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Protection, Federation and Union: The Global Impact of the McKinley Tariff upon the British Empire, 1890–94

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 38; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03086534.2010.503395

1743-9329

Marc‐William Palen,

American Constitutional Law and Politics

Abstract This article takes a global historical approach to American protectionism and the British imperial federation movement of the late nineteenth century, showing how US tariff policy was intimately intertwined with the political and economic policies of the British empire of free trade. This article argues that the 1890 McKinley Tariff's policies helped call into question Britain's liberal, free trade, global empire by drumming up support for an imperial, protectionist, preferential Greater Britain. The tariff also speeded up the demand and development of more efficient transportation and communications—technological developments that made imperial federation all the more viable—within the British Empire. This article is thus a global history of the McKinley Tariff's impact upon the British Empire, as well as a study of the tariff's effect upon the history of modern globalisation. Acknowledgments I am grateful to Peter Cain, Tony Hopkins, Anthony Howe, James Vaughn, and the journal's anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Notes Fair Trade, 6 June 1890, 413. For a notable exception, see Rogers, ‘United States and the Fiscal Debate in Britain’. Crapol, America for Americans, 173–79, 184–85; Morgan, McKinley and his America, Ch. 8; Reitano, Tariff Question in the Gilded Age, 129–31; Terrill, Tariff, Politics, and American Foreign Policy, Ch. 7. Some case studies have also been carried out showing the economic influence of American manufacturers upon Britain during this period. See, for instance, Church, ‘Effect of the American Export Invasion on the British Boot and Shoe Industry 1885–1914’; Nicholas, ‘The American Export Invasion of Britain’; Simon and Novack, ‘Some Dimensions of the American Commercial Invasion of Europe, 1871–1914’. Daunton, ‘Britain and Globalisation since 1850’, 3–4; James, End of Globalization, 4–5; O'Rourke and Williamson, Globalization and History, 93–94, 286–87. Congressional Record, 51 Cong., 1 sess., 7 May 1890, 4250. For a more detailed explanation and examination of the terms ‘global history’ and the ‘history of globalisation’, see Hopkins, ‘Introduction: Interactions between the Universal and the Local’; Hopkins, ‘Globalization—An Agenda for Historians'; Hopkins, ‘The History of Globalization—And the Globalization of History?’; Mazlish, ‘Comparing Global History to World History’; Mazlish and Iriye, Global History Reader; O'Rourke and Williamson, Globalization and History. I use Hopkins's definition of modern globalisation which, with the arrival of the nation-state and the expansion of industrialisation, occurred when ‘the sovereign state based on territorial boundaries was filled in by developing a wider and deeper sense of national consciousness and filled out, variously, by population growth, free trade, imperialism, and war’. Hopkins, ‘Globalization—An Agenda for Historians’, 7. James and Lake, ‘Second Face of Hegemony’. Tracy, Government and Agriculture in Western Europe 1880–1988, 20–32. The effects of the McKinley Tariff were felt throughout Europe. The Times, 1 Nov. 1890, 5, 27 Oct. 1890, 5, 10 Aug. 1891, 5, 13 Aug. 1891, 3; LaFeber, New Empire, 120; Goswami, Producing India, 216; Fair Trade, 9 Jan. 1891, 158; French Committee for the Repeal of the McKinley Bill, France and the United States. The formulation of the idea of ‘Greater Britain’ is a complex issue. For the intellectual side of the issue, see especially Bell, Idea of Greater Britain. See also Bell, Victorian Visions of Global Order; Green, ‘Political Economy of Empire, 1880–1914’, vol. 3, 346–71; Gaston, ‘Free Trade Diplomacy Debate and the Victorian European Common Market Initiative’; Tyler, Struggle for Imperial Unity 1868–1895; Bodelson, Studies in Mid-Victorian Imperialism; Kendle, Federal Britain, Ch. 3; Colonial and Imperial Conferences, 1887–1911. For a general introduction to the controversy surrounding American tariff policy and Canada, see Scheinberg, ‘Invitation to Empire’. For the Pacific telegraph cable, see Boyce, ‘Imperial Dreams and National Realities’. For broader studies of the connection between imperialism and technological advancements, see Pyenson, ‘Science and Imperialism’; Headrick, Tools of Empire; Bell, Idea of Greater Britain, 63–119. Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 185–91; Kebbel, Selected Speeches of Beaconsfield, vol. 2, 530. Mason, ‘Robert Giffen and the Tariff Reform Campaign, 1865–1910’. Free traders had by no means developed a consensus regarding opposition to imperial federation. Adam Smith himself had concocted a free trade system of imperial federation, and some free traders in the 1890s sought to implement it in reality. See Smith, Wealth of Nations, 581–88; and Nicholson, ‘Tariffs, and International Commerce’, 95–122. Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, vol. 1, 337. See also Trainor, ‘The British Government and Imperial Economic Unity, 1890–1895’. The ‘cheap loaf’ was a term tied to British free trade, created following the repeal of the Corn Laws when the price of bread became more affordable. Bradford Observer, 19 Sept. 1881, quoted in Brown, Tariff Reform Movement, 61. Brown, Tariff Reform Movement, 16–18; Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 41. Lloyd even produced the first English translation of List's The National System of Political Economy in 1885. Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 191. Brown, Tariff Reform Movement, 58. Smith, Illusions of Conflict, 143–45; Brown, Tariff Reform Movement, 76. Zebel, ‘Fair Trade, 183. See also Zebel, ‘Joseph Chamberlain and the Genesis of Tariff Reform’; Trainor, ‘British Government and Imperial Economic Unity’, 68–69. The Times, 20 Oct. 1890, 3. Playfair, Tariffs of the United States, 17. Howe, Free Trade and Liberal England, 196–97; Giffen, ‘Relative Growth of Free Trade and Protection’, 25 May 1892, Cabinet Memo, May 25, 1892, Gladstone Papers, BL, Add. MS 44258, fol. 282, reprinted in Howe and Duckenfield, Battles over Free Trade, vol. 3, 88; Annual General Meeting of the Cobden Club, 1893, 7. The Cobden Club, created in 1866 following the death of free trade apostle Richard Cobden, also noted the ‘conflicting absurdities' of the bill and the upcoming World's Fair in Chicago, wherein products would be exhibited that could be neither exported nor imported under the new tariff. Annual General Meeting of the Cobden Club, 1890, 9. The Times, 6 Oct. 1890, 5, 18 June 1891, 9. Spring-Rice to Ferguson, 6 Nov. 1891, in Gwynn, Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, vol. 1, 116. Tupper, Preferential Trade Relations between Great Britain and her Colonies, 23. Lister, quoted in Brown, Tariff Reform Movement, 56. The Times, 6 Oct. 1890, 13, 13 Oct. 1890, 14, 15 Jan. 1891, 8. The Times, 1 Nov. 1892, 12, 26 Apr. 1892, 10. The Times, 15 Oct. 1890, 7. For industries moving from England to the United States, see, for instance, The Times, 29 Oct. 1890, 5. The Times, 14 July 1890, 9. Anti–Jacobin, ‘British Problems, as Viewed by an American Observer’, 19 Dec. 1891, 1182, Goldwin Smith Manuscripts, microfilm, reel 4, Cornell University Library, Cornell, New York. The Times, 20 May 1891, 5; Smith, Illusions of Conflict, 147. Smith, Illusions of Conflict, 147–49, 156. Anti–Jacobin, ‘British Problems, as Viewed by an American Observer’, 19 Dec. 1891, 1182, Goldwin Smith Manuscripts, microfilm, reel 4. Howe, Free Trade and Liberal England, 204–05. The Times, 20 May 1891, 5; Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain, 99–100. Terrill, Tariff, Politics, and American Foreign Policy, 180, 147–48; Spring-Rice to Lowther, 26 Oct. 1891, quoted in Smith, Illusions of Conflict, 148. Winks, Canadian-West Indian Union, 21, 22. As late as 1911, Canadian desire arose for annexing areas of the West Indies. See, for instance, Smith, ‘Thomas Bassett Macaulay and the Bahamas'. Foster to Bowell, 17 Nov. 1890, quoted in Brown, Canada's National Policy, 223. For an anti-imperial federation view of West