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Maps. pISMs, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Thoaa too lerge \o be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many framea as required. The following diegrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmAs A des taux da rMuction diffirants. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atra reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film* A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de heut en bas, an prenant le nombre d'imagas nteessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 II REMARKS ON THE IMPOLICY OF RESTRICTIONS ON COMMERCE; WITH A PARTICULAR APPLICATION TO THE PRESENT STATE OF THE TIMBER TRADE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR R. HUNTER, Bi'crBaaoR to mr. johnbon, N° 72, ST. Paul's churchyard. 1891. CHARLES WOOD, Printer, Poppiii'8 Court, Fleet Street, London. REMARKS, ^c. ^c. THE following pages are intended to put the public in possession of the principal facts relative to the Timber Trade, with a view to its forming an unbiassed opinion upon a subject of much im- portance, which has already undergone the investi- gation of a committee of the House of Lords, and which is now under examination by a committee of the House of Commons. Many years have elapsed since the doctrines of Adam Smith on Political Economy have been adopted by almost every writer on that most useful and interesting science ; and among all these doc- trines, none have met with fewer literary impugners than those in which he overthrows the opinions, that gave rise to the old commercial system of pro- hibitions, monopolies, and protecting duties. This system relies for its support on that most absurd proposition, that money, or rather gold and silver, constitute the sole wealth of a nation ; that every B 2 branch of commerce is advantageous, or the reverse, in proportion as it occasions an exportation or im- portation of the precious metals, the balance of profit and loss being the amount so acquired, or parted with. Hence, all the efforts of our legisla- tors have been directed to force upon foreign nations as large a quantity of our commodities as possible, and to take few of theirs in return ; and hence has arisen that most ridiculous of all absurdi- ties, the granting of bounties on exportation, by which a tax was laid on ourselves, in order to bribe foreigners to consume our produce at a cheaper rate than we could consume it our- selves. It has so happened, however, that the exclusive system above described, though it has retarded, has not been able to repress the rapid increase of our commerce and wealth during the last century. The warnings of political economists have, there- fore, been thrown away upon our legislators, while persons engaged in commerce, have kissed the chains that bound them, and have even attributed their prosperity to what was more likely than any thing else to arrest it : such was almost universally the opinion of merchants until within these few years; but the distress under which they have lately laboured has opened their eyes, and few are now to be found, who will argue in defence of obsolete errors, except where their own particular interests are concerned. We see a nation in possession of such a mass of of capital, 'ndnstry, and enterprize, us is without parallel in any age of the world, in which, notwith- standing, the utmost eifurts of this capital, industry, and enterprize, bring its possessors nothing but loss ; all feel the evil, while various hypotheses are invented to account for it. According to some, there is an excess of produc- tion ; according to others, a deficiency of consump- tion, or an increase of the value of money, result- ing from the resumption of cash payments, have occasioned the mischief; but if, as is universally admitted by all whose opinions are worth attention, commerce i:*' an exchange of equivalents, and money the medium of transfer, how can a commodity be less likely to sell, because more commodities are in existence against which it may be exchanged ? or how can an increase in the value of money, which operates on all commodities equally, affect their relative value, or at all hinder the barter of one against the other: As for the diminution of con- sumption, it is nothing but the very evil com^ plained of, stated in other terms. It can never he sufficiently impressed upon the pul^lac mind, that the existing state of things cannot possibly con- tinue ; every mouopoly, every protecting duty, has a direct tendency to lower the profits of capital, and consequently to drive it from Great Britain into other countries where it can be more bene- ficially em-ployed. No chains or bolts can confine it; and he must be ^fidued with a vc^^y small degree of penetration, who does not perceive, that this effect has already taken place among us to a grea H 2 extent, and must inevitably increase, as long as one of the chief evils which give rise to it is suffered to continue. The petitions for a free trade, which were ad- dressed to Parliament last year, particularly turned the public attention to the errors of our commer- cial code ; the principles they advocated were almost universally applauded by ministers, and by the leading members of the opposition ; every body seemed at OMce to perceive the necessity of an alteration ; committees were appointed by both houses to receive evidence on the state of trade, and, after a long and careful examination, that of the Lords presented a report, advising a revision of the duties on timber, and stating that those at present in operation favoured, in an impolitic degree, the Canada wood, and pressed with undue severity on that imported from Norway. It also declared, that " the Canadian merchants were never led to believe, that the duties on foreign timber would be permanent ; that an ex- pectation was, however, held out, that the duty of 2/. is. first