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THE DREAM OF A BRITISH ZOLLVEREIN 39 1
technically a part of the Turkish Empire and not even
a British State. The remark is even more applicable
to the subject of a Customs union. This subject is not
res("JVed for a central body by a political constitution
as it is in Germany and the United States, while there
are obvious practical difficulties which do not exist in
those countries, and which would make the establish-
ment of a Customs union impossible even if the central
Government had power to deal with the matter. The
difficulties are as follows:
(a) The physical separation of the different parts of
the Empire. The sea, it is said, unites and does not
separate, which is true in a sense, but is not true for
the purpose of a Zollverein. That purpose is the aboli-
tion of Customs barriers where they are most irksome
to trade-that is, between adjacent places. This irk-
someness, as we have. seen, is so great that it has led
in some cases to such arrangements as those existing
on the Austrian and Southern Chinese frontiers, or
such an arrangement as the former Reciprocity Treaty
between Canada and the United States. There is. a
real practical evil which a Customs union deals with in
the most effective manner, and, although the sea unites
the separate parts of the British Empire. it does not
unite them in such a way that the inconvenience of
Customs barriers is felt as it was in the trade between
the different states of the American Union, or between
the different provinces of Germany, or is felt now be-
tween any countries having a long land frontier between
them. On the contrary, the longer the voyage the less
important are the Customs barriers relatively as an
obstruction to trade. The long voyage itself and the
transhipment, which cannot be got rid of. are the real
evils caused by distance in over-sea communication,
and not the intervention of the Customs, serious as the
latter interventi<9n may be on a land frontier across
which there is trade at many points. A ZoHverein,
therefore, comprising stat~s or provinces separated by
great breadths of sea, could not give them the special