HC Deb 30 November 1826 vol 16 cc200-7
Sir Henry Parnell

rose for the purpose of moving for returns of the quantities of Foreign Goods imported into the United Kingdom in the years 1824 and 1826. The object of his motion was, to ascertain what had been the effect of the act that was passed in 1825, for altering the law in respect to the importation of foreign productions. It was commonly supposed that this act had established a free trade; but nothing could be more erroneous than such a supposition. The speech with which the President of the Board of Trade introduced that act had led to this opinion; but the act corresponded very little with the principles laid down in that speech; for the new duties were all kept so high, that very little had been imported under them. The act did little more than change a system of positive prohibition into a system of prohibitory duties. There was now a duty of 30 per cent ad valorem on all foreign manufactures of silk, brass, copper, leather, painted china, sail cloth, turnery, carriages, and many other things: 20 per cent on hardware; on crown glass 8l. 6s. 8d. per cwt.: on sheet glass, 10l.: from 6s. to 11s. per square foot on plate glass: 9d. per lb. on paper: 11d. per lb. on books: 1l. 7s. 6d. per cwt. on copper: 2l. 15s. per load on timber: 4l. 10s. per cwt. on soap: 2s. 6d. per lb. on wax candles: 3l. per cwt. on gunpowder: 8l. 11s. per cwt. on hops: and about 50l. per cent on hats: and a great number of duties on other articles equally high. As the charges for freight, commission, insurance, &c, amounted to about twelve per cent, none of the above goods could be imported in competition with British goods; and the consequence was, that the system was, in point of fact, as exclusive of foreign competition as ever. The country was, therefore, still suffering all the evils which were so ably pointed out by the President of the Board of Trade, as the necessary results of prohibiting foreign competition by high protecting duties. The best incentive to excellence, and the best stimulus to invention and improvement, were destroyed by them, and mediocrity encouraged. By them the community was condemned to suffer both in price and quality, and all the evils of monopoly. They were a premium to the smuggler, and they excited the suspicion and odium of foreign countries. This was the character which the President of the Board of Trade had given of these duties, and the House had still to decide, whether it would leave them as they now existed, or adopt the principles and views of the right hon. gentleman, and introduce a new measure for really establishing a fair competition between British and foreign goods.—The hon. baronet proceeded to observe, that the more the nature of these protecting duties was examined, the more evident it was that, in place of being of any service to the manufacturing interest, they actually injured it. For, as agricultural produce was too high to be exported in order to pay for foreign goods, the more that were imported, the more British manufactures must be exported to pay for them; and, therefore, what was most for the benefit of the British manufacturers was, the greatest possible importation of foreign productions of all kinds. The right course to adopt was, to abolish every duty that partook of the character of what was called a protecting duty; and to impose duties on foreign goods solely for the purpose of obtaining revenue, and in no degree by way of giving protection to any branch of national industry. If this were done, there existed no sound reason for supposing that a single branch of manufacture would be incapable of carrying on a successful competition with a similar foreign manufacture; while it was, at the same time, certain, that if any branch should be injured, some other would be benefited in consequence of the larger exportation that would become necessary to provide the means of paying for the imported foreign manufacture. The high duties which were continued by the act of 1825 on timber, wine, and all articles of luxury, taste, and food, were productive of great injury, either by adding to their price, or by preventing their use, and thus limiting the demand for British production for exportation. It was capable of demonstration, that a larger revenue would be obtained by a lower rate of duty on timber; and it was clear that, so long as we imposed a higher duty on French wines than on the wines of any other country, we could have no chance of the French government acting upon liberal principles, in respect to admitting British goods into France. If the duties on articles of luxury, taste, and food, were lowered to about five per cent, a great revenue might be obtained for them; as was proved by some articles, that were not very heavily taxed, such as butter and cheese, at present yielding some hundred thousands a year of revenue. By the returns which were now required, it would be seen what the importations of foreign goods were in 1824, the year before the passing of the new law, and in the year 1826, the year after the passing of it. And when these were laid before the House, he should feel it his duty to move to have them referred to a select committee. He then moved, "That there be prepared and laid before the House, as soon as the same can be made up, an account showing the quantities of the following articles imported, and entered for home consumption, into the United Kingdom, from foreign countries, and the colonies, in the years 1824 and 1826; and also showing the rate of duty payable on each article, in each of these years."

