Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 364 pages of information about Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 364 pages of information about Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843.
in, the home market.  In products requiring little skill, such as common calicoes, such efforts might, to some extent, be successful; but there the invasion ends.  In all the departments requiring greater skill, more perfect machinery, more taste, and the peculiar arts of finish which long practice alone can give, the old accustomed manufacturer for the home trade remains without a rival, still prospering in the midst of depression around, and whilst secure against intrusion in his own special monopoly of home supply, commanding also a superiority in foreign markets for his surplus wares, in the event of stagnation in home consumption, over the less finished and reputed products of his less-skilled brethren of the craft.

In the enquiry into the advantages relatively of foreign and colonial export trade, it is not pretended literally to build upon the premises here established; the analogy would not always be strictly in point, but the fact resulting of the greater gainfulness of one description of trade over another is incontestable, and in the national sense perhaps much more than the individual.  We shall take it for granted that British and Irish products and manufactures enjoy a preference on import into the colonies, over imports from foreign countries, of at least five per cent, resulting from differential duties in favour of the parent state:  it may be more, and we believe it will be found more; but such is the preference.  This profit must be all to the account of the British exporter; for it is not received by the colonial custom-house, and whatever the reduction of prices by excess of competition, it is clear prices would be still more deranged by the introduction of another element of competition in more cheaply produced foreign products at only equal rates of duty.  Take, for examples, Saxon hose, French silks, American domestics, but more especially all sorts of foreign made up wares, clothes, &c. Quoad the foreigner, the preferential duties make two prices therefore, by the very fact of which he is barred out.  We shall now proceed to assess the mercantile profits respectively upon the sums-total of foreign and colonial trade by the correct standard; and then we shall endeavour to arrive at a rough but approximate estimate of the value respectively of foreign and colonial export trade in respect of the descriptions of commodities exported from this country, classified as finished or partly finished, in cases where the raw material is wholly or partially of foreign origin, and measured accordingly by the amount of profit on capital, and profit in the shape of wages, which each leave respectively in the country.  It will be understood that no more than a rough estimate of leading points is pretended; the calculation, article by article, would involve a labour of months perhaps, and the results in detail fill the pages of Maga for a year, and after all remain incomplete from the inaccessibility or non-existence of some of the necessary materials.  There are, however, certain landmarks by which we may steer to something like general conclusions.

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Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.