red "if you are to give a preference to the
colonies, you must put a tax on food." Considered in the light of after
events, this putting the necessity of food-taxes in the forefront was
decidedly injudicious; but imperialist conviction and enthusiasm were
more conspicuous than electioneering tact in the launching of Mr
Chamberlain's new scheme.

The movement grew quickly, its supporters including a number of the
cleverest younger politicians and journalists in the Unionist party. The
idea of tariff reform--to broaden the basis of taxation, to introduce a
preference, and to stimulate home industries and increase
employment--took firm root; and the political economists of the
party--Prof. W. Cunningham, Prof. W. Ashley and Prof. W.A.S. Hewins, in
particular--brought effective criticism to bear on the one-sided "free
trade" in vogue. The first demand was for inquiry. The country was still
bearing an income-tax of elevenpence in the pound; it appeared that the
old sources of revenue were inadequate; and meanwhile the statistics of
trade, it was argued, showed that the English free-import system
hampered English trade while providing the foreigner with a free market.
Mr Chamberlain and his supporters argued that since 1870 certain other
countries (Germany and the United States), with protective tariffs, had
increased their trade in much larger proportion, while English trade had
only been maintained by the increased business done with British
colonies. A scientific inquiry into the facts was needed. By the
Opposition, who now found themselves the defenders of conservatism in
the established fiscal policy of the country, this whole argument was
scouted; but for a time the demand merely for inquiry, and the
production of figures, gave no sufficient occasion for dissension among
Unionists, even when, like Sir M. Hicks Beach, they were convinced
free-importers on purely economic grounds; and Mr Balfour (q.v.), as
premier, managed to hold his colleagues and party together by taking the
line that particular opinions on economic subjects should not be made a
test of party loyalty. The Board of Trade was set to work to produce
fiscal Blue-books, and hum-drum politicians who had never shown any
genius for figures suddenly blossomed out into arithmeticians of the
deepest dye. The Tariff Reform League was founded in order to further Mr
Chamberlain's policy, holding its inaugural meeting on July 21st; and it
began to take an active part