imposed, would be continued for some considerable time ; but no such expectation was fairly raised with respect to the war duty, and the duty imposed in 1813 ; and that the exemption of duty on Canada timber has always been tem- porary." Those persons interested in the present order of things instantly became alarmed ; they constitute a numerous and formidable body, and almost every newspaper and bookseller can bear witness to the )f indefatigable activity with which they have since endeavoured to gain and mislead public opinion. That these attempts should be made, can be no subject of surprise ; these gentlemen have em- barked, perhaps imprudently, in different branches of traffic, whose prosperity they conceive to depend on the continuance of the partial monopoly they now enjoy : the same complaints will be raised at any change which may be contemplated, in the several restrictions and prohibitions by which our commercial industry is so unhappily fettered ; and if angry clamour is to arrest the proceedings of the legislature in its first step in the path of ameliora- tion, what hope can we entertain of ultimate im- provement ? We are told that British interests are to be sacrificed to the prosperity of foreigners: upon this ground let the question be tried by a fair state- ment of facts, and a calm deduction of conse- quences from them ; and if after this it shall ap- pear, that the community will gain by the con- tinuance of the present system, in God*s name let it remain unshaken as the laws of China, notwith- standing the ruin it may bring upon individuals. In making a choice among the many errors which present themselves to an enlightened sur- veyor of our commercial system, it is natural he should select for alteration those which have been of shortest duration, and which have become least completely interwoven with the feelings and inte- rest of any considerable class of the community ; upon this view of the question nothing could be more natural than that the shackles which confine 'V 6 the Timber Trade should claim his first attention. Foreign timber began to be imported into England, to a considerable extent, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Norway furnished, almost ex- clusively, the necessary supplies for a long series of years ; at length it was discovered, that the Russian and Prussian ports in the Baltic oould ship timber of a larger scantling, and therefore adapted for particular purposes, and a considerable portion of the trade naturally took that direction. The duties during all this time were imposed without any in- tention of forcing the British consumer to purchase in any markets, which he would not have naturally chosen. During the last century, indeed, it must be observed, that encouragement in the shape of a larg'e bounty was first granted to the importers of wood from our American settlements : it produced the effect of forcing a few cargoes into the market, from New England ; but the breaking out of the American war shortly afterwards put an end to the traffic. During the administration of Mr. Pitt, the duty on timber and deals was several times aug- mented, for the purposes of revenue ; the object of taxation was well chosen, as no augmentation had taken place previously since the reign of George the First ; but still no intention was expressed by the government of interfering with the natural channels of this traffic until the year I8O9. At that time, in consequence of the war with the Northern Powers, the price of timber had reached a most enormous height, and ministers turned their attention to Canada, as the country from whence 1 bupplies might be most readily obtained. I will not 8top to in(]uii-e whether in so doing they acted wisely, whether the opening of this branch of com- merce might not have been safely left to the spirit of mercantile enterprize, with a sure reliance that the interest of the community would thus be best consulted : Mr. Kose, the vice-president of the Board of Trade, thought otherwise ; the die was struck; and, on the 1st of June, 1811, an act of parliament began to operate, doubling all the exist- ing duties on timber and deals'**'. It is a little remarkable, that at that period the motive which had ostensibly occasioned the change should have altogether ceased to operate. Its cause had been removed : for the licenses granted by the British government in I8O9 hud already j)rocured a supply from Russia, Prussia, and Nor- way, more than e()ual to our necessities ; and the effect of competition had reduced prices nearly forty per cent. ; indeed, as low as was compatible with the existence of high war freights and insurance, and much lower than an importer from Canada could afford to sell, quality considered. Every body knows the many great and good qualities which distinguished the late Mr. Rose ; it may be suspected, however, that his mind was not wholly free from bias, arising from the now obsolete prejudices, which taught us to discourage any im- portation of a commodity, which we could by pos- sibility raise ourselves, even at the most -extravagant * See Repui't, page 4. sacrifice, and which looked upon the balance of trade as that of profit and loss : at least his con- duct in this instance can hardly be explained without such a supposition. However, a line of policy having been once adopted, it was completely acted upon. In the autumn of 1811 a very large addition was made to the duties on a particular description of timber, viz, that under eight inches square ; and in 1813 the merchants trading in wood to the north of Europe were undesignedly exposed to another visitation in the shf'pe of an advance of twenty-five per cent., as a war duty, which has been continued since the peace, and is still in operation. Thus, then, the system of encouraging colonial wood became complete. Deals bei:ween eight and twenty feet long, which paid a duty in foreign ships of 1 1. 