capital, make a nation in themselves, equalling any one of the forty out of the fifty kingdoms of Europe. This vast increase, and their industry, go to swell the population and wealth of that country instead of being added to the British Provinces. English capital, too, follows her emigrants. 6. Such an increase of population, the result of manufac- tures, creates local markets for much produce of the garden and field now not saleable. Why are there so few gardens in the country ? Near all large towns, near all great workshops, garden produce commands good prices, twice or thrice higher in Old and New England than in Canada. Gardens in even rocky New England have been known to yield $176 per acre. A century and a-half ago there was not a town in Britain, London excepted, with a population of 30,000. Manchebfcer had but 6,000 ; Birmmgham, Liverpool, Leeds and Glasgow not more than 4,000. Now London has 3,000,000 ; Man- chester, Liverpool and Glasgow, nearly half a million each ; thirteen other cities have each from 100,000 to 220,000 ; and twenty-three others, 40,000 to 100,000. The eight millions of people in these forty cities, and the additional millions in the one hundred large towns throughout the kingdom, are consumers and not producers of agricultural products, and the country for miles around is turned into gardens for their supply, very inadequately indeed, for countries beyond the seas are put under ccmvribution, and even we, 4,000 miles away, feel the pressure of want from those millions of mouths. In want of these hives of industry, our products of the farm and the garden, which are heavy and costly of transit or perishable, have no markets. / 19 6. With such local markets for our now unsaleable products of the garden and field, wo could adopt the most approved systems of farming in the rotation of crops. By confining ourselves at first to v/heat, which will alone pay for transit abroad, and then to a few of the coarse grains, we rapidly exhaust our soil. Indeed, the great wheat-growing regions of this Continent, have, within twenty or thirty years of their settlement, been, from this cause, rendered useless for the production of that cereal. With markets for roots, vege- tables and the coarser grains, such as manufacturing popu- lations would give, we might restore our impoverished soil and do much to save our now virgin lands from a like fate. This one beneficial result would be worth countless millions to Canada ; and yet it is only a collateral advantage flowing from the introduction of these home industries. 7. The establishment of a few or even of one manufacture would give rise to others, for the efficient working of one industry demands and creates new ones. These act mutually and favorably upon each other. The beginning is half the battle. 8. They work up much raw material which in this country is thrown away. We can here but indicate the kind of waste we refer to. In Canada gas is from 15s to 80s per thousand cubic feet ; in England 4s. From the great demand for dyes in her inanufactures, gas companies there extract colouring matter from the refuse of the coal, which here is thrown away. We don't of course forget the higher price of coal in Canada ; but the chief cause of the difference in the price of gas is that just stated. In a purely agricultural community mate^ rials are allowed to perish, which, in manufacturing countries, are turned into fabrics and wares worth, or sold for, millions. What vast wealth or elements of wealth perish every year in the devastation, in the barbarous hewing and hacking, of our noble forests. Look at the mighty water power throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion, spent for ever for << 20 W> 'i.' Mai want of the mill and the wheel to turn it to use. The riches of our mines and forests, of flood and field, are wasted or lie dormant throu;^]i ignorance of our true interests. 9. Manufactures add another population to the agricultu- ral ; and those again give rise to commerce and shipjnng with their kindred industries, and thus superadd another popu- lation. These several classes re-act favorably upon and support each other. These again create and support other classes, professional men, bankers, literary men, miners, brokers, clerks, &c., &c. As England, with her numerous industries, has five men to support and defend the state where, as an agricultural country, she would have but one, so might Canada have five where she now has but one. For England, purely agricultural, could not maintain more than four millions ; but by the favorable re-action of the other classes five millions may live by agriculture. Now England, agricultural, manufacturing and commercial, swarms with twenty millions of people. British America has now but four millions ; but British America with all those industries, agricultural, manufacturing, mining and commercial, would easily support twenty millions of people. 