Mr. Warburton

, in rising to second the motion, said, he was convinced, that the more a person was acquainted with the details of the importation of foreign articles into this country, the more he would be convinced that the system of free trade had been very imperfectly carried into effect. In the article of foreign timber, with which he was better acquainted than with some of the imported articles, he knew that the duty imposed was not only very heavy, but was very inconveniently levied. The price of good timber in the Baltic was about 18s. or 20s. per load, and the amount of duty payable on it when imported, was nearly three times that sum. But that was not the only evil. There was another, which, in some respects, might be considered still greater. He alluded to the mode in which that duty was levied. The landed gentlemen of this country would think it very hard if they could not dispose of their timber except when it was cut into planks of certain dimensions; and yet, such was the difficulty imposed on those who sold their timber from the countries bordering on the Baltic for importation into this country. According to the system now in practice, with respect to the importation duty levied on timber coming from the Baltic, planks of six feet long and half an inch thick, paid exactly the same duty as planks sixteen feet long and three inches thick. The result of this was, that the price was raised to the consumer, upon whom this unequal taxation always fell the most heavily. If the importer could not dispose of the deals cut in the smaller dimensions at an advanced price, which, of course, he could not hope to do, he must put a higher price on those for which he was more likely to find purchasers; and the result of this would be, to raise the price of deals to the consumer. He knew, that, within the last year, a new tariff of duties had been in contemplation; but it had not been carried into effect, and the evils continued the same as before. He did not mean to say that government could not, by possibility, be justified in imposing high duties on such an article, and imposing them in the manner he had stated; but he did not mean to say, that unless ministers had a strong ground to justify this mode of imposing the duty, they ought to alter it, as it was highly injurious in its effects. He believed that the gentlemen connected with the Canada and Russian trade had endeavoured to obtain a new tariff; but their attempt had fallen to the ground. A stagnation of the trade had followed the continuance of the old system, and the only measure which might have increased the trade, and afforded some compensation for past inconveniencies, had not been introduced. Having thus expressed his opinion upon the amount of duty levied on timber, and on the mode in which that duty was levied, he should proceed to notice one or two other articles which were imported into this country, and in respect of the duty on which he thought there ought to be some alteration. There was one article in which we carried on an extensive trade with France; but that trade we had so regulated, as to impose a heavy tax upon ourselves, in the shape of an importing duty. The article to which he referred was Gum Senegal. It was of the utmost importance to calico dyers to have this article; and it was well known that it could only be obtained from the river Senegal, and in small quantities. At one time that article was, by an order in council, allowed to be imported into this country from the ports of France; but, under the present system of importation regulations, that practice was discontinued, and the gum must first be exported to New York, and from thence brought back to this country. This expense of shipment and re-shipment, together with the other charges incident thereto, only served to render the commodity dearer to the consumer. The French followed our bad example in this respect. They said they would act in the same manner towards our article of indigo, as we acted towards their gum Senegal; and they in consequence prohibited the indigo of the East Indies from being imported directly into the ports of France. The indigo was, therefore, taken to Ostend, from whence it was re-shipped, perhaps at a charge of from two to three per cent, and then it was carried into France. The ridiculous part of this system was, that neither country injured its neighbour by these prohibitions, but each injured itself. France, by prohibiting the direct importation of indigo, laid a tax of two or three per cent on that article, which was absolutely necessary in their manufactures; and we could not laugh at them for their folly, since, by pursuing the very same system, we imposed a similar tax upon ourselves, in the equally important and necessary article of gum Senegal. Neither nation could assume the honour of being wiser than the other upon these matters. The next article to which he should call the attention of the House, was the silk we imported from Persia. A large quantity of that silk did in fact, come to us by the way of Russia By the law, as it now stood, Persian silk could not be admitted directly into this country, as it was a product of Asia. Now the most prudent course would be, to admit all articles of commerce by that channel in which they could be received in the cheapest way. It was true, that Persian silk might come to this country by sea from the East Indies; but then it would come at greater cost, as most of of the provinces of Persia from whence that silk was brought lay on the shores of the Caspian sea. The cheapest method, therefore, of importing it, would be to get it through the ports of Russia. That method, however, was prohibited by the law as it stood. If it really was the object of the right hon. gentleman to introduce the principles of free trade, why should not Persian silk be allowed to come here from Russia? He applauded those principles of free trade which the right hon. gentleman had advocated, but which seemed hardly to have been sufficiently put into practice. He did not believe that the fault lay with the right hon. gentleman, who, he trusted, would have the firmness to persevere in carrying his principles into effect, and would not suffer his measures to be frittered away by the interested representations of individuals immediately connected with the trade which it was supposed they might affect.

