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THE UNITED STATES AND THE FISCAL DEBATE IN BRITAIN, 1873–1913*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2007

EDMUND ROGERS
EDMUND ROGERS*
Affiliation:
Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge
*
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, CB3 0DG[email protected]
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Abstract

Historians of the debate over free trade and tariffs in Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have not taken adequate account of the impact of the protectionist United States. The article first examines how American protectionism influenced the cause of imperial preference. It then looks at how both sides in the fiscal debate used the American economic experience to bolster their cases. Finally, it is demonstrated that the economic success and liberal democratic character of America compelled free traders to attack the American example on a moral and political basis.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 593 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

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26 Pelekus, ‘Fair trade and free trade’, p. 132.

27 ‘The M'Kinley Tariff’, Times, 15 Oct. 1890, p. 7.

28 T. Y. Strachan, Protection, reciprocity, free trade (London, 1880), p. 4; Free trade demonstration, Kidderminster, 28 Jan. 1904, in Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: his complete speeches, 1897–1963 (8 vols., New York, 1974), i, p. 244; S. N. Broadberry, The productivity race: British manufacturing in international perspective, 1850–1990 (Cambridge, 1997), ch. 3, esp. pp. 39–42, 48–9; ‘North Stafford Liberal Federation’, Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 June 1903 (typed copy), LGP, LG/A/11/1/50, p. 13; Journal of the Institute of Bankers (JIB), 11 (1890), p. 640; Roderick Floud, The British machine tool industry, 1850–1914 (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 55–61.

29 H. W. Massingham, ed., Labour and protection: a series of studies (London, 1903), p. xiii n.

30 Robert E. Lipsey, ‘U.S. foreign trade and the balance of payments, 1800–1913’, in CEHUS, ii, pp. 712–13.

31 Avner Offer, The First World War: an agrarian interpretation (Oxford, 1989), ch. 6.

32 Fawcett, Free Trade, pp. 63–7.

33 Howe, Free Trade, pp. 5, 232, 259; Trentmann, ‘Political culture’, pp. 230–1.

34 Fawcett, Free Trade, p. 65; Jeans, J. Stephen, ‘The American tariff – its past and its future’, Fortnightly Review, 2nd ser., 52 (1892), pp. 746–60Google Scholar, at p. 758; Lord Avebury, Free trade: address delivered to the Dundee and District Free Trade Association, 20th Jan., 1908 (London, 1908), pp. 14–15.

35 George N. Barnes, ‘Protection in the staple trades’, in Massingham, ed., Labour and protection, p. 249.

36 James L. Garvin, ‘The principles of constructive economics as applied to the maintenance of empire’, in Peter Cain, ed., Free trade and protectionism (4 vols., London, 1996), iv, p. 16.

37 Midland Hall, Manchester, 15 June 1904, in James, ed., Complete Speeches, i, pp. 309–10.

38 Andrew Marrison, ‘Insular free trade, retaliation, and the most-favoured-nation treaty, 1880–1914’, in Andrew Marrison, ed., Free trade and its reception, 1815–1960 (London, 1998), pp. 235–8.

39 Harold Cox, The policy of free imports (London, 1903), p. 22; Alfred E. Eckes, Jr, Opening America's market: U.S. foreign trade policy since 1776 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1995), p. 82.

40 David A. Lake, Power, protection, and free trade: international sources of US commercial strategy, 1887–1939 (Ithaca, 1988).

41 ‘Memorandum on tariff revision in the United States of America’, London, The National Archives (TNA), Cabinet Office records, CAB 37/101/132, p. 5.

42 Times, 4 Sept. 1876, p. 9; Ibid., 14 Nov. 1878, p. 9; ‘The American protectionists’, Economist, 3 Dec. 1881, p. 1489.

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44 Hake and Wesslau, ‘American tariff war’, p. 559; Parliamentary Debates (PD), 3rd ser., 350, 10 Feb. 1891, col. 311; Brown, Tariff reform, p. 76.

45 Conservative opponents of Corn Law repeal had worried about reliance on foreign food generally. See Anna Gambles, ‘Rethinking the politics of protection: Conservatism and the Corn Laws, 1830–1852’, English Historical Review, 113 (1998), pp. 928–52, at p. 939.

46 John Wood, American protection versus Canadian free trade – a plea for agriculture (London, 1880), pp. 32–3.

47 ‘The fair-trade position explained’, Times, 25 Oct. 1883, p. 3.