9*. lOrf. in 17 80, now pay 21 1. lOs. 8d,; battens of the same dimensions were raised from fs. bd. to 10/. i6a". 2d. ; and timber from 8*. \\d. per load to 3/. 8^. It may here be observed, that, from a very early period of the trafi^c, all deals and battens from eight to twenty feet long had been subjected to the same duty ; as long as it was low, this, though unwise and unjust in principle, produced but little prac- tical inconvenience : a different scene now opened ; the merchrnts of every country in the north of Europe, which sent wood to England, endeavoured to shift the enormous !oad from their own shoulders, by cutting their deals of the largest possible dimen- sions ; in this attempt, the great size of the fir trees 9 growing in the Russian and Prussian forests, and that of the rivers down which they are floated, enabled the merchants of those countries to succeed, while the disadvantages under which Norway la- hours, in both respects, rendered all efforts on her part abortive : the result has therefore been, that under the present system any quantity of wood, im- ported in the shape of Norway deals, pays near %JlKf /^^ per cent, more than equal quantities of wood shipped as deals from Russia and Prussia, and that an im- politic preference is therefore given in the market to the produce of the last named countries. The following table shows the average dimensions of deals shipped by the different countries in the north of Europe ; the number of loads of fifty cubic feet, contained in each long hundred, and the rela- tive amount of duty paid by them under the present system*. Russia. ... Dimension! Length. Width. Ft. In. ... 18 11 ... 17 11 ... 16 9 ... 12 9 i. Thick. In. 3 Cubic Ccntents per 120 pieces. Ld. Ft. 9 4..^ Duty per Load. £. 5. d. .... 2 I 8 Prussian.. 3 9 17 ...2 6 1 Swedish .. 3 7 10 ... 2 17 Norway.. s ... . 5 20 ... 3 19 9 This was an effect which was doubtless never con- templated by Mr. Rose, who meant at least to give * See Appendix to the Report of the Lords' Committee, page 101. The Author has never ventured to alter these cal- culations, except when he has had positive reasons for consi- dering ihem a little erroneous. He can bear testimony to their general accuracy. 10 the British consumer a choice of markets in the north of Europe^ where he could purchase his commodity the best in quality, and cheapest in price : it was the consequence of legislating with- out due consideration ; and its impolicy and in- justice are so manifest, that it appears impossible that any sensible mind can fail to perceive both. ^Hr force a person, who wishes to build a house, to employ inferior and unsuitable materials ; the bad policy of this constraint is not even disguised by a plea that this procedure is meant to favour the in- terests of our colonies ; it is a boon granted prin- cipally to Russia, whose whole commercial policy has been, and is still directed to discourage, us much as possible, all British commerce ; and its effect will be ultimately to ruin Norway, the per- fect liberality of whose mercantile code may well put to a blush the f'ramers of those which fetter the industry and capital of more renowned, and perhaps more enlightened countries*. But it is urged, in objection to those who wish to see the duty on deals equalized, that Norway is so poor a country, that she is unable to consume any quantity of British manufactures. She has certainly nothing but wood, iron, and fish to ex- change against the commodities of more favoured climes ; all these we first exclude^ aud then re- * A very absurd system of prohibitions and exclusiutis pre- vails in Sweden, which the good sense of itit present monarch will probably soon remove ; but foreign goods, almost without exception, are admitted into Norway, at eijual, and vtry mode- rule dutie!<. 11 proach her with the poverty we alone have occa- sioned. We accuse her of the consequences which flow from our own acts. All those who know the Norwegians must be aware, that few other people possess, in an equal degree, a taste for foreign comforts and conveniences, and that few nations upon earth consumed a larger quantity, in propor- tion to the amount of population, as long as tbey were permitted to pay for them*. J here is another consideration to which it may be proper to advert ; I mean the effect that may be produced on the political interests of Great Britain, by any reduction of the defensive means which Scandinavia possesses. Russia, already the greatest military power upon earthy wishes also to attain maritime dominion; she commands the materiel of an extensive navy ; but her small extent of coast, and the habits of her servile population, yield her but few real sailors ; and she naturally casts an eager eye upon two countries, whose possession would afford thirty thousand seamen, numbers of whom have conquered and bled under the British flag, and who are uni- versally allowed, by experienced judges, to cede to none but our own in knowledge and hardihood, among all those which Europe can furnish. Upon the conquest of Sweden and Norway the possessors * The annual importations into Norway, during the last three or four years, have been officially valued at about ten millions of specie dollars, or, calculating at an average ex- change, 1,600,000/. 