SILK TRADE.

HC Deb 09 February 1826 vol 14 cc152-7

Sir T. Lethbridge

presented a petition from certain Silk Throwsters of Somerset, against the importation of foreign Silks.

Mr. Robertson

called the attention of the House to one or two facts connected with this subject. It was said, that 30 per cent was a protecting duty for our silks; but he knew that wrought silks could be introduced, both from India and from France, at such a rate as to compete with our manufacturers when putting the raw material into the loom. Would the House, then, allow ministers to persevere in a system which would destroy a trade that the country had been nursing for ages? To compete with the French was impossible. They had a particular kind of silk which they never allowed to go forth but in a manufactured state. Let that silk be brought into our market, and it would be bought up at whatever price by our fashionables. These silks, once introduced, would drive our produce out of the market. Was the English manufacturer, with a load of debt hanging like a millstone round his neck, to be compelled to a competition with the French manufacturer, whose debt sat so lightly upon him that it was not felt as a burthen? Were they to tolerate such a proceeding? Let them call upon ministers to put this part of their new measures at rest. How else were they to get out of the difficulties and distresses under which the country laboured, unless by giving every stimulus to industry, which was at present at a stand. The labouring classes were without employment, and the means of procuring food or raiment; and yet ministers persisted in subjecting the manufacturers to the competition of cheaper markets.

Mr. Baring

presented a petition from Taunton, against the introduction of French silks, which, he said, deserved the serious consideration of the House. The subject, he hoped, would undergo discussion at an early period, seeing that hundreds of thousands of people anticipated ruin and starvation from the importation of foreign silks. It was not now the time for him to go into that discussion; though it would be very desirable if the president of the Board of Trade could contrive to be in his place when petitions of this nature were sure to come on. He hoped to see the question set at rest. The conviction on his own mind was settled long ago. What he wished to see was, whether or no the House would support ministers in their desperate resolution. Great anxiety existed among the silk manufacturers, and great hopes were entertained by them, that the House would defend them against the ruin which awaited them from the measures pursued by government. He had no great confidence in that source of relief, when he recollected how his own objections to the measure had fared two years ago. But the public mind should be set at rest. The master silk-weavers could not find employment for their people until their own fate was known. Whether right or wrong, they all said, that if French silk goods were let in, there was no chance of selling a single yard of English silk. He could not approve of hearing them in a committee, because of the delay which would follow. Nor did he hope, if the committee were allowed, that they would be able to make out the case, that it was impossible for the English manufacture of silks to bear the competition of a free trade. The case which they had made out to him had left his mind without the shadow of a doubt. Still, the question ought to be set at rest by a bill. The conduct of government justified a suspicion, that they would not scruple to take liberties with the law. The late order to prevent the issuing of stamps from the Stamp-office, was a direct violation of the existing law. He was anxious to get rid of the one and two pound notes, but he wished to see them abolished gradually, and by legal means. He had to complain of a similar infraction with respect to the silk laws. A duty of 7s. 6d. a pound had been laid upon thrown silk. He had said at the time, that every penny of that protecting duty on thrown silk, must so far sacrifice the interest of the manufacturer. An order had lately gone down to state, that it was the intention of government to reduce that duty 2s. 6d., or from that to 3s., as they found that 5s. was a sufficient protection for the throwsters; so completely ignorant were ministers of that interest, concerning which they were so ready to advise enactments. As if the law and the parliament were as nothing compared with their own notions, they undertook to accept 5s. per lb. upon an article which was to have paid the state 7s. 6d. per lb. This was a strong case; and, like the other, might be justifiable by circumstances. But if so, it was the bounden duty of ministers, to have stated them to parliament, and sought protection from the offended law in a bill of indemnity. The whole trade was unhinged, and the operatives were in the greatest straits. What be wished was, to impress the minds of ministers with the necessity of speedily taking their case into consideration. The petitioners had requested him to remove an impression which had been made by the hon. baronet (sir T. Lethbridge), that they were satisfied with the corn laws. They had directed him to contradict that statement. Their impression, on the contrary, was, that the principle of free trade must be greatly injurious to the general interests, unless it were extended to corn.

