Insular Free - Trade: Theory and Experience. By Russell Rea, M.P. (Caxton
House.)—Mr. Russell Rea, who prints here, with additions, a lecture delivered at Birmingham in 1905, discusses his subject from the economic and from the ethical standpoint. It is of little use to go through the argument again. When the Tariff Reformers tell us why their. chief prophet exempted maize and bacon from duties which the foreigner was said to pay in all cases, we might begin again. Still, there are some noteworthy facts in these pages. There is the increased output, for instance, by Germany of manufactured goods. How could there be anything else when there has been in Germany a depletion of the rural population and a migration into the towns far beyond anything that has taken place here? Then, again, it is said that British manufacturers, shut out by tariff walls, remove their industrial enterprises to the protected country. Doubtless it happens sometimes. But it is far more frequent that the foreign manufacturer brings his industry to a country where he gets all his raw material, tools, and requisites generally free.
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