Having referred briefly to one cause of disturbance to the progress of
mechanical engineering, he named another, which at the present moment is
occupying thoughtful men to a considerable extent, namely, the arbitrary
imposition of duties and bounties for the professed object of protecting
manufactures, while in fact they constitute taxes on a nation for the
benefit of a few individuals. In some countries excessive duties have
been imposed, as against our manufactures, and it is even proposed to
increase them; while in other cases bounties are actually paid out of
the public purse to men engaged in a particular manufacture, on their
exporting to this county certain of their wares, as, for instance,
beet-root sugar.
One extremely significant lesson, resulting from high duties--which it
may be hoped will not be thrown away upon the American public--is, that
whereas our cousins on the other side of the water used to build almost
all the American "liners" of wood, they now find that, with their
excessive duties against the importation of iron and steel from England,
they cannot compete with English iron and steel ship-builders and marine
engineers. This is one of those damaging effects naturally produced
by excessive protective duties; which, while they enable American
ironmasters quickly to realize enormous fortunes, drive the American
merchants to purchase English ships, or intrust their merchandise in
English bottoms, as it is impossible to maintain protective duties at
sea.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69