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394 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
formidable mischief, perhaps, of throwing doubts on
English good faith in carrying out treaties, however
disagreeable sometimes their stipulations may be. The
Soudan, which we hold in common with Egypt, could
perhaps be included in a Zollverein more easily; but
how odd a Zollverein of tHe Empire would look with
large parts of it outside the union, and especially a part
like Egypt, the strategical centre of the Empire itself.
Such difficulties existing, however, they should be
carefully thought out by those who talk of a Zollverein
or Customs union for the British Empire before we can
even get to business in the discussion. I confess for
one my inability to imagine how they are to be over-
come. There appears to be no help to a solution in any
proposals put forward, as far as I have yet observed.

Passing from this question of a Zollverein, we come
to the proposal of" preferential arrangements" in the
matter of tariffs between the mother country and the
other parts of the Empire. Such arrangements, it is
supposed, will effect the same objects as a Zollverein-
viz., a closer commercial union, which will also have
the same political results as are expected from a Zoll-
verein itself. Such is the abuse of language, that many
people when they hear of an Imperial Zollverein are
really thinking of a Customs barrier set up in the
Empire against foreign countries, leaving the barriers
inside the Empire intact, and are not really thinking of
a proper Customs union at all.
All such proposals have a common character, so that
it would be a waste of time to go into detail. To state
their nature is surely to show their ineptitude. What
is proposed in effect is a commercial treaty between
the colonies and the mother country on a reciprocity
basis, each colony consenting to tax differentially certain
articles it receives from foreign coun!ries in competition
with similar ar.ticles received from the mother country
or the rest of the Empire, and the mother country in
turn taxing differentially certain articles received from