THE RESULT OF PROTECTION IN GERMANY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2720, 7 December 1881, Page 3

THE RESULT OF PROTECTION IN GERMANY.

Berlin correspondent of the “ Standard.”

At the present stage of the AngloFrench negotiations for a new Commercial Treaty the results of the Protectionist policy recently inaugurated in Germany by Prince Bismarck present some features of interest for English and French politicians. The most important Chambers of Commerce in the various States of Germany have now published their reports for the year 1880, These bodies consist partly of Protectionists, partly of Freetraders, and their last reports present their deliberate judgment of the fiscal and commercial principles to which the Chancellor has brought Germany back after she had for some years been making _ great progress in the practical realisation of a policy of Freetrade. What, then, is the verdict of the Protectionist and Free Trade Chambers of Commerce of the German Empire P No one who has read these last reports can hesitate for a moment as to the answer. It is beyond question that the overwhelming majority of these bodies reject and condemn the new Protectionist Customs policy. They oppose any increase in this class of taxes. They show clearly the fallacy which the Protectionist papers and politicans have been attempting to propagate—the fallacy, namely, that the high Customs duties which have been imposed are paid by foreign nations. They show further that the home consumption of Germany has decreased and not increased, as the Protectionists allege, and that therefore, the new policy is very prejudical to the economic and commercial interests of the Empire.