48 Benjamin Kidd, part iii of Robert Giffen, Edward Dicey, and Benjamin Kidd, ‘Imperial policy and free trade’, in Cain, ed., Free trade and protectionism, iii, pp. 79–81.

49 PD, 4th ser., 101, 27 Jan. 1902, col. 1083; Ibid., 28 Jan. 1902, cols. 1119–21.

50 Ecroyd, Policy of self help, pp. 15–16.

51 Letter from ‘Quid Pro Quo’, ‘The depression of trade’, Times, 14 Nov. 1878, p. 7; ‘The fair-trade position explained’, Ibid., 25 Oct. 1883, p. 3.

52 Garvin, ‘Constructive economics’, p. 33.

53 Letter from W. Farrer Ecroyd, ‘The M'Kinley Tariff’, Times, 20 Oct. 1890, p. 3.

54 ‘English trade and foreign tariffs’, Fair-Trade, 9 Jan. 1891, p. 164.

55 Saul, Studies, pp. 56–8.

56 Garvin, ‘Constructive economics’, p. 33.

57 A. J. Balfour, Economic notes on insular free trade (London, 1903), p. 14.

58 ‘Trade statistics: American wheat’, Monthly Notes on Tariff Reform (MNTR), 1 (1904), p. 77; ‘Preferential tariffs’, Times, 24 June 1903, p. 4.

59 Saul, Studies, p. 49; W. E. Dowding, The tariff reform mirage (London, 1913), p. 294.

60 ‘The food tax bogey – U.S.A. food supply failing’, MNTR, 11 (1909), p. 298.

61 G. Armitage-Smith, ‘The free-trade movement and its results’, in Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, ed., The rise of free trade (4 vols., London, 1997), iii, p. 107; ‘North Stafford Liberal Federation’, Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 June 1903 (typed copy), LGP, LG/A/11/1/50, p. 18; Marshall, ‘The fiscal problem’, 25 Aug. 1903, TNA, Treasury Records, T168/54, p. 36.

62 PD, 4th ser., 101, 28 Jan. 1902, col. 1134; Pigou, Riddle, pp. 94–5; Anon., ‘The tariff controversy’, p. 192.

63 Eckes, Opening America's market, pp. 70–83; Tom E. Terrill, The tariff, politics, and American foreign policy, 1874–1901 (Westport, CT, 1973), ch. 7; Lake, Power, pp. 100, 128, 136–41; Paul Wolman, Most favored nation: the Republican revisionists and US tariff policy, 1897–1912 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1992), chs. 2–3; Judith Goldstein, Ideas, interests, and American trade policy (Ithaca, 1993), pp. 105, 112, 114, 117, 150; Edward S. Kaplan, and Thomas W. Ryley, Prelude to trade wars: American tariff policy, 1890–1922 (Westport, CT, 1994), pp. 3, 12.

64 ‘Further correspondence respecting trade arrangements with the British West India Colonies 1891–1892’, May 1892, TNA, Foreign Office Records, FO 881/6204; Louis J. Jennings, ‘The trade league against England’, Nineteenth Century, 28 (1890), pp. 901–13, at p. 907; Arthur Redford, Manchester merchants and foreign trade (2 vols., Manchester, 1956), ii, pp. 84, 95; Brown, Tariff reform, pp. 105–6; Trentmann, Frank, ‘The transformation of fiscal reform: reciprocity, modernization, and the fiscal debate within the business community in early twentieth-century Britain’, Historical Journal, 39 (1996), pp. 1005–48, at p. 1010CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Fair-Trade, 27 Feb. 1891, p. 250.

66 D. C. Masters, Reciprocity, 1846–1911 (Ottawa, 1961), pp. 14–16, 18; W. M. Baker, ‘A case study of anti-Americanism in English-speaking Canada: the election campaign of 1911’, Canadian Historical Review, 51 (1970), pp. 426–49; Scheinberg, Stephen, ‘Invitation to empire: tariffs and American economic expansion in Canada’, Business History Review, 47 (1973), pp. 218–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at pp. 227–8; Wolman, Most favored nation, p. 167; Kaplan and Ryley, Prelude to trade wars, p. 45; Eckes, Opening America's market, p. 84; James Sturgis, ‘Learning about oneself: the making of Canadian nationalism, 1867–1914’, in C. C. Eldridge, ed., Kith and kin: Canada, Britain and the United States from the Revolution to the Cold War (Cardiff, 1997), pp. 98–100; R. G. Moyles and Doug Owram, Imperial dreams and colonial realities: British views of Canada, 1880–1914 (Toronto, 1988), ch. 1.