12 V of Petersburg and Astrakhan have been long intent: our most vital interest forbids that this design should succeed : is it wise, then, to take those steps which strike at the very root of their prosperity, and which are most likely to diminish their means of resistance, and to deliver them almost unarmed to their oppressor r I must now return to the point whence the pre- ceding slight historical sketch of the Timber Trade, and th . reflections to which it gives rise, have led me ; and shall endeavour to decide the point at issue between the friends of a free trade and those who advocate a system of monopoly and restriction, by showing, that the duties on timber now in operation are absolutely hostile to the interests of the community, and that their effect is to lay a very heavy lax on the whole country for the sake of certain favoured classes ; to divert a large amount of capital and industry into channels where it can be least productively employed ; to annihilate a very large amount of capital for the sake of pre- serving one of much inferior extent ; and, lastly, to employ a commodity of a very inferior quality, instead of one, the best possibly calculated for our wants. The quantity of foreign wood required for the annual consumption of Greai Britain, has been for the three years 181 7, 1818, and 18 19, upon an average, 311,972 loads of timber, 31,244 long hundreds of deals, 10,174 long hundreds of deal ends, 5121 long hundreds of battens, or about 13 290,000 loads, of fifty cubit feet each, or in all 600,000 loads. Of this quantity, The importation from our colonies in North America has been Fir Timber. Deals and Ends. Battens & Batten Ends. Loads. Long Hundreds. I^ong Hundred!*. In 1817 ...140,280 SHI 201 In 1818 ...214,102 6481 250 In 1819 ...267,065 9871 .359 Average..207,151 43,610 Ids. 30 f. 933 loads 16 feet; or an or in all above 250,000 loads, five-twelfths of the total quantity imported*. Now, I conceive it will hardly be denied, that should an individual dwelling in Yorkshire, where good meat ib to be purchased at five pence a pound, choose to pay as much for some of inferior quality in Caithness, the expense of carriage being three pence per pound besides, his friends would be justified in saying he had lost, or uselessly expended three pence per pound by the operation. Even the author of Observations on the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords will not perhaps refuse his assent to this almost self-evident truth : I will only require him to ad- vance one step farther, and either agree, that Great Britain, during the existence of the present system of duties on wood, is placed in the same circum- stances as the ingenious person above described, or dispute the truth of the statement I shall now * See Appendix to the Report of the LorJi' Committee, page 90, nmlfollowing. 14 I ; submit to him and the pablic. At the same time, should the legislature think fit to enact, that the other inhabitants oF the three ridings should follow the example of their neighbour, it would he easy to show upon the principles adduced in the forementioned pamphlet, that they were thoroughly supporting British interests, and would deserve the highest eulogies of their contemporaries and posterity for so masterly a proof of their poli- tical wisdom. It appears by the tables in the last paragraph but one, that 207,000 loads of fir timber have been imported from Canada annually, upon an average of the last three years. The cost of this timber, delivered free of duty here, will stand as follows ; — Prime cost of 207,000 Ids. at 1 5 per Id.... 258,720 Freight 2 10 517,500 Insurance and charges 10 103,500 £A 5 The annual average quantity, viz. 6607 longhundredsofdealsanddealends, of which thelast description have been so few as hardly to be worth mentioning, will stand th^8 :t— r Prime cost »ay...... 1 1 per hundred 72,677 Freight 18 118,926 Charges 1 6,607 of.30 £. 879,720 198,210 -f.1,077,930 I leave the battens out of the account, as they are so few in number, in order to ^voic^^tiripg my 15 readers, uiid in order to make up for the smalt nnmber of deal ends, which have heen reckoned as deals in the foregoing calculation ; and shall con- tent myself with begging their attention to the cost of the same quantity of deal" and timber, sup- posing thev had been imported from the North of Europe : — £. s. £. Prime cost say 1 5 per load 258,720 Freight 1 207,000 Charges 10 103,500 £2 15 Prime cost of 6607 long hundred of Deals from the North of Europe, at 13/. per hundred ef.85,891 Freight 6 39,642 Charges I 0,607 £. 569,220 o£'20 132,140 701,360 Cost of goods imported from Canada 1,077,930 Loss to the consumer underthe present system of duties. c£'.376,570 In order to prevent cavilling, however, I will suppose that we have paid only 360,000/. per annum, during the years 18 17, 1818, and IS19, for goods imported from Canada, more than we should have paid for the same quantity, the produce of the North of Europe. Should the present system continue, the annual loss must increase, so far from diminishing. As the competition among the several countries, which supply the British market, rests on so unfair a basis, the greater number of the proprietors of sawmills, and the shippers of timber in^ the North of Europe, must inevitably 16 be mined. The quantity of their produce must thus diminish, while that of their Canadian oppo- nents will increase, and the loss to Great Britain along with it. For, as has been fully shown al- ready, every load of timber from our American colonies, consumed here, causes a dead loss to the community of thirty shillings ; and every long hundred deals of ten pounds. But it is not only in the unnecessarily high price which is paid for the commodities consumed, that we resemble the worthy Yorkshireman from whom I have presumed to borrow an illustration ; the quality of the wood produced in our Ame- rican colonies is so much- inferior to that which our Northern Allies could sell us, if we would allow them, as to render the parallel almost com- plete. In proof of this, it is only necessary to refer to the evidence of Sir Robert Seppings, Mr. Alexander Copland, and Mr. John White, before the committee of the House of Lords, which has been summed up nearly in the following terms in the Report. " It has been found in the navy, that the timber of Canada, both oak and fir, does not possess, for the purpose of ship building, more than one half the durability of wood of the same description, the produce of the North of Europe ; tnat it is particularly liable to the growth of fungi, that species of vegetation, which is