Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

policy is marked by moderation in the percentage of duties levied, and that the results prove that the United States was not discriminated against, but that on the contrary it has a standing in the Canadian market more favorable to its interests than either Great Britain or other foreign countries.

An analysis of Canadian trade returns shows that of the enormous export of American products to the Dominion, a considerable proportion consists of manufactured goods. Of the free list of $29,472,000, $5,380,000 were manufactures; aside from the portion of unenumerated goods amounting to $2,200,000, of which $500,000 probably consisted of manufactures. The import of dutiable manufactures from the United States the same year amounted to $21,500,000, inclusive of estimated amount of unenumerated goods classed as manufactures amounting to $750,000, making a total of $27,380,000, in round numbers, of manufactures imported into Canada from the United States in 1896. The total imports of Canada from Great Britain for the same year for consumption were $32,979,000, and the amount of manufactures imported from England was little, if at all, in excess of the amount imported from the United States. This statement warrants the assertion that Canada is the best customer that the United States possesses for the product of her mills and factories; and it will perhaps awaken reflection in the mind of the American statesman to be informed that when Canada seeks to place the products of her own labor in the American market in exchange for this enormous amount of manufactured goods, onefourth of which comes into Canada free of duty, and the balance of which pays an average duty of less than 27 per cent., she is graciously permitted to make the exchange upon condition that duty is paid at the rate of $2 per thousand feet on lumber; 100 per cent. on barley; 27 per cent. and upwards on cattle; $30 per head on horses and mules; $1.50 per head on sheep; 45 cents per bushel on malt; 45 cents per bushel on beans; 70 per cent. on butter and cheese; 50 per cent. on hay; 75 per cent. on onions, and other agricultural and animal products in proportion.

A comparison between the amounts of importation from the United States and from Great Britain of certain classes of dutiable goods, will be suggestive as to the items in which the United States seems to command an advantage over England in

the Canadian market. A few of the chief items presenting strikingly this contrast are given:

IMPORTS INTO CANADA FOR THE YEAR 1896 OF CERTAIN CLASSES OF DUTIABLE GOODS FROM GREAT BRITAIN AND FROM THE UNITED STATES.

[blocks in formation]

It is evident from the foregoing statement that the Dominion of Canada furnishes a field for the introduction of American manufactures which is worth cultivating, and the fact should impress itself upon the American manufacturers that this field, which is close at hand and promises, if properly cultivated, rapid expansion of business, can be fully retained only upon conditions of mutual advantage. The leaders of the Liberal party, which came into power in June, 1896, have always desired to promote more liberal trade relations between the two countries. At the very opening of their overtures in that direction they were met by the Dingley bill. If it is supposed that Canada will continue to furnish a free list for American manufactures, consisting largely of drugs, dyes, chemicals, nets, seines, lines and twines, metals, iron and steel and manufactures thereof, and other articles, to the extent of some $6,000,000, and a market for American dutiable manufactures to the extent in round numbers of $21,500,000 at a moderate average rate of less than 27 per cent., and will submit to having its own importations into the United States, sent in

exchange for these products, taxed as under the provisions of the Dingley bill, the reckoning is made without the consent of the host. The adverse balance of trade of $14,125,000 a year existing under the Wilson bill, and the aggravated conditions likely to result from the Dingley bill, will in that case demand a solution upon one of two lines-one of which the American government must select-either the increase of our exports to the United States to an extent commensurate with our imports from that country, and on conditions as favorable as those upon which American imports are received into Canada; or a diminution of our imports from the United States through sharp and effective discrimination in favor of the mother land.

Last year the Canadian balance of trade against Great Britain was $33,750,000. This is Jubilee year. Overtures have been made for the consolidation of the Empire. The principle of fair play would undoubtedly give to England better conditions in our markets than she has hitherto enjoyed, and the application of the same principle to our relations with the United States would imperatively demand very radical changes in the American fiscal system as relating to ourselves.

During the fiscal year of 1896, while we gave the United States, as before stated, a free list of $29,472,000, we received from the United States a free list of less than $20,000,000. This amount the Dingley bill has cut down by transferring from the free to the dutiable list forest products, hides, wool, and minor articles. The result will be that our free list under the new tariff will, in all probability, fall considerably below $5,000,000. If it is supposed that Canada will rest content to give a free list of $29,500,000 in exchange for one of $5,000,000, that anticipation will hardly be realized.

