own border, in the long run the whole yield of any tax, export or
import, will come home to the people of that country by whom it is
imposed. It will come home plus the whole cost of collecting the tax,
and plus, further, the inconvenience and burden of the network of
taxation which is needed. It will come home to them, if they be
consumers, in the quantity, quality, or price of the articles they
consume, and, if exporters, in the profit, convenience, or reserve
power of the business which they conduct.

There is no parity between the sacrifices demanded of the Mother
Country and the proposals of preference made by the various Colonies.
To them it is merely a fresh application of their existing fiscal
system. To us it is a fiscal revolution. To them it is a mere
rewriting of their schedules to give an increased measure of
protection to their home producers. To us it is a tax on food, and, as
I assert again and again, upon raw material, and thus upon all the
industries of these islands. If the Conference has established one
thing clearly it is this, that none of the great self-governing
Colonies of the British Empire are prepared to give us effective
access to their own markets in competition with their home producers.
That was established with absolute clearness; and even if they were
prepared to give us effective access to their home markets, I submit
to the House that, having regard to the great preponderance of our
foreign trade as against our Colonial trade, it would not be worth our
while to purchase the concession which they would then offer at the
cost of disturbing and dislocating the whole area of our trade.
Therefore, we propose to adhere, and are prepared if necessary to be
censured for adhering to our general financial system, which is
governed by the rule that there should be no taxation except for
revenue, and based on the commercial principle of the equal treatment