THE REAL SECRET OF THE DEPRESSION OF TRADE.

Southland Times, Issue 1204, 1 February 1870, Page 2

THE REAL SECRET OF THE DEPRESSION OF TRADE.

' "♦- A LESSON" AT BASLE. J An intelligent working-man who attended the! recent International Congress of "Working Men at Basle, in Switzerland, thus records the explanation of certain home difficulties in connection with the depression of business, free trade, and the revived demands for, the re-imposition of protection : — " lam - desirous of saying a word or- two about Basle, as some facts which I ascertained while there are, I think, worbh relating, as clearly proving that the distress of the Coventry ribbon-weavers is not the effect of the French treaty, as is often asserted.. The great industry of Basle is the silk trade, principally ribbons, for the manufacture of which there are some of ; the largest establishments of any country; and in proportion to the number of its . inhabitants the people of Basle may be considered one of the richest communities in the world. The canton is divided into two districts — the manufacturing and the agricultural. The first consists of the town of Basle and the surrounding villages, numbering about 70,000 inhabitants. Now, the whole of the .taxejs < raised for the government of this little State are less than £500 per annum ; and no one contributes anything towards the sum whose clear annual income is less than 1000 francs. There is, however, paid in additiona small Federal tax, amounting to 6s Id per head per annum. As the imperial and local taxes of Great Britain amount to about £3 10s per head on the average (man, woman, and child), the labour of every family of five persons in Coventry (and everywhere else ia England) is weighted "with a yearly tax of about £17 10s, thus giving the Basle manufacturer an enormous advantage over the manufacturers of Coventry id" all the markets of the world— an advantage which the abrogation of the French treaty would not alter in the least. The secret of their success is this— they -...., are comparatively free from the crushing burdens of war debts, and enormous standing armaments.