producer a greater reward, to stimulate him more abundantly to cater
for the supply of this particular market. I say, therefore, without
hesitation, that the only manner in which a trade preference can
operate is through the agency of price. If preference does not mean
better prices it seems to me a great fraud on those who are asked to
make sacrifices to obtain it; and by "better" prices I mean higher
prices--that is to say, higher prices than the goods are worth, if
sold freely in the markets of the world.

I am quite ready to admit that the fact that you make a particular
branch of trade more profitable, induces more people to engage in that
branch of trade. That is what I call stimulating Colonial production
through the agency of price. I am quite prepared to admit that a very
small tax on staple articles would affect prices in a very small
manner. Reference has been made to the imposition of a shilling duty
on corn, and I think it was Mr. Moor[3] who said, yesterday, that
when the shilling duty was imposed prices fell, and when it was taken
off prices rose. That may be quite true. I do not know that it is
true, but it may be. The imposition of such a small duty as a shilling
on a commodity produced in such vast abundance as wheat, might quite
easily be swamped or concealed by the operation of other more powerful
factors. A week of unusual sunshine, or a night of late frost, or a
ring in the freights, or violent speculation, might easily swamp and
cover the operation of such a small duty; but it is the opinion of
those whose economic views I share--I cannot put it higher than
that--that whatever circumstances may apparently conceal the effect of
the duty on prices, the effect is there all the same, and that any
duty that is imposed upon a commodity becomes a factor in the price of
that commodity. I should have thought that was an almost incontestable
proposition.