now recognised as a legitimate aim of State policy even in Great Britain, and few would now inveigh against such a policy. Nor was the object of the early protectionists essentially different from this. Most of them were genuine patriots who used the tariff policy as a weapon to defend national industries against unfair foreign competition, and who honestly held that those national industries should be safeguarded even against competition at home of new rivals ; they were not all craving for treasure or raving for national aggrandisement, as is often supposed. It is possible, therefore, that the early protectionist movement detailed in the present work may have some practical bearing upon the fiscal problems that loom so large all over the world at the present time. The materials for this book were drawn mainly from contemporary papers preserved in the English libraries and archives-pamphlets, broadsides, and the teeming MSS. of the Public Record Office and the India Office. The period under survey was very prolific in economic tracts, and large numbers of them are found in the Bodleian, the British Museum and the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature. The last-named collection was found specially useful: it is a veritable mine of economic information and awaits exploitation by enterprising workers. The book was partly composed in 1922 and forms part of the results of an enquiry which the author carried on in the above archives from 1920 to 1924. It is proposed to bring out another instalment of his "findings "in due course. The author takes this opportunity to express his deep debt of gratitude to the High Commissioner for India in London; to Mr. P. E. Roberts, of Worcester College, Oxford; to Prof. H. W. C. Davis, of Balliol; to Mr. E. Lipson, University Reader in Economic History at Oxford; to Mr. (now Sir) William Foster, Historiographer at the India Office, and to Mrs. V. Anstey, of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The publication of this book owes much to the munificence of Mr. T. C. Goswami, of Lincoln College, Oxford. The author's colleague, Prof. S. A. Pakeman, and Mrs. Anstey were good enough to correct the proofs, and the author is grateful to them both for their helpful suggestions. II. PARLIAMENTARY AND OTHER STATE PAPER Historical MSS., Commission Reports, New Series, 4 the House of Lords Papers. Journal of the House of Commons, Vols. XI to XX. Treasury Papers. State Papers, Domestic. III. NEWSPAPERS (CONTEMPORARY) The Old Weekly Journal; Weekly Journal or Saturday P Post Boy; Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer; Fly Post; Protestant Mercury; Weekly Packet; The Ma facturer; The Weaver; The British Merchant (171 The London Gazette; The British Merchant (171 The Mercator, or Commerce Preserved; The Spectator. (Most of these are preserved in the Bodleian, especially in Nichols collection.) IV. PAMPHLETS [The following is a list, chronologically arranged, of pamphlets and broadsides preserved in the various libra in London and Oxford.] 1623 Discourse of Trade to East Indies. (Thomas Mun.) The Circle of Commerce. (Misseldon.) 1664 England's Treasure by Forraign Trade. (Mun.) 1668. Brief Observations concerning Trade and Interest. (Jo Child.) 1677 England's Great Happiness, a Dialogue between Cont and Complaint. East India Trade a most profitable Trade to the Kingdo 1678 The Ancient Trades Decayed and Repaired again. A Treatise concerning the East India Trade. (Thom 1681 A Treatise wherein is demonstrated that East India Tra is the most national of all Foreign Trades. (Child.) 1684 Colbert's Ghost. |