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One of the great pillars of British trade and democracy in the early 20th century was " free trade", becoming the basis of modern day globalisation and leading to the rise of that great nation of industrialists- the USA. But in 1903, an outspoken and popular politician Joseph Chamberlain ( the father of Neville Chamberlain) thretend to strangle this concept in its infancy by passing a tariff reform- which would have taxed all foreign imports forcing Britain to rely more on empire goods. "Joe" as he was known was one of the most famous faces in his day- a reformer, turncoat, popular with the working classes and responsible for the collapse of TWO governments. However, he changed his views from Socialism to protecting the empire and stopping the thing he said was destroying her economy- free trade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Chamberlain_in_colour.jpg

" Imagine" he said in his many mass rallies, " sugar is gone; silk has gone; iron is threatened; wool is threatened; cotton will go! How long are you going to stand it? At the present moment these industries...are like sheep in a field." He denounced his oppoments in the Liberals, with many Liberal party members ( including Lloyd George) being attacked and denounced and vast crowds of workers backing Chamberlains campaign. He nearly won. But the real disadvantage of his reform would be that it would send the price of food, especially bread, sky rocketing- even though they were high already. Equally bad is the fact that it would upset the foreign companies importing these items ( including Germany and the USA) would suffer horribly from this and global prices would shoot up, causing a global economic crisis and increasing unrest and tensions as these countries blame Britain.

In the end, it was this fact, the passionate speeches of Lloyd George and the preaching by Herbert Aquith on the virtues of Free Trade- not to menttion massive disunity amongst the unionists- meant it eventually ended in defeat. The liberals were back in power, Chamberlain briefly became head of the opposition but the stress of the campaign had weakened him. He retired and the continuation of free trade and with it the eventual decline of the empire was assured.

But what if his reform was passed? Could it have staved off the decline of British industry and her empire? Could it have solved unemployment and bread prices as he promised? or would it have just caused huge price hikes, huge social and global unrest and created a world without Globalisation? It would mean a more disunited and self reliant world.......

Whats your opinion?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Chamberlain_John_Singer_Sargent_1896.jpeg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Chamberlain

http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/...may-1910/tariff-reform-free-trade-or-no-trade
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