Indian economic issues, see Root, British West Indies and the Sugar Industry. Bruwer, Protection in South Africa, 98, 99, 101. For Sir Gordon Sprigg's desire for imperial federation and a customs union, see Vincent, Commercial Union of the Empire (1891), reprinted in Howe and Duckenfield, Battles over Free Trade, vol. 3, 69. Rhodes to Macdonald, 8 May 1891, reprinted in The Times, 1 Sept. 1903, 6. The Cape Colony's exports to the United States fell drastically during this period. During the quarter ending 31 Dec. 1890, its exports to the United States totalled $85,400; for the quarter ending 30 June 1891, its exports totalled only $13,475. Commercial Relations of the United States, 1890–91, 391. Rhodes to Parkes, May, 1891, reprinted in The Times, 1 Sept. 1903, 6. Sheppard, ‘The McKinley Bill and Imperial Federation’, 36–61. Boehm, Prosperity and Depression in Australia 1887–1897, 79. For a general discussion of Australia's late nineteenth-century protectionism, see Reitsma, Trade Protection in Australia, 5–11. Victoria, for instance, saw its direct exports to the United States drop between the quarter ending 31 Dec. 1890 and the quarter ending on 30 June 1891 from $1,778,498 to $26,798. Commercial Relations of the United States, 1890–91, 408. Anti-Jacobin ‘British Problems, as Viewed by an American Observer’, 19 Dec. 1891, 1182, Goldwin Smith Manuscripts, microfilm, reel 4. For the bank crisis, see Boehm, Prosperity and Depression in Australia, Ch. 10; Hickson and Turner, ‘Free Banking Gone Awry’; for reaction by the labour force, see Hearn, ‘A Wild Awakening’. Parkin, Imperial Federation, 211. Edwardes, quoted in Parkin, Imperial Federation, 201. The Times, 26 March 1894, 5, 20 March 1894, 5; Brown, Tariff Reform Movement, 122–23. Manifesto quoted in Thompson and Randall, Canada and the United States, 32. See also, Howe, Free Trade and Liberal England, 18; Warner, Idea of Continental Union; Creighton, ‘The United States and Canadian Confederation’; Pletcher, Diplomacy of Trade and Investment, chs 2, 7. For a general survey of Canadian criticism of American imperialism and plutocratic governance, see Brown, ‘Canadian Opinion after Confederation, 1867–1914’, 98–120. Seeley, Expansion of England, 63. Smith, The Empire; ‘List of Members', March 1866, Cobden Club Manuscripts, Record Office, Chichester, England. Thompson and Randall, Canada and the United States, 56. Ibid., 56–57; Brown, Canada's National Policy, 193. Brown, Canada's National Policy, 220. For a case study on the impact of the McKinley Tariff upon Ontario's barley growers, see Dix, ‘United States Influences on the Agriculture of Prince Edward County, Ontario’, 181. Skelton, Life and Times of Galt, 275. Total Canadian exports to the United States continued to fall, for instance, from $37,280,572 in 1891 to $33,830,696 in 1892, while its exports to Great Britain during that period rose by more than $20,000,000. Commercial Relations of the United States, 1891–92, 274–75. Lawder, Commerce between the United States & Canada, 17. Rogers, ‘United States and the Fiscal Debate in Britain’, 602–03. The Times, 17 Feb. 1891, 5. McKinley himself, however, was staunchly against commercial union. See Brown, Canada's National Policy, 191–92. Blaine, Manitoba Free Press, 20 Feb. 1891, quoted in Thompson and Randall, Canada and the United States, 60. For Blaine's desire for Canada as part of a pan-American movement, see Wilgus, ‘James G. Blaine and the Pan American Movement’. Playfair, Tariffs of the United States, 18. Grey, Commercial Policy of the British Colonies and the McKinley Tariff, 66–68. Brown, Canada's National Policy, 208–09; Bowell to Macdonald, 17 Feb. 1891, quoted in Brown, Canada's National Policy, 209. For Wiman's desire for US–Canadian commercial unity see, for instance, Wiman, Greater Half of the Continent. Congressman Robert R. Hitt and Smith maintained close correspondence during the drafting of the McKinley Bill, as Hitt unsuccessfully attempted to include a Canadian reciprocity provision. See Hitt to Smith, 30 June 1890; Hitt to Smith, 5 Sept. 1890, Goldwin Smith Manuscripts, microfilm, reel 4. The Times, 20 Oct. 1890, 3. Denison, Struggle for