67 Peter T. Marsh, Joseph Chamberlain: entrepreneur in politics (London, 1994), pp. 620, 622; ‘The proposed reciprocal trade arrangement between Canada and the United States of America’, London, British Library of Political and Economic Science, Tariff Commission collection (TCC), TC1/8/2, MM44; ‘Most-favoured nation arrangements in relation to the proposed reciprocal trade agreement between Canada and the United States of America’, Ibid., MM45.

68 Green, Crisis, p. 197; Thompson, ‘Tariff reform’, pp. 1048–9; Potter, Simon J., ‘The imperial significance of the Canadian–American reciprocity proposals of 1911’, Historical Journal, 47 (2004), pp. 81–100, at pp. 90–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Taft's plans, see Scheinberg, ‘Invitation to empire’, pp. 226–7; Hannigan, Robert E., ‘Reciprocity 1911: continentalism and American Weltpolitik’, Diplomatic History, 4 (1980), pp. 1–18 at, pp. 8–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wolman, Most favored nation, p. 167.

69 Austen Chamberlain, ‘The Unionist party and preference’, in Cain, ed., Free trade and protectionism, iv, p. 230; ‘The new United States tariff: IV – competition abroad facilitated’, Times, 9 Dec. 1913, p. 21; W. J. Ashley, The tariff problem (London, 1911), p. 117.

70 Garvin, ‘Constructive economics’, pp. 36–9.

71 See for example O. E. Wesslau, Free-trade and protection (London, 1883), p. 6; ‘Canada and the United States’, Spectator, 7 Feb. 1891, p. 195.

72 ‘What America wants’, MNTR, 1 (1904), pp. 302–3; ‘Imperial preference or American reciprocity’, Ibid., 6 (1907), pp. 9–13.

73 Duncan A. S. Bell, ‘The debate about federation in empire political thought, 1860–1900’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 2004), ch. 4.

74 ‘The cost of living in America’, MNTR, 1 (1904), p. 17.

75 ‘Trade statistics of America’, Ibid., pp. 157–8.

76 Trentmann, ‘Transformation’, pp. 1012–13.

77 FTU, Handbook, p. 107; Green, Crisis, p. 39.

78 Green, Crisis, p. 239; Garvin, ‘Constructive economics’, p. 31.

79 On the perceived economic benefits of an imperial market, see Trentmann, ‘Transformation’, pp. 1027–9.

80 Garvin, ‘Constructive economics’, p. 21.

81 ‘United States manufactures’, Times, 25 Aug. 1876, p. 6; Wood, American protection, pp. 11–12; ‘The M'Kinley Tariff’, Times, 15 Oct. 1890, p. 7.

82 Green, Crisis, pp. 170, 228–9. There were countless complaints of British firms moving to America. See compilation of firms' comments in TCC, TC7/43/1; ‘The expatriation of British industries’, MNTR, 1 (1904), pp. 70–1; ‘American rails’, Ibid., 2 (1905), p. 366; Samuel Storey, Fiscal debate: protection v. free trade (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1905), p. 22; ‘Expatriation of British industries’, MNTR, 4 (1906), pp. 331–3.

83 Frewen, Moreton, ‘The national policy of the United States’, Fortnightly Review, 2nd ser., 48 (1890), pp. 674–83, at p. 677Google Scholar; Garvin, ‘Constructive economics’, p. 38.

84 Frewen, ‘National policy’, p. 677.

85 L. S. Amery, The fundamental fallacies of free trade: four addresses on the logical groundwork of the free trade theory (London, 1908), p. 111.

86 Marshall, ‘The fiscal problem’, p. 36.

87 Henry Maine, Popular government (London, 1885), p. 247.

88 Cobden Club, Report of the proceedings of the International Free Trade Congress (London, 1908), p. 40. American export dependence was never above 7 per cent of output throughout this period. Lipsey, ‘U.S. foreign trade’, p. 705.