An impression prevails in the United States that Canada is dependent upon that country for a market for its agricultural, animal, mineral, and forest products. It is true that the mineral products of Canada do find a market almost exclusively in the United States. Our forest products were marketed for the year 1896 in different countries in the following proportions:

[blocks in formation]

Canada, prior to 1890, imposed an export duty upon logs de

signed for American sawmills. In 1890 logs were exempted from export duty in consideration of a reduction of the lumber duty to $1. No objection would now be made to the free export of sawlogs and of pulp wood for the use of American mills, if the lumber duty were placed at $1 per thousand feet. The export of sawlogs and pulp wood, which has reached $3,000,000 per annum and will rapidly increase, might justly be considered a fair compensation for free lumber, and beyond question a $1 American import rate upon lumber with no Canadian export duty on logs and pulp wood would give to the United States the best of the arrangement.

In agricultural products, and animals and their products, the condition of the trade between the two countries is not such as is generally supposed. Since 1866 these products have been subjected to duties more or less heavy upon entering the United States. This the American farmer has been made to believe was necessary for his protection from the cheap products of the soil of Canada. The parties in favor of a protective policy who were the real beneficiaries of the measure, but who would be in a hopeless minority on a popular vote, secured the co-operation of the American farmer by ringing all of the changes upon the alleged necessity for this protection, which has proved almost entirely a delusion. If the Canadian farmer is denied access to the American markets for products, the surplus of which both countries are marketing in England, the theatre of competition between the two countries will merely be transferred from the United States to the English market. In fact, the practical result of the American agricultural duties has been to force the Canadian farmer into this competition in England, and to teach him that he is quite able to compete with his American brother, and in some instances he has achieved most decided successes. Indeed, the application of the extreme protective policy to farm products by the United States has proved in some instances a blessing in disguise to the Canadian, by emancipating him from dependence upon that country. This fact is most strikingly illustrated in the lines of hog products and cheese. Being excluded from the American market by heavy duties upon pork and swine, the farmers and packers of Canada set about ascertaining what grade of goods would best suit the English taste, with a determination to shape their business in such a way as to meet that

taste.

The result is that Canadian bacon and hams so far lead the American product in the English market that, during all of the present season, hogs have been worth at railway stations throughout the Province of Ontario on an average twenty-five per cent. more than in the stock market at Buffalo or Chicago, and the business of furnishing meats to England is growing with phenomenal rapidity. In the cheese market the Canadian cheese maker has largely supplanted American cheese in Great Britain, and the exports of that article for the scal year 1897 have reached the sum of $15,262,000; $15,232,000 of which goes to Great Britain. With the ambition and courage springing from successes already secured, Canada now reaches forth for the same vantage-ground in beef, butter, eggs, small fruits, and other farm products. The Canadian producer will be met by the good-will of the English consumer, who will give him the preference, other things being equal. To render the success of this movement more probable the government has embarked in the business of aiding to furnish cold storage at creameries, on railroad trains, and on steamship lines, so that meats, butter, eggs, poultry, and other perishable articles can be laid down at English and Scotch centres in prime condition.

The trend of business is very well illustrated by the trade returns of 1896 as applied to agricultural products, and animals and their products. In that year our export of agricultural products, the produce of Canada, to the United States was $3,233,000; our import of agricultural products from the United States entered for consumption was $3,262,000 on the dutiable list and $5,263,000 on the free list-a total of $8,526,000, which included raw cotton, and unmanufactured tobacco to the extent of $4,108,000. During the same year our export of animals and their products to the United States, the produce of Canada, amounted to $3,341,000, while our imports of animals and their products from the United States for consumption amounted to $851,000 on the dutiable list, and $2,873,000 on the free list—an amount of imports in this line in excess of our exports to the United States of $383,000. This effectually disposes of the claim that Canada is dependent upon the United States for a market for animals and their products, and for agricultural products, the truth being that under the influence of repressive American tariff rates the trade has been forced away from the United States,

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »