Tariff and Trade (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ...power, the probability is that the Suez Canal would no longer be available for the intercourse of her ships with either the East or the Antipodes, and there would remain the route round the Cape of Good Hope, or across the United States and from San Francisco. It is of course highly improbable that both these would be blocked at the same time, but sentiment as it exists at present, demands a highway through British territory in preference to any other. The necessities of the case being conceded, the conditions under which the subsidy is granted must be considered. In the case of France and the United States the services which are so exorbitantly paid for are not unique, they admittedly could be, and are actually performed for very much less, and the bounty is given principally to stimulate the construction of tonnage which may or may not be required. In the Canadian contract, competition has been allowed full play; the firm which has hitherto enjoyed the monopoly of the mails finds itself shut out in the cold, and an untried and comparatively unknown opponent occupies its place. In either of the countries alluded to the new departure would have been made the occasion of a handsome concession to some favoured individuals. Possibly the same thing might have happened in Canada had there not been a radical and altogether unexpected change of government, for whatever else may be said of the political party which so long enjoyed DIVERGENT OPINIONS 221 the upper hand in the Dominion, it cannot be accused of having forgotten its friends. As those friends are often the openly avowed enemies of the party which has suddenly come uppermost, they can hardly expect a continuation of the favours to which they had grown so accustomed. It is stoutly maintained by the former...