89 Intersectional economic tensions were hugely important to American political history in this period. Edmund Rogers, ‘Protection, southern republicanism and the free trade vision for the Confederate States of America’ (BA diss., Cambridge, 2004), ch. 1; James M. McPherson, Battle cry of freedom: the American Civil War (London, 1988), p. 26; Turner, James, ‘Understanding the Populists’, Journal of American History, 67 (1980), pp. 354–73, at pp. 370–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robert C. McMath, American Populism: a social history, 1877–1898 (New York, 1993); Robert Ewen, ‘Imperative free trade’, Westminster Review, 146 (1896), pp. 296–303, at p. 298.

90 Times, 4 Nov. 1887, p. 9; Playfair, Subjects of social welfare (London, 1889), p. 116.

91 W. A. S. Hewins, ‘How an imperial tariff will affect the economic position (a) of Great Britain: (b) of the Colonies’, TCC, TC10/1, p. 16; James D. Startt, Journalists for empire: the imperial debate in the Edwardian stately press, 1903–1913 (New York, 1991), p. 32.

92 Playfair, Subjects, pp. 118; 161; Gladstone, W. E., ‘Free trade’, North American Review, 150 (1890), pp. 1–27, at p. 20Google Scholar.

93 Anon., ‘Mr. Chamberlain's fiscal policy’, Quarterly Review, 198 (1903), pp. 246–78, at p. 262Google Scholar.

94 ‘The Tariff Commission's report on the engineering trade – labour conditions in the U.S.A.’, MNTR, 10 (1909), p. 184.

95 Fawcett, Free Trade, p. 123, 126; Thomas P. Whittaker, Free trade, reciprocity, and foreign competition (London, 1879), pp. 30, 38; John Slagg, Free trade and tariffs (London, 1881), pp. 9–10; Buxton, Sydney C., ‘Fair trade and free trade: a dialogue’, Contemporary Review, 40 (1881), pp. 959–84, at p. 968Google Scholar; Winston Churchill speaking at Oldham, 21 Oct. 1903, James, ed., Complete speeches, i, p. 218; Churchill at Sun Hall, Liverpool, 2 Apr. 1908, Ibid., p. 928.

96 Times, 4 Sept. 1876, p. 9.

97 Churchill speaking at free trade meeting, Halifax, 21 Dec. 1903, James, ed., Complete speeches, i, p. 237.

98 Letter from H. C. Field, Times, 17 Nov. 1903, p. 6.

99 John M. Robertson, Trade and tariffs (London, 1908), p. 182.

100 Boyd Hilton, Corn, cash, commerce: the economic policies of the Tory governments, 1815–1830 (Oxford, 1977), pp. 307, 310–13.

101 Idem, The age of atonement: the influence of evangelicalism on social and economic thought, 1795–1865 (Oxford, 1988), p. 263.

102 ‘The crisis abroad – and at home’, MNTR, 8 (1908), p. 1.

103 R. C. West, Banking reform and the Federal Reserve, 1863–1923 (Ithaca, 1977), pp. 27–32; ‘The cause of the recent American crisis’, MNTR, 8 (1908), pp. 356–7; TRL, Handbook for speakers, p. 49; ‘The American scramble for currency’, Economist, 16 Nov. 1907, p. 1966; ‘American bank failures in 1907–08’, Statist, 20 Mar. 1909, pp. 588–9.

104 Robertson, Trade and tariffs, p. 183.

105 Whittaker, Free trade, p. 20.

106 Andrew Marrison, British business and protection, 1903–1932 (Oxford, 1996), p. 145.

107 ‘The American presidential election’, MNTR, 1 (1904), p. 270; TRL, Handbook for speakers, pp. 159–60; ‘The American presidential election – a victory for the tariff’, MNTR, 9 (1908), pp. 385–7.

108 TRL, Handbook for speakers, p. 14.

109 George Byng, ‘The influence of free trade on wages’, in Cain, ed., Free trade and protectionism, iii, p. 8.

110 H. J. Pettifer, John Bull and Jonathan: or free trade v. protection. An address to working men (London, 1889), pp. 11–12.

111 Joanne Reitano, The tariff question in the Gilded Age: the great debate of 1888 (University Park, PA, 1988), pp. 75–82; Alan Sykes, Tariff reform in British politics, 1903–1913 (Oxford, 1979), p. 56.

112 Pettifer, John Bull, pp. 9–11.

113 ‘The savings of labour in America’, MNTR, 1 (1904), p. 79; Storey, Fiscal debate; p. 71; TRL, Handbook for speakers, p. 195.

114 ‘“The welfare system.” What can be done under a tariff’, MNTR, 20 (1904), pp. 89–91.

