Sir Charles Addis on Free Trade On Monday Sir Charles
Addis, a Director of the Bank of England who is famous for his knowledge of inter- national and colonial finance, delivered an important address to the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce. He said that Protection meant nothing unless it meant higher prices. It was a shortsighted and selfish policy which postponed the national interest to immediate private gain. The industries which needed Protection were obviously those which without it could not stand upon their own legs, but the danger was that inefficiency would be sheltered and would therefore become permanent. Protection interfered with the national division of labour and tended to reduce the aggregate of production and thus to diminish the total dividend available for distribution among the various economic groups. Under Free Trade Great Britain was still the greatest trading country of the world, and even last year her exports per head of the population had been more than twice as much as those of either France ar the United States.