Imperial Unity, 160. For more on the ‘Wiman conspiracy’, which Smith thoroughly debunked, see Goldwin Smith's article in the New York Independent, ‘The London Times on Canadian Elections’, 11 Feb. 1892, Goldwin Smith Manuscripts, microfilm, reel 4; New York Times, ‘The Wiman “Conspiracy”’, 30 Apr. 1891, 9. Macdonald, 18 Feb. 1891, quoted in Thompson and Randall, Canada and the United States, 61; Creighton, John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain, 546. Macdonald to Tupper, 26 Sept. 1890, quoted in Brown, Canada's National Policy, 194. Denison, Struggle for Imperial Unity, 169, 171–77, 184, 191. Brown, Canada's National Policy, 208, 211; Ashley, ‘Review: Canada and the Canadian Question’, vol. 1, 606. For the effects of the conspiracy charges on the 1891 elections, see Warner, Idea of Continental Union, 218–30. Macdonald to Smith, 8 April 1891, quoted in Brown, Canada's National Policy, 213. Macdonald to Kirby, 8 July 1889, quoted in Brown, Canada's National Policy, 206. Macdonald, reported in The Times, 6 Oct. 1890, 13. See also The Times, 22 Nov. 1890, 7. The Times, 18 Oct. 1890, 9. Canada, Parliament, Debates of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada, 31 Jan. 1893, quoted in Brown, Canada's National Policy, 220. Sheppard, ‘McKinley Bill and Imperial Federation’, 360, 364. Ibid., 365–66. Imperial Federation, Nov. 1890, quoted in Tyler, Struggle for Imperial Unity, 190. Grant, Imperial Federation, 1. See also Loring and Beadon, Papers and Addresses by Lord Brassey; Labilliere, Federal Britain; Denison, Struggle for Imperial Unity; Young, Pioneer of Imperial Federation in Canada. Tyler, Struggle for Imperial Unity, 190. For a discussion of the various Canadian options from a proponent of independence and federation, see Douglas, Canadian Independence, Annexation and British Imperial Federation. In response to the imperialists, proponents of union such as Goldwin Smith, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt and various other business and political figures in New York and Toronto founded the Continental Union League in 1892, albeit prematurely, with the League lasting only two years. See Orchard, Fight for Canada, 78; Denison, Struggle for Imperial Unity, 109. Skelton, Galt, 275. The Times, 3 March 1891, 14. Vincent, Commercial Union of the Empire (1891), reprinted in Howe and Duckenfield, Battles over Free Trade, vol. 3, 67. Lorne, ‘Latest Aspects of Imperial Federation’, 490. Jebb, Imperial Conference, vol. 1, 163, 167, 159. Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, vol. 26, 38. Jebb, Imperial Conference, vol. 1, 168, vol. 2, 376. For the Ottawa Conference, see also Kendle, Colonial and Imperial Conferences, 17–18. For more on Gladstone and anti-imperialism, see Bodelson, Studies in Mid-Victorian Imperialism, 87–114; Knaplund, Gladstone and Britain's Imperial Policy, Ch. 4. Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 185. Lobell, ‘Second Image Reversed Politics', 672–77. Rogers, ‘United States and the Fiscal Debate in Britain’, 602; Trentmann, ‘Transformation of Fiscal Reform’, 1011–12. For a general discussion of the nineteenth-century international monetary issue, see Walker, International Bimetallism; Russell, International Monetary Conferences; Redish, Bimetallism; Wilson, Battles for the Standard. Green, ‘Rentiers versus Producers?’; Howe, ‘Bimetallism, c. 1880–1898’, 378. It should be noted that Howe found Green's argument in ‘Rentiers versus Producers?’ to be overly simplified, that there were minority segments among Cobdenites, the merchant class and the City that favoured bimetallism. See also Green's response in ‘The Bimetallic Controversy’. Green, ‘Rentiers versus Producers?’, 595. Howe, ‘Bimetallism, c. 1880–1898’, 389. Trentmann, Free Trade Nation, 2. Tyler, Struggle for Imperial Unity, 199–208, 45. This period has been ably connected to the subsequent Edwardian era's tariff reform and federation movement in Rogers ‘United States and the Fiscal Debate in Britain, 1873–1913’. See also Marrison, ‘Insular Free Trade, Retaliation, and the Most–Favoured–Nation Treaty, 1880–1914’, in Marrison, Free Trade and its Reception, vol. 1, 224–42.