115 Sykes, Tariff reform, pp. 56–7.

116 Frewen, ‘National policy’, p. 683.

117 Pettifer, John Bull, p. 8; TRL, Handbook for speakers, pp. 195–7.

118 Fawcett, Free trade, pp. 101–3, 125; Slagg, Free trade, p. 9; Playfair, Subjects, pp. 116–17.

119 FTU, ABC, pp. 228–9; R. C. Seaton, Power v. plenty: some thoughts on the tariff question (London, 1912), p. 114.

120 ‘The American working man’, Economist, 22 Apr. 1911, pp. 830–1.

121 George W. Gough, Five more fiscal fallacies (London, 1910), p. 10.

122 Fawcett, Free trade, pp. 100–1; Medley, Pamphlets, p. 237; Haine, F. W., ‘The modern protective system’, Westminster Review, 138 (1892), pp. 138–45, at p. 142Google Scholar; Gough, Fiscal fallacies, p. 9.

123 ‘North Stafford Liberal Federation’, Staffordshire Sentinel, 20 June 1903 (typed copy), LGP, LG/A/11/1/50, pp. 16–17,

124 FTU, Handbook, p. 8; Gough, Fiscal fallacies, p. 10; ‘The American working man’, p. 831.

125 Joseph Kay, Free trade in land (London, 1879), pp. 301, 308; Playfair, Subjects, p. 112; Medley, Pamphlets, p. 238. On how the social structure of British landownership affected agricultural production, see Offer, First World War, ch. 8.

126 Kay, Free trade in land, pp. 80, 105, 192; F. M. L. Thompson, ‘Changing perceptions of land tenures in Britain, 1750–1914’, in Winch and O'Brien, eds., Political economy, pp. 129–34; G. Shaw-Lefevre, Freedom of land (London, 1880); George C. Brodrick, The reform of the English land system (London, 1883); Havelock Fisher, The English land question (London, 1883); C. M. Fisher, ‘Farm land and land laws of the United States’, in J. W. Probyn, ed., Systems of land tenure in various countries (London, 1870).

127 Fawcett, Free Trade, p. 103, Playfair, Subjects, pp. 164–5; FTU, Handbook, p. 83.

128 Trentmann, ‘Political culture’, p. 230.

129 FTU, Perils of protection series, in Miscellaneous Pamphlets (1909), British Library (BL), London.

130 Wood, American protection, pp. 9, 11–12; letter from ‘M. R. J.’, ‘The standard of living in the United States’, Times, 1 Oct. 1890, p. 13; ‘Mr. Evelyn Cecil on protection in the United States’, MNTR, 3 (1905), p. 200; Andrew Bonar Law, ‘Tariff reform and the cotton trade’, in Cain, ed., Free trade and protectionism, iv, p. 178; letter from ‘Employer’, ‘Tariff reform and engineering’, Times, 30 Nov. 1910, p. 16; ‘Rudyard Kipling: prophet’, Liberal Magazine, 18 (1910), p. 559.

131 Byng, ‘Influence’, p. 10.

132 ‘The cost of living in America’, pp. 16–17; see also TRL, Handbook for speakers, p. 14.

133 Byng, ‘Influence’, p. 12.

134 ‘The cost of living in America’; Report of an enquiry by the Board of Trade into working class rents, housing, retail prices, and standard rate of wages in the principal industrial towns of the United States of America; with an introductory memorandum and a comparison of conditions in the United States of America and the United Kingdom (1911); FTU, ABC, pp. 142–3.

135 G. R. Searle, Corruption in British politics, 1895–1930 (Oxford, 1987), pp. 78–9.

136 The American Tobacco Company bought up Ogden's Tobacco, the Diamond Match Company purchased Bryant & May, and several Atlantic shipping lines came under American control. Vivian Vale, ‘Trusts and tycoons: British myth and American reality’, in H. C. Allen and Roger Thompson, eds., Contrast and connection: bicentennial essays in Anglo-American history (London, 1976), pp. 228–30; Heindel, American impact, p. 150.

