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XXVII.

A FINANCIAL RETRO~PECT, 1861-19°1.1
Introductory.
Nconsequence of certain letters of mine which ap-
I peared lately in "The Times," on the" Financial
Outlook," 2 some of my friends on the Council of this
Society were good enough to suggest that a short
statistical paper, resuming the figures for the last forty
years-the past period covered by the Ietters,-would
be useful to the Society by way of record, and would
allow of Members discussing from the financial point
of view the topics of economic development and
national progress, which have so frequently been the
subject of debate at our meetings. In a moment of
weakness, I fear, the suggestion was accepted, and the
present paper is the result. Accidentally as the sug-
gestion has been made, there is a good reason of sub-
stance for making 1861 the starting point of such a re-
trospect. In that year the Free Trade work of Sir R.
Peel and Mr. Gladstone had been practically completed.
The last great clearance of the tariff, consequent on
the Cobden Treaty of 1860, had just been made; the
great struggle respecting the paper duty had just been
finished; and our tax system was free of any duties for
the purpose of protection, if we except a small timber
duty, and the registration duty of a shilling per quarter
on the import of corn, which were exceptions of a
formal, and not of a material, kind. The disturbance
of our financial arrangements caused by the Crimean
1 Read before the Royal Statistical Society, 18th March, 1902.
• See the "Times" of 7th, 9th, and loth January, 1902.
3 06