Abstract
In the course of giving his working-class audience at Chatham in 1909 an excellent review of the case for tariff reform, F. E. Smith, the rising young Unionist MP, put his ringer on the difficulties which the ‘fiscal question’ presented as an issue of public debate:
It is a question which demands a study of economics; but it is none the less, one upon which an economist, whose mind is unillumined by political intuition or business training, may go far astray. It is a question of politics, but one upon which a politician, whose policy is divorced from the science of economics, would hardly be a trustworthy guide.1
I should like to thank Dr W. R. Garside for his advice and criticism, which was a great help to me at all stages in the preparation of this essay.
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Bibliographical Notes
The contemporary literature on the economic issues involved in the tariff-reform campaign has so far received very little scholarly attention. Some of the more notable contributions are indicated in notes 13 and 15 to this chapter, but there is a wealth of easily accessible material not only in books and pamphlets but also in journals such as the Contemporary Review, the National Review and the Economic Journal. The best recent work on the theoretical side of the debate is W. A. Coats, ‘Political Economy and the Tariff Reform Campaign of 1903’, JLE, xI (1968). The best book on the movement as a whole is still B. Semmell’s Imperialism and Social Reform, 1895–1914 (1960), although it is somewhat lacking both on the wider economic background to tariff reform and on the substantive economic issues in the debate itself. In the circumstances É. HaléVy’s great History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century (revised edn, 1961), vols v and vI, is still very well worth reading. There is also an excellent short selection of materials relating to the economic arguments about free trade and protection in W. H. B. Court, British Economic History 1870–1914: Commentary and Documents (Cambridge, 1965), ch.9. The economic arguments about tariffs in relation to the budgetary strategy of the Liberal Government has been dealt with by H. V. Emy in ‘The Impact of Financial Policy on English Party Politics before 1914’, HJ, xv (1972). The connexion between the tariff debate and Empire is still expressed most clearly in the fiercely partisan but brilliant work of R. Jebb, The Imperial Conferences (1911), and the more judicious but equally stimulating work of W. K. Hancock in the Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs (Oxford, 1940), vol. 11, pt 1, ch. 1. S. H. Zebel’s article ‘The Genesis of Joseph Chamberlain’s Tariff Reform Campaign of 1903’, JBS, vII (1967), is useful in outlining Chamberlain’s links with the earlier ‘fair trade’ and ‘imperial federation’ movements. For an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of protectionist and preferentialist arguments in relation to Britain’s international trade position, see S. B. Saul. Studies in British Overseas Trade, 1870–1914 (Liverpool, 1960), especially chs 3 and 6. There is a useful summary of Saul’s work in F. Crouzet, ‘Trade and Empire: The British Experience from the Establishment of Free Trade until the First World War’, in B. M. Ratcliffe (ed.), Great Britain and her World, 1750–1914: Essays in Honour of W. 0. Henderson (Manchester, 1975). R. J. S. Hoffman’s Great Britain and the German Trade Rivalry, 1875–1914 (1933) gives a fascinating account of the connection between protectionism and anti-Germanism in England.
The politics of tariff reform are rather more thoroughly documented. Halévy and Semmell give useful accounts and there is some solid material in political biographies, especially P. Fraser’s Joseph Chamberlain (1966) and D. Judd’s Balfour and the Empire: A Study in Imperial Evolution, 1874–1932 (1968). Julian Amery’s Life of Joseph Chamberlain, vols v and vI (1951 and 1968) is also indispensable for source materials on Chamberlain’s attitudes. The fortunes of the tariff-reformers within the Conservative Party after 1903 have been charted by P. Fraser, ‘Unionism and Tariff Reform. The Crisis of 1906’, HJ, v, no. 2 (1962); R. A. Rempel, Unionists Divided: Arthur Balfour, Joseph Chamberlain and the Unionist Free Traders (Newton Abbot, 1973); N. Blewett Tree Fooders, Whole Hoggers, Balfourists: Factionalism within the Unionist Party, 1906–10’, HJ, xI, no. 1 (1968); and R.J. Scally, The Origins of the Lloyd George Coalition: The Politics of Social Imperialism, 1900–1918 (Princeton, NJ, 1975). The electoral fortunes of the tariff-reformers have also been thoroughly treated by A. K. Russell, Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906 (Newton Abbot, 1973) and N. Blewett, The Peers, the Parties and the People: The General Elections of 1910 (1972). There is also a good deal of useful information about free trade, protectionism and Liberalism in P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge, 1971) and the same author’s ‘The End of Laissez-Faire and the Politics of Cotton‘, HJ, xv, no. 3 (1972).The politics of tariff reform are rather more thoroughly documented. Halévy and Semmell give useful accounts and there is some solid material in political biographies, especially P. Fraser’s Joseph Chamberlain (1966) and D. Judd’s Balfour and the Empire: A Study in Imperial Evolution, 1874–1932 (1968). Julian Amery’s Life of Joseph Chamberlain, vols v and vI (1951 and 1968) is also indispensable for source materials on Chamberlain’s attitudes. The fortunes of the tariff-reformers within the Conservative Party after 1903 have been charted by P. Fraser, ‘Unionism and Tariff Reform. The Crisis of 1906’, HJ, v, no. 2 (1962); R. A. Rempel, Unionists Divided: Arthur Balfour, Joseph Chamberlain and the Unionist Free Traders (Newton Abbot, 1973); N. Blewett Tree Fooders, Whole Hoggers, Balfourists: Factionalism within the Unionist Party, 1906–10’, HJ, xI, no. 1 (1968); and R.J. Scally, The Origins of the Lloyd George Coalition: The Politics of Social Imperialism, 1900–1918 (Princeton, NJ, 1975). The electoral fortunes of the tariff-reformers have also been thoroughly treated by A. K. Russell, Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906 (Newton Abbot, 1973) and N. Blewett, The Peers, the Parties and the People: The General Elections of 1910 (1972). There is also a good deal of useful information about free trade, protectionism and Liberalism in P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge, 1971) and the same author’s ‘The End of Laissez-Faire and the Politics of Cotton‘, HJ, xv, no. 3 (1972).
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© 1979 Walter L. Arnstein, Suzann Buckley, Peter Cain, Dennis Dean, T. R. Gourvish, Colin Nicolson, Alan O’Day, G. R. Searle
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Cain, P. (1979). Political Economy in Edwardian England: The Tariff-Reform Controversy. In: O’Day, A. (eds) The Edwardian Age: Conflict and Stability 1900–1914. Problems in Focus Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15854-6_3
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