the fore- runner of the dry rot ; and that in most instances, where it has been orought in contact with the wood of this or any other country, it has had the effect of destroying that which was in jnion with 17 it *." The pine used for masts and bowsprits is the only species excepted, hy men eminently practical, from this unqualified sentence of condemnation ; unless indeed where it is mentioned, that the soft white timber is preferable to any other for packing cases, carved mouldings, and other objects where lightness and freedom from knots are desirable; or, in other words, where those qualities are desi- rable which occasion a very small degree of dura- bility. Even from this slender encomium some deduction ought to be made, as it is perfectly notorious to every carpenter, that the Canadian yellow pine, from its want of firmness and tena- city, will not hold the nails of a packing case which is exposed to considerable pressure, and that one formed of such materials is only 6t for the conveyance of light articles. A description of fir timber, called the red pine, is, however, shipped from Canada, which ])ossesses qualities in the eyes of u consumer far superior to any of its brethren ; but the small quantities of it brought into the market render it hardly worth notice; while the notorious fact, that the far greater part of that small quantity is cnt in the United States, and floated into onr possessions, renders it rather dangerous for soi-disant practical advocates of British interests to hold forth too loudly in its praise. The most hardy admirer of protecting duties will surely not assert the pro- priety of laying a tax of 3/, 8^ . per load on Prussian * SecBepori of the Lor Norway 39 2 3 Average .£'36 8 10 Thus, in the opinion of the consumer, who, after all, is the best judge in such a matter, Canadian tim- ber is worth 2/. 15.V. per load, and deals 7/. 8*. lOrf. f)er long hundred less than its competitors. Nobody can deny, that he who is obliged by the law to pay the same price for a bad article, as would purchase a good one, loses the difference in their relative value; and thus we are furnished with an approximative rule for measuring the amount of another enor- mous, though indirect, tax, which is imposed on Great Britain, by the present system of the wood duty ; and all for the snp|)ort of British interests forsooth ! ' Lords' of any But it at this derably money i The amount of this tax, calculated upon the average importation from Canada for three years, is, on £. 207,000 loads of timber, at 2/. 15*. per load 5(59,250 On 0607 long hundreds of deals, at7/. 8«. lOrf 49,167 Loss to Great Britain, in the price she pays for the «'ood now consumed 350,000 Total loss annually, upon a moderate computation, arising to Great Britain from the present wood duties ofSOB.+ l? Here, then, is a sacrifice offered up to the idol c 2 20 }'■ ^ of tnoiiopoly, equal to the revenue of some crowned heads ; a sum which surpasses one seventh of the annual expense of the British navy, or one-fourth of the expense of collecting the revenue ; a sum, which at any period would have been an object of Brst-rute national consequence, but which in our present state of financial distress it absolutely be- hoves us to save ; a sum, in fine, which would for a considerable time pay the wages of all the unem> ployed labourers in the country. Let nobody sup- pose, because it is not extracted from his pocket by the tax-gatherer, that he the less really pays it. He pays it indirectly, whenever he builds, repairs, or hires a house ; almost whenever he employs a carpenter. It is a tax the more dangerous for the darkness and silence under which its operation is shrouded. I will now point out one circumstance, in which alone the parallel between the Yorkshi reman who buys his mutton in Caithness, and the British con- sumer who goes to the banks of the St. Lawrence for his timber, entirely fails. The farmer may at least be thought to perform an act of generosity, which is hallowed by the consoling idea, that the person benefited is his fellow-countryman, the native of a province, which has long submitted to the same government as his own, and which, as far as we can see, is likely to continue in the same situation for ages to come. Can this be said of Canada ? I am perfectly willing to allow the courage of its inhabitants, and their attachment to the British .V 21 crown ; but can it be positively affirmed, that con- Hidering its inferior population, and highly disad- vantageous military position with respect to the United States, the next war with our ambitious children will not see it wrested from our grasp, notwithstanding as many millions should be la- vished for its defence us were expended during the last three years' hostilities, and notwithstanding a dozen three-deckers, instead of one, should be launched upon its lakes, at the expense of 300,000/. each ? 1 do not venture to give a settled opinion that such will be the case ; but if there should be even a possibility of such an occurrence, it behoves IIS not to pay too high a price for the tillage of a field, whose produce may be reaped by a hostile hand. It may here be remarked, ♦hat the importation of wood from Canada is a branch of commerce, whose very existence to any extent is incompatible with a State of naval warfare. The commencement of hostilities on the ocean would raise freight and in- surance to such a height, as to render even the present enormous duty insufficient for the protec- tion of its produce in the British market ; the quan- tity received would consequently rapidly diminish, while the increased demand for the Baltic and Norwegian timber would instantly raise the price of those commodities to an enormous degree ; and thus the present system would in that case occasion the very evil which it was the expressed intention of its establishment to counteract. Even should a new system of duties wholly ex- clude the timber of