137 Churchill speaking at Frome, Somerset, 27 Jan. 1910, in James, ed., Complete speeches, ii, p. 1489.

138 Pelling, Henry, ‘The American economy and the formation of the Labour party’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 8 (1955), pp. 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

139 J. A. Hobson counted that out of 183 ‘Industrial Combinations’ registered in the 1900 American census, 120 were formed after the Dingley Tariff came into effect. J. A. Hobson, Fruits of American protection (London, 1907), pp. 44–50; idem, The evolution of modern capitalism: a study of machine production (London, 1906), pp. 195–6, 204–10; Plimsoll, Samuel, ‘“Trusts”: an alarm’, Nineteenth Century, 29 (1891), pp. 832–44, at p. 841Google Scholar; FTU, Handbook, p. 56.

140 Hobson, Fruits, pp. 13, 16–26, 45–6.

141 Kidd did admit that the American trusts had ‘run riot … beyond the control of the electorate’. Kidd, part iii of Giffen, Dicey, and Kidd, ‘Imperial policy’, pp. 78–9. For wider recognition of trusts as a global phenomenon, see Green, Crisis, pp. 229–30.

142 ‘Notes for debaters: the American trusts’, MNTR, 1 (1904), pp. 77–8.

143 TRL, Handbook for speakers, p. 21.

144 Jennings, ‘English trade and foreign competition’, in Cain, ed., Free trade and protectionism, ii, p. 196.

145 Phyllis Deane, ‘Marshall on free trade’, in Rita McWilliams Tullberg, ed., Alfred Marshall in retrospect (Aldershot, 1990), pp. 113–15.

146 ‘Speeches by Mr. Bryce: the fruits of protection in the United States’, Liberal Magazine, 12 (1905), p. 752.

147 Pigou, Riddle, pp. 27–8.

148 Searle, Corruption, pp. 1, 12; ‘Corruption in the United States’, Economist, 11 Mar. 1876, p. 311; Fawcett, Free trade, p. 81; ‘The American tariff – and after’, Spectator, 24 July 1897, p. 102.

149 For an exception, see Winston Churchill speaking at Carnarvon, 18 Oct. 1904, in James, ed., Complete speeches, i, pp. 368–9.

150 Donald, Robert, ‘McKinleyism and the presidential election’, Contemporary Review, 62 (1892), 489–504, at p. 490Google Scholar; Plimsoll, ‘Trusts’, p. 840; Maitland, William, ‘The ruin of the American farmer’, Nineteenth Century, 32 (1892), pp. 733–43, at p. 734Google Scholar; ‘The American tariff – and after’, Spectator, 24 July 1897, p. 102.

151 Winston Churchill speaking at free trade demonstration, Kidderminster, 28 Jan. 1904, in James, ed., Complete speeches, i, p. 243; Searle, Corruption, p. 71; Trentmann, ‘Transformation’, p. 1021; Searle, Corruption, pp. 27, 94–5.

152 Howe, Free trade, p. 267; Readman, Paul, ‘The Liberal party and patriotism in early twentieth century Britain’, Twentieth Century British History, 12 (2001), pp. 269–302CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Trentmann, ‘National identity’.

153 FTU, The cotton industry and the fiscal question: speeches by Sir William H. Holland, Bart., M. P. and Mr. William Tattersall (London, 1909), p. 18.

154 Idem, Voice from America: how tariffs ‘tax the American people’ (London, 1909).

155 28 May 1903, in James, ed., Complete speeches, i, p. 192.

156 ‘Speeches by Mr. Bryce: the fruits of protection in the United States’, Liberal Magazine, 12 (1905), pp. 752–3; Ernest Villiers speaking at Brighton, 31 Jan. 1908, Ibid., 16 (1908), p. 141.

157 John Burns, ‘Political dangers of protection’, in Massingham, ed., Labour and protection, p. 26.

158 John Bright to member of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 21 Apr. 1887, in H. J. Leech, ed., The public letters of the Right Hon. John Bright (London, 1895), p. 72; James Bryce, The American commonwealth (2 vols., London, 1889), ii, p. 178; Donald, ‘McKinleyism’, p. 489.

159 Baden-Powell, George, ‘A Canadian people’, Fortnightly Review, 2nd ser., 49 (1891), pp. 113–21, at p. 117Google Scholar.

160 W. J. Ashley, The adjustment of wages (London, 1903), p. 161.

161 TRL, Handbook for speakers, p. 21.

162 In 1912 several members of the Liberal government, including Lloyd George, purchased shares in the American arm of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company around the same time that the Post Office had arranged for Marconi to erect a series of new wireless stations for the empire. Critics therefore identified a serious conflict between personal interests and official duties. Searle, Corruption, chs. 5–10. For anti-Semitism, see ibid, p. 133; David Feldman, Englishmen and Jews: social relations and political culture 1840–1914 (New Haven, 1994), pp. 265–7.