Mr. Huskisson

wished to excuse himself for not being present sooner. His only apology was, that he had not been absent for his own convenience, but in discharge of the duties of his office, and from which he had repaired to the House. He knew that this apology was inadequate to the occasion; but it was the best he had to offer. As to the order of the Treasury to lower the duty on thrown silk, it was a mistake to state that it was done without authority from parliament. The board of trade having satisfied themselves, that 5s. was a sufficient protection, they had directed so much of the duty to be taken, and that bonds should be given for the excess of 2s. 6d. per pound, should parliament not concur with the government. The House would see at once, that the whole of the duty was secured to the public, should parliament think proper to exact it, and that ministers had by no means assumed a dispensing power over it. He would not now go into the discussion of the deranged state of the trade and currency of the country. When the subject was brought forward in the regular and formal manner, he should be quite prepared to meet the objections to the regulations in the silk trade, and all the other alterations in the commercial system which parliament had adopted. The hon. gentleman himself had given his sanction to much of what had been done; and there certainly was nothing more desirable, than that this matter should be fully discussed in that House.

Mr. Davenport

implored ministers to take the subject of the silk trade again into consideration. He gave them credit for their intentions; but the consequences of their measures were just such as, two years ago, he had predicted. Open the ports of England, he had said, to foreign silk, and the home manufacturer must be ruined. In his neighbourhood, thousands were suffering extreme distress; and were chiefly supported by the warrant of the magistrate. This state of things could not last. What was to follow it? Clearly starvation. He called upon the landed and manufacturing interests to induce ministers to forego a plan which must ruin them all.

Sir T. Lethbridge

said, that the hon. member for Taunton had mistaken his expressions, both as to time and meaning. It was not on a petition which he had presented, but in the course of the observations which were made on the report of the Address that he had stated that which he believed to be perfectly correct; namely, that the great body of the manufacturers took a more chaste view of the corn question than before. He had never taken upon him to say, that the manufacturers would have no complaints about the price of corn, however high; but only that, in the present state of the price of provisions, they did not complain of the Corn laws, but of the destruction of their trade. And, indeed, in their present condition, it would not be surprising if they were to complain of the price of provisions, however low. Yet, to be candid, he could not but look upon this alteration of the silk trade as an outwork to a similar alteration in the Corn laws, which, if not directly touched, was so by a side-wind, tending at no distant period to an open trade in corn. From the distress resulting to the manufacturers from this first attempt, the House might be called upon to consider of a similar alteration in the corn trade. He thought that, if the intentions of government bore that way, the more manly course would have been to begin with the corn trade. For his own part, he must oppose any proposition like that of a free trade of corn. As long as the national debt remained, no such thing could be listened to. The country could not support that competition and its present burthens together. He would be as glad as any to see low prices, but high prices there must be. The prices must be kept up by an import duty, amounting to an absolute prohibition, so long as the interest of the national debt was to be paid.

Mr. Ellice

said, that the hon. baronet was certainly right in considering this measure as the outwork of an attack on the Corn laws. If the principle of freedom was to be applied to other trades, it ought to be applied to the trade in corn. With respect to the case of the silk manufacturers, a great uncertainty prevailed in the public mind upon that subject. He intended shortly to move to have all the petitions referred to a committee. Much useful light had already been thrown on this subject, and much more might be expected. It was the opinion of persons who had the best continental intelligence, that unless there was a great improvement in machinery, and a great reduction in the price of corn, they could not proceed with this bill, without throwing out of employment the great mass of people engaged in the trade. Whether that trade could be built up again, was another question; but the present ruinous effect was clearly contemplated. The bill had, notwithstanding, one good effect. It had induced the silk manufacturers to institute a full inquiry into the state of their trade, and the result was a conviction on their part, that the foreign competition would prove ruinous to the home manufacturer.

Mr. Baring

said, he had never encouraged this particular measure respecting silk: on the contrary, he was almost the only person who had raised his voice against it from the outset. Still it was rather hard, he must admit, to throw the whole responsibility of the bill upon ministers, since it had passed through the House with almost unanimous approbation. He was old enough to know, that those measures were not always the best and wisest which received the readiest acquiescence of that House.

Mr. Huskisson

said, he never intended to intimate that his lion, friend had supported this particular measure. All he meant to state was, that the opening of the colonial trade, and the removal of the duty on the raw material, had his hon. friend's approbation.

Ordered to lie on the table.