Canada and Nova Scotia from 22 the British market, we still could not be accused of want of liberality to our transatlantic brethren. By the enforcement of the navigation act, aided by the impolitic retaliatory regulations of the Ameiican government, we have laid a heavy tax on every West India planter in the price of timber and flour, principally for their benefit ; while the expense of their civil and military establishments alone, amounting to perhaps 300,000/. per annum, is, in my humble estimation, fully equal to any ad- vantages we can ever derive from them in the ca- pacity of subjects to the British crown. It is sometimes urged, that any change in the existing system of duties would occasion a diminu- tion in the revenue. This is so extravagant a >ro- ponition, that it hardly deserves confutation. It may be well, however, to set the rpiestion at onct to rights by a short statement of facts, and to show the chancellor of the exchequer, that he, at least, has no reason to fear. In 1817, the duties paid on wood in Great Brilain, were £937,268 i8l8 1,182 '^85 iSiy 1,019,311 Average o6' 1,04-0,288 We have already seen, that the amiiial average im- portations of wood into Great Britain, during the same period, was above 310,000 loads of timber, and 46,540 long h-uulreds of deals, ::untaining at least 290,0(0 loads more; now, let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that iheijuaniily should pay a duty of 2/. 10*. per load, how would the account stand r Say 000,000 loads, at 2/. Ws. per 'oatl 1,500,000 Gain to the Exchequer ,^453,712 I 23 1 o this should be added the mcreased consump- tion which would infallibly result from a fall of prices ; and the reader will then readily perceive it to be impossible, that any reduccion of revenue could ensue from a reduction and equalization of the duty, even to the amount of perhaps twenty-five per cent, but that a directly opposite consequence would most certainly flow from it. It appears, from the Report of the Lords' Com- mittee*, that a sum of near half a million sterling- is now owing by Norway only, to British subjects for British manufactures, which our regulations have prevented from being paid for. This amount is most certainly under rated, as two houses in London alone have claims in that country to the amount of about 200,000/. ; and if Sweden, Russia, and Prussia are included (as far aH their debts would be etfectcd by an alteration of duty), the sum total would certainly i)e 800,000/. or perhaps a million. T he repayment of this immense sum depends wholly on a change in the existing duty. Should things remain as they are, not 80,000/. will ever be recovcied. Its claimants may think themselves indeed highly fortunate to obtain so miserable a dividend ; and thus above 700,000/. of British capi- tal will l)j totally and irrevocably lost. The amount of fixed capital embarked in the constriH'tion of saw mills, &c. in Canada, which could alone be greatly affected by a change, is Se« llepurt of ih", Loiils' CominiUce, page i. ^m 24 btated in the same document at from 1Q0,000/. to 150,000/. Even supposing my data to be enormously in- correct, I can afford to make every allowance, and vet may hope for tlie support of all unbiassed ad- vocates of British interests in this point of view. What has been already said will, I conceive, be sufficient to convince all those at all acquainted with the very rudiments of political economy, that the view hitherto taken of this momentous question is correct ; and that the present system of monopoly and restriction, arising from the operation of the duties on timber, is absolutely hostile to the inte- rest of the community ; that its eft'ect is to lay a heavy tax on the whole country, for the sake of certain favoured classes ; to direct a large amount of capital and industry into channels where it can be least beneficially employed • to force into con- sumption a commodity of a very inferior description, instead of one the best possibly adapted for our wants ; and, finally, to armihilate a very large capital for the sake of preserving one of much smaller amount. It may be thought by many, that 1 have now said enough, without reverting particularly to the argu- ments '.vhich are commonly employed to defend the existing system of wood duties, whose injustice and impolicy I have endeavoured to expose. I will, however, make some observations on a few points, which are thought by their advocates to carry the greatest weight. First, then, we are told that the extension of the colonial wood trade 25 has been productive of a corresponding increased demand tor British mannfactures ; this of course must mean in the total demand, in which sense I absolutely deny it. I readily grant it affords the colonists additional means of purchasing the productions of the mother country, to an exactly equal amount with that of the invoice price wf the timber and deals they send us ; that is to say, to the annual value ^f about 331,397/. taking as a basis of calculation the table in page 66. But that the total demand for British manufactures is increased by that sum, or inc reased at all, is a proposition so totally unfounded, that the reverse appears to me quite incontrovertible. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that not a deal or a stick of timber was imported from America, the deficit must of course be filled up by the pro- duce of the North of Europe, which nobody thinks is unable to furnish the needful supply ; now can any person suppose that Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Norway would pay us a tribute to that amount? But they must either pay us a tribute, or take an additional quantity of goods in payment for the in- creased value of their exportation. Under the most unfavourable supposition, therefore, the addi- tional exports to those countries would balance the partial diminution to North America ; but as, in the case thus hypothetically put, we should buy our deals and timber at a much cheaper rate, and of a description better adapted to our wants, there can be no doubt that the consumption of deals and timber would greatly augment, and the amount of -rsmnr 2« our produce sent in payment along with it. It can never be sufficiently impressed on the public mind, that the proper way to encourage ex[)ortation is to encourage importation ; that is to say, to leave it Free and unrestrained by any duties or prohibi- tions intended to divert it from its natural channels. The second argument, to which I shall advert, is that which states, that the colonial Timber Trade has afforded support to many thousatids of persons who have emigrated from the mother country, and greatly added to the value and strength of the British possessions in North America. This, of course, must be allowed to n certain extent ; our transatlantic brethren receive .'}31.39f ' per annum for the wooden articles they send us, and are en- abled to employ about 100,()()()/. or 150,000/. of fixed, and a more considerable portion of circula- ting capital, I suppose beneficially. This forms, doubtless, a considerable sum for the support of their labouring population ; but we have already seen, that this advantage to our colonists is ob- tained by an annual sacrifice of 9b8,417/. on the part of the mother country, and at least 700,000/. of fixed capital. Now let us place our American possessions in the most favourable point of view ; let us consider that they form as intimate an in- tegral part of the British empire, and that their prosperity is as closely connected with our own, as that of Devonshiie, or Cornwall ; — now what would be said to the justice or expediency of a law which should tax the remainder of the kingdom, 968,417/. and extinguish besides 700,000/. of its 27 $ ■^ capitdl, for the sake of purchasing from the iriha* hitants of those counties peculiar commodities to the vahie of 3.'H,397^'> ^"^ employing a portion of their fixed capital, represented at the farthest hy the sum of 160,000/. ? Even this illustration places the case of my opponents in too powerful a point of view. For, in the opinion of Mr. Edward Ellice, by his evidence before the House of Lords, it ap- pears that " no advantage is derived to himself or other land-owners, by the present arrangement, because the value of the timber sold at Quebec does not by much exceed the expense and labour of pro- curing it for shipment ; and the Canada land- owner, therefore, gets little or nothing for the timber itself. Even in his opinion, the labourers would be better employed, both as respects their own comforts and interests, and as respects the welfare of the province, in agricultural pursuits, than in this (the Timl)er) Trade." From the evidence of this gentleman, whose in- tegrity and information nobody can dispute, it appears probable, that a considerable part of the loss 1 have supposed might fall en Canada would be averted by an a))plication of her capital and in- dustry to other purposes than the shipping of tim- ber and deals ; and this probability is still further increased, by recollecting, that in the year 1799 the official value of imports into our American colonies was 822,796/. II*., although they then exported a very trifling quantity of timber ; while in I8I9 they only imported to the value of 1,867,0^0/. \2s. \d. 'i;:.'^ t 28 although their population and wealth had certainly doubled in the interval. It is further urged, that previous to the compe- tition of the American Timber Trade, when the duties were not half their present amount, the price of Baltic timber was higher to the consumer in this country than it is now. or than with the same com- petition it is likely to become again ; and, finally, that the colonists' trade affords employment to many hundreds of British ships, and to many thousands of British seamen. In answer to the first of these, I allow the fact of the fall in the price of Baltic timber; and allow also, thiit a part of it may be attributed to the enormous protecting duty which falls upon it, and forces a consumption of the produce of our colo- nies, the effect of which policy has been already described, and commented upon ; but I affirm, without fear of contradiction, that the principal cause of this declension in price has been the re- duction of freight and insurance, arising from the cessation of a general war, and the restoration of profound tranquillity. In 1810, and 1811, the freight to Memel was from 61. to 8/. per load, the insurance from twenty to forty guineas per cent., and the selling price of Memel timber from 9/. to 14/. : at present the freight is about l/. 1*., the in- surance 1/. per cent., and the selling price 61. to 61. \0s. per load. Let it also be remembered, that a maritime war would raise the charges of transport from America in a higher propoition than those 29 idy 11111, re- the I of the the lat a kport Ihobe from the North, especially as it is from the United States that such an event is principally to he ex- pected. It is hy no means my wish to deny, that the colonial Timher Trade aflbrds the means of em- ployment to a very considerable number of British ships and seamen, to a greater number, indeed, than would be necessary, should a larger propor- tion of the timber required for our consumption be imported from the north of Europe ; and that, in that case, many of them would be driven to seek employment in other branches of traffic ; but that it is either wise or Just, therefore, to foster the colonial trade by the numerous protecting duties, which now press upon its opponents, is a conse- quence which I must absolutely deny. The reasoning alleged by the ship-owners proves, in fact, a great deal too much, if it proves any thing at all. Many countries in the world might be named, which are covered with excellent forests, to bring whose produce to our shores would require a voyage of double the duration of that