163 Chamberlain intended to design a tariff not ‘merely in regard to the special interests of any particular trade’. Marrison, British business, p. 34.

164 ‘The new American tariff’, MNTR, 18 (1904), p. 286. Underwood-Simmons was the most meaningful attempt at reducing American protective duties since the Civil War.

165 Report of the proceedings of the National Liberal Federation Annual Meeting, 25 Nov. 1910, in Liberal Publications Department, Pamphlets and leaflets for 1910 (London, 1911), p. 27.

166 J. A. Hobson, International trade: an application of economic theory (London, 1904), pp. 161–2.

167 Howe, Free trade, pp. 4–6, 18–21, 266.

168 FTU, What does protection mean in America? (London, 1909); Hake and Wesslau, ‘American tariff war’, pp. 565–6.

169 J. A. Hobson, ‘Protection as a working-class policy ii’, in Massingham, ed., Labour and protection, p. 88; ‘The labour problem in America’, Economist, 18 Dec. 1909, p. 1256.

170 Donald, ‘McKinleyism’, p. 498; Hobson, ‘Protection’, p. 89.

171 JIB, 15 (1894), pp. 548–9.

172 Ross McKibbin, The ideologies of class: social relations in Britain, 1880–1950 (Oxford, 1998), pp. 31–2.

173 Trentmann, ‘Political culture’, pp. 218–19, 232; idem, ‘National identity’, p. 222.

174 Donald, ‘McKinleyism’, pp. 497, 503.

175 Ernest Villiers speaking at Brighton, 31 Jan. 1908, Liberal Magazine, 16 (1908), p. 141.

176 Avebury, Free trade, p. 22; Herbert Crickmay, Depression or decline? The conditions and prospects of trade (London, 1885), p. 77; Storey, Fiscal debate, p. 42.

177 Paper on American protection, Apr. 1889, BL, Gladstone papers, Add. MSS 44773, fo. 97.

178 Avebury, Free trade, pp. 20–1.

179 Times, 24 Mar. 1881, p. 9; L. S. Sackville-West to Earl Granville, Washington, 14 July 1883, ‘Correspondence respecting the negotiation of a treaty regulating trade between the British West India Colonies and the United States, 1883–1885’ (Mar. 1886), p. 4, TNA, Foreign Office Records, FO881/5221.

180 Sykes, Tariff reform, pp. 59–60, 288.

181 Gerard M. Koot, English historical economics: the rise of economic history and neomercantilism (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 4–5.

182 Times, 30 June 1873, p. 11; Ibid., 30 Apr. 1878, p. 9; Maine, Popular government, pp. 35–6; Northcote, Amyas Stafford, ‘The utter corruption in American politics’, Nineteenth Century, 35 (1894), pp. 692–700Google Scholar.

183 Peter Clarke, Liberals and social democrats (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 6–7.

184 Anon., ‘The new American tariff’, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 156 (1894), pp. 573–82, at p. 574Google Scholar; for an analysis of changing British attitudes to the American constitution, see Tulloch, H. A., ‘Changing British attitudes towards the United States in the 1880s’, Historical Journal, 20 (1977), pp. 825–40, at pp. 833–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; FTU, Five fiscal fallacies (London, 1908), pp. 92–4; J. A. Hobson, The crisis of liberalism: new issues of democracy (London, 1909), pp. 50–1, 152.

185 Cox, Policy of free imports, p. 11.

186 Quoted in Bradford Perkins, The great rapprochement: England and the United States, 1895–1914 (London, 1969), p. 123.

187 Playfair, Subjects, pp. 123–4, 179–80.

188 PD, 4th ser., 110, 25 June 1902, col. 42.

189 Trentmann, ‘Civil society’, pp. 309–10.

190 F. S. Willoughby, The real question of the day! Free trade v. fair trade: patent laws! England v. America: an appeal to the working classes of Great Britain (London, 1881), p. 11.

191 Speaking at Brighton, 31 Jan. 1908, Liberal Magazine, 16 (1908), p. 141.

192 John Bright to Cyrus W. Field, 21 Jan. 1879, in Leech, ed., Public letters, pp. 39–40; Cobden Club, Free trade and free enterprise: report of the proceedings at the dinner of the Cobden Club, June 28, 1873 (London, 1873), p. 53.