Mr. Huskisson

said, that as he did not feel the least wish to object to the account for which the hon. baronet had called, and as he did not think this a fit occasion to enter into the subject of the importation duties, he should make but a few observations on the question. He was of opinion, that the great principles which regulated, or which ought to regulate, the commercial policy of this and of other countries, required a more solemn consideration than could be given to them at the present moment; and believing this, he hoped he should stand excused to the House for saying, that it seemed to him the fitter time to enter into the discussion would be after the information sought for by these returns had been obtained. Perhaps he might be allowed to observe, that a great difference of opinion seemed to exist among the impugners of the measures which he had had the honour of advocating. Perhaps he might be permitted to say, that those who out of doors clamoured loudly against these measures, as being injurious to the trade of this country, had founded their clamour upon the speeches of gentlemen opposite, some of whom now complained of those very measures as not being sufficiently strong. On the one hand, there was the complaint, that too much had been done for free trade; while, on the other, there was an equally loud complaint, that nothing had been done. He should not now stay to discriminate between such conflicting extremes of opinion. However, he could not but wonder, that while gentlemen within the House asserted that the principles of free trade had not been carried far enough, there should be others out of the House persevering in their attempts to direct the opposition of the mis-informed towards those measures, which, he could boldly declare, had in no degree contributed to the distresses lately experienced in this country. Before he sat down, he would give the hon. baronet the explanation he required upon the subject of the treaty with Portugal. It was true, that the period when either this country or Portugal might renounce the terms of that treaty arrived in June last, and Portugal had expressed a wish that some alterations should be made in it before it was renewed. Those alterations were still the subject of discussion between the two governments, and, until they should be arranged, the treaty would continue in force, as it was in terms a perpetual treaty, subject only to alteration and revision at certain stated periods. That was the state at which things stood at present; and ministers were, therefore, not at liberty at present to deal with the question of the duty on French and Portuguese wines, as the treaty was still pending. There were other ranches of the subject to which the hon. member for Bridport had alluded, but which it was not now the proper time to discuss. He, however, would remind that hon. gentleman, that there was not one measure to which he had adverted that was not expressly pointed out to ministers by the Navigation laws. Whether those laws ought to be altered or not, was another question; but, while they continued in their present state, and remained as the guides of our foreign commerce, they must be obeyed, and ministers had not the power to change the course which they directed to be pursued.

Mr. Alderman Thompson

thought, that the country was highly indebted to the right hon. gentleman for the liberal course which he had hitherto pursued. He wished to know what was the object of the present motion; for, if it was to obtain a select committee, to whom was to be referred the question of the importation duties; he should certainly oppose the appointment of any such committee, until after the question of the Corn-laws had been finally settled. Until that question was decided, he was convinced the trade of this country could only be partially affected by other measures.

Colonel Torrens

protested against the principle, that British manufacturers wanted any protection. All they required was, that their energies should not be oppressed and destroyed by enormous and unnecessary duties. We could not export our agricultural produce in return for importations of foreign manufactures, since that produce was nearly 50 per cent, dearer than any other in the world. We must, therefore, either export our manufactures, or pay money for goods imported. If there was a free trade to-morrow, our manufacturers might meet all the world; and their knowledge and skill, their capital and their machinery, would give them a decided advantage. But, then, the Corn-laws destroyed these means of superiority; and, until the question of those laws was settled, the prosperity of England stood but on a foundation of sand. He should not detain the House further, as he had merely risen to enter his protest against the supposition, that, of themselves, the British manufacturers required any protection against foreign competition.

The motion was then agreed to.