to New Brunswick or Quebec. Do the ship-owners say, that the legislature would act with prudence or wisdom in compelling us to bring the materials of our houses from Pegu or New Zealand ? Yet this they should say, would they argue consistently. I have already shown the immense amount of the tax, which the present system of duties entails upon the community ; would any body affirm, that for the sake of employing a few more British ships, this vast revenue should be extracted from the I':!. ,• ■ \i > 30 people, and a sum of 700 000/. besides, the pro- perty of iiidividnuls, be annihih'ted ? No par- ticnlar person, no class of j)ersons, have a right to expect that a heavy contribution should be laid upon their country, for their peculiar benefit ; and if, as in the present instance, a considerable por- tion of their gains should be derived from the pockets of another class, viz. the creditors of Norway, Sweden, &c., the injustice becomes still more glaring. If this last very considerable por- tion of the national wealth is also to be sacrificed, in the name of all that is just, let every body con- tribute to what is considered to be for the general good, and let the persons in question bear nothing but what is their fair proportion of the loss. Parliament has resisted, and wisely too, the im- portunity of land-owners and cultivators, who, under the pressure of severe distress, have urged the enactment of laws, which would raise the price of corn ; because such a measure redounds to their benefit at the expense of the rest of the nation. Have they less claim upon the sympathy of Great Britain than ship-owners; and may they not justly complain at being compelled to pay a higher price for a worse commodity, for the advantage of their more fortunate countrymen ? Let every country genth man reflect upon the sum he annually ex- pends in repairs, and he will see how much he is interested in opposing the present system of wood duties. The ship-owners should also recollect, that they cannot derive a larger profit from the capital they 31 IV :e lir y is Id \y employ, than the avertrge rate in other trader, wiiatever that may he; for two or more rates of profit cannot he co-existent in the same conntry, and at the same period. If no amelioration takes place in this respect, tliey must suffer with the rest of the community. The present attempt to alter the duty is the first dawn of an improvement in our commercial rei»;ulations, whose direct tendency is to reduce the general proHts of capital. To this the consideration should he added, that any change that should greatly improve the general state of trade, can hardly fail, in many branches, to augment the demand for ships. We are told, that foreign veesels are employed in the Baltic and Norway trades. It is so ; hut if they can sail chea|)er than British, I can see no reason, upon the sound principles of political economy, why they should not be employed : at the same time it must be recollected, that foreign ships have suffered a greater depreciation of value since the peace than our own ; that their number has vastly diminished, and that their rivalship will therefore be less formidable. If, in consequence of the lessened demand for shipping, fewer sailors are required than at pre- sent, we must not forget, though I would by no means be understood to diminish the claims they have upon our sympathy and gratitude, that count- less myriads of labourers are now suffering from want of capital to employ them. Capital is the fund whence their wages are paid, and which, in a considerable degree, furnishes the material to 3i? \r fi: k which the vahic of their industry is added. Shall we, for the sake of giving employment to two or three thousand seamen extra, continue a tax, the amount of which, if left to fructify under the genial influence of liberal regulations, would spread com- fort and tranquillity among fifty thousand of our now miserable fellow- subjects, if not a much larger number ? Shall we do this in ordcM* to keep up a greater immber of ships than the commerce of the empire naturally requires ? Shall we do this in order to force the growth of our transatlantic possessions, in addition to the other sacrifices they cost us ? Upon this momentous question, the legislature is to decide. Should it decide in the negative, other nations would,probably, imitate our just and liberal policy, as they have hitherto imitated our unwise restrictive system. Commerce would then be con- sidered to confer a reciprocity of benefit, and the sound principles of common sense and philosophy would be no longer admired in theory, and disre- garded in practice, but would be universally adopted as the surest guides of monarchs and statesmen. It would be highly presumptuous in a humble individual, like myself, to prescribe to his majesty's government what course they should pursue. Sound principles of policy would undoubtedly indicate the propriety of abolishing altogether the protecting duties, and leaving this important branch of com- merce to flow into its natural channels. If, how- ever, this reformation in one of the most faulty 33 chapters of our mercantile code should appear likely to occasion too sudden and complete a re- vulsion, the change might be brought about by slower degrees, and colonial timber might enjoy a diminished protection for a few years longer, as recommended in the Report of the Lords' Com- mittee. At any rate, it would be highly advisable that the old duties, with all their artificial distinc- tions, should be totally abolished, and one uniform duty be laid on deals and timber, by the load or cubic foot, which would leave the British consumer a perfectly free choice among all the markets of Europe, and would allow him either to convert his wood here or abroad, as his own interest, that is to say, as the welfare of the community should require. r H E 1-; N I). CHARLES WOOD, Printer, Popi.hi's Court, FJeet Street, Lumlon.