193 Jennings, ‘Trade league’, p. 902.

194 Tulloch, ‘British attitudes’, pp. 833–9.

195 Trentmann, ‘National identity’, pp. 230, 232–3.

196 Medley, Pamphlets, p. 277.

197 Winston Churchill speaking at Salisbury, 14 Apr. 1905, in James, ed., Complete speeches, i, p. 474.

198 Playfair, Subjects, pp. 123–4, 179–80.

199 Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 19 Feb. 1904, in James, ed., Complete speeches, i, p. 260.

200 ‘Sir Lyon Playfair on commercial legislation in the United States’, Times, 14 Nov. 1890, p. 3.

201 Howe, Free trade, p. 155; Richard Cobden, ‘England, Ireland, and America’, in his The political writings of Richard Cobden (London, 1903), pp. 78, 89.

202 ‘The McKinley Tariff Bill’, Fair-Trade, 22 Aug. 1890, p. 544.

203 Donald, ‘McKinleyism’, p. 492; Hake and Wesslau, ‘American tariff war’, pp. 567–8; Whittaker, Free trade, p. 20.

204 Gladstone ‘Free trade’, pp. 26–7; H. C. G. Matthew, ed., The Gladstone diaries with cabinet minutes and prime-ministerial correspondence (14 vols., Oxford, 1994), xii, pp. xlii–xliii.

205 Medley, Pamphlets, p. 279.

206 B. C. Hearne, ‘E. L. Godkin and the Anglo-American genteel reformers, 1865–1902’ (M.Litt. thesis, Oxford, 1981), p. 187. Progressivism was still a transatlantic phenomenon. See Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic crossings: social politics in a progressive age (Cambridge, MA, 1998).

207 Report of the proceedings of the National Liberal Federation Annual Meeting, 26–7 Nov. 1913, in Liberal Publications Department, Pamphlets and leaflets for 1913 (London, 1914), p. 28.

208 Anthony Howe, ‘Free trade and the international order: the Anglo-American tradition, 1846–1946’, in Fred M. Leventhal, and Roland Quinault, eds., Anglo-American attitudes: from revolution to partnership (Aldershot, 2000), p. 152; ‘An American income tax’, Statist, 10 July 1909, pp. 77–9.

209 Howe, ‘Free trade and the international order’, pp. 155–8; Lake, Power, p. 226; Goldstein, Ideas, pp. 133, 137, 143–5, 148, 153, 181.

210 Rowland Tappan Berthoff, British immigrants in industrial America, 1750–1950 (Cambridge, MA, 1953), pp. 68–9; W. E. Minchinton, The British tinplate industry: a history (Oxford, 1957), p. 66. Welsh emigrants also helped set up tinplate works in Italy, Spain and Belgium. Idem, ‘The diffusion of tinplate manufacture’, Economic History Review, 9 (1956), pp. 349–58, at p. 354CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

211 ‘Hindrances to English commercial progress’, Times, 23 Sept. 1903, p. 9; Anon., ‘Chamberlain's fiscal policy’, p. 262.

212 Broadberry, Productivity race, chs. 3, 6–8.

213 On the free trade side, see George Baden-Powell, ‘Protection in young communities: recorded results in Victoria and New South Wales’, Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science [RBAAS], 1881 (1882), pp. 760–1; idem, ‘The results of protection in young communities’, Fortnightly Review, 21 (1882), pp. 369–79Google Scholar; idem, State aid and state interference (London, 1882), pp. 9–10; T. H. Farrer, Free trade versus fair trade (London, 1892), pp. 110–11; William Westgarth, ‘The battle between free trade and protection in Australia’, RBAAS 1887 (1888), pp. 833–4; Lord Brassey, Victoria in 1898 (London, 1898), pp. 15–16; ‘Free trade in New South Wales and protection in Victoria’, Cobden Club leaflet no. 79 (1889). For fiscal reform views, see Fair-Trade, 12 Nov. 1886, pp. 55–6, 24 Feb. 1888, p. 265, 1 Nov. 1889, pp. 40–1, 24 Oct. 1890, pp. 31–2.

214 Mary O. Furner, ‘Knowing capitalism: public investigation and the labour question in the long Progressive era’, in Mary O. Furner and Barry Supple, eds., The state and economic knowledge: the American and British experiences (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 246–7.