10. In estimating the productive power of a country we are not to take into the account the population merely. That of England is but twenty millions ; yet her machinery is capable of doing more work than the one thousand millions of the human fj^^ily. Its expansion, its creative power, is practi- cally il^? ^ This vast power is the growth of the last half ct • and the great wealth of England has been created y within that period. By being mere pro- ducers of tiie raw material, we remain the hcAvers of wood and the drawers of water to the work-shops of wiser communi- ties. With this vast motive power, fifty years hence might see us equal in population and wealth to the England of to-day. Our vast material resources, our forests and peat beds, the coal of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward 21 Island, the fertility of our soil, the salubrity of our cHmato, the vigor and activity of our people, give us all tlie natural advantages wo could wish. It is for us to improve them. 11. We have only to point to the great prosperity of the United States to show the enormous gains accruing to a young country from the labor and machinery introduced under high protection. This example in a country having so many points of resemblance to our own should have the greater weight with us. If it be said that this pros- perity has been at the expense of the West and South, we reply : 1st. That of the positive increase of wealth in the nation there can be no question. 2nd. That from the introduction of free-trade in England, in 1846, to the Ameri- can Revolution in 1800, the growth in material prosperity and the expansion of trade, were greater in the Republic under protection, high and stringent as it was, than in England under free-trado. 3rd. That the West and South have grown wonderfully in wealth during that period, and at no time have suffered under protection, as Ireland and various parts of England under free-trade have, and do, even at this day. 12. Manufactures would give us the employment of four capitals where now we have but two. We produce, for example, some ten million pounds of wool annually. One capital is expended in the purchase of the pasture, in stock, etc., and every year after in labor ; another capital changes hands on the sale of the wool, which at 23. per lb. would be £1,000,000. Without manufactures the expenditure of capital ends here — with them we have a third in machinery, in labor, etc. , say £1,000,000; and fourthly the receipts from the sale of these fabrics. We would have similar results in the growth and manufacture of flax and timber, in iron^ copper, lead, gold, silver, marble, salt, coal, oil, leather, sugar, glass, etc. From any one of these raw materials in which our country abounds, there would spring several industries, in all of which similar capital and labor would be expended. I ,: 22 f ' Here would be at least fifty bdustries, with ^1,000,000 invested in each, thus throwing upon the community £50,- 000,000 annually, changing hands within, and not going out of the country. When these materials are sent abroad we are deprived, in the first place, - ^ the population engaged in those fifty kinds of industries ; secondly, we lose the benefit of two out of four capitals in each, which would be spent in a foreign country ; thirdly, we must pay 100,000 middlemen, in brokers, boatmen, laborers, etc., in the transit of our raw pro- ducts, for this expense comes out of us ; fourthly; our land is thus impoverished, and in return we get oply the lowest benefit — that from the first rude labor ; fifthly, we get none of the other coV amoral benefits, arising from working up the raw material on our own soil. We lose the series of markets growing out of these arts. The manufacturer pays to his artizans, machmists, etc., say £1,000,000 ; these again disburse it to the baker, butcher, gardener, farmer, draj^er, hosier, hatter, etc. After running these rounds it gets back to the manufacturer, and through him again to the producer of the raw material. Look now at Ireland since the introduction of free-trade in 184.5, at Lancashire since 1862-3, and at most English indus- tries of the present day, in which the English free-trader finds his ground cut from under him by the Gaul and German protectionists. Markets abroad are taken from him through the too sharp competition of foreigners ; there are no home ones to fall back upon — these had already failed. The man- ufacturer puts his men on short time ; then closes his shop. His artizans have not the millions for the tailor^ the butcher, the gardener, &c. ; the series of markets ure broken up ; the shopkeeper is ruined ; less demand comes back for the man- ufacturer. He, too, must close. A brief struggle with want and fitful charity ensues ; then thousands, if not mil- lions, must flee from their homes and native land. 13. But another consideration, not well defined nor even 28 expressed, is often present to the minds of ihe historian and the statesman. War may come to us, as it comes to all coun- tries, ^^carcoly a generation passes ivithout leaving traces of its devastating effects: War may come to ns in our infancy and in our helplessness, as it did to the thirteen old colonies and to the Southern Confederation. We might sud- denly find ourselves involved in a life and death s::ruggle mth a powerful enemy. Shut out from the sea, without fac- tories to create the materials of war, and without clothing for our soldiers and people in a Canadian winter, laboring at the same time to organize an army and to equip them, to support our people and defend our soil. Suppose it were true, as theoretical free-traders teach, that our attempts to establish manufactures would take money from our productive indus- tries, how small an evil would this be in comparison with what we would suffer in such a war without the manufactures necessary for the emergency.