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396 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUD'IES
would be more than compensated by the higher prices
obtained for their produce in the United Kingdom.
while the mother country ip turn would obtain no such
compensation from higher prices in the colonies 00 its
exports- to them, owing to the small proportion of such
exports with which foreign countries really competed.
Disillusionment must thus follow any reciprocity ar-
rangement of this sort. Inste.,.d of tending to political
union, it will almost certainly have the reverse effect.
Quite as serious is the prospect of bad blood with
foreign countries, especially with the United States, if
we make any arrangement with the colonies which in
fact leads to a serious diminution of our trade with
foreign countries-the means by which the arrange-
ment is to achieve its end. Could we view without
alarm the discontent that might be produced in the
United States, with which we desire to promote the
most friendly relations, if we differentiated against their
wheat, meat, cotton, copper, and other articles for the
sake of what we hope our colonies will give us? The
mere attempt, even if it should fail, would tend to ex-
asperate. It is quite true, of course, that the United
States-and our leading foreign competitors-would
technic:tlly have no cause to complain. Their own
tariffs are as great a discouragement to trade with the
United Kingdom as they can be, and have been so for
many years. But as a matter of fact we cannot hope
to export to them much more largely than we do, even
if their tariffs were now as free as our own, so that we
lose little by their discourtesy, while we should cer-
tainly lose by an increase of political animosity, if we
imitate their example, and possibly better their in-
struction. 1
I t is a supreme interest with us, again, to promote
foreign trade, not only that food may be cheap bu;
that we may have the necessary raw materials for our
1 See the state~ents in the" Times" of the J 6th of April quoted
from the "New York Times" as to American retaliation on Canada
if it receives preferential treatment in the United Kingdom.