In following the history of these harbours in Europe, it is to be observed that in Great Britain free ports have never existed. In 1552 it was contemplated to place Hull and Southampton on this footing, but the design was abandoned. Subsequently the bonding and not the free port system was adopted in the United Kingdom.Austria-Hungary.—Fiume and Trieste were respectively free ports during the periods 1722-1893 and 1719-1893.Belgium.—The emperor Joseph II. during his visit to the Austrian Netherlands in June 1781 endeavoured to create a direct trade between that country and India. Ostend was made a free port, and large bonding facilities were afforded at Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and Louvain. In 1796, however, the revolutionary government abolished the Ostend privileges.Denmark.—In November 1894 an area of about 150 acres at Copenhagen was opened as a free port, and great facilities are afforded for shipping and commercial operations in order that the Baltic trade may centre there.France.—Marseilles was a free port in the middle ages, and so was Dunkirk when it formed part of Flanders. In 1669 these privileges were confirmed, and extended to Bayonne. In 1784 there was a fresh confirmation, and Lorient and St Jean de Luz were included in theordonnance. The National Assembly in 1790 maintained this policy, and created free ports in the French West Indies. In 1795, however, all such privileges were abolished, but large bonding facilities were allowed at Marseilles to favour the Levant trade. The government of Louis XVIII. in 1814 restored, and in 1871 again revoked, the free port privileges of Marseilles. There are now no free ports in France or in French possessions; the bonding system is in force.Germany.—Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck were reconstituted free towns and ports under the treaties of 1814-1815. Certain minor ports, and several landing-stages on the Rhine and the Neckar, were also designated free. As the Zollverein policy became accepted throughout Germany, previous privileges were gradually lessened, and since 1888 only Hamburg remains a free port. There an area of about 2500 acres is exempt from customs duties and control, and is largely used for shipping and commercial purposes. Bremerhaven has a similar area of nearly 700 acres. Brake, Bremen, Cuxhaven, Emden, Geestemünde, Neufahrwasser and Stettin possess Freibezirke areas, portions of the larger port. Heligoland is outside the Zollverein—practically a foreign country.InItalyfree ports were numerous and important, and possessed privileges which varied at different dates. They were—Ancona, during the period 1696-1868; Brindisi, 1845-1862; Leghorn (in the 17th and 18th centuries a very important Mediterranean harbour), 1675-1867; Messina, 1695-1879; Senigallia, 1821-1868, during the month of the local fair. Venice possessed warehouses, equivalent to bonded stores, for German and Turkish trade during the Republic, and was a free port 1851-1873. Genoa was a free port in the time of the Republic and under the French Empire, and was continued as such by the treaties of 1814-1815. The free port was, however, changed into a “deposito franco” by a law passed in 1865, and only storing privileges now remain.Rumania.—Braila, Galatz and Kustenji were free ports (for a period of about forty years) up to 1883, when bonded warehouses were established by the Rumanian government. Sulina remains free.Russia.—Archangel was a free port, at least for English goods, from 1553 to 1648. During this period English products were admitted into Russia via Archangel without any customs payment for internal consumption, and also in transit to Persia. The tsar Alexis revoked this grant on the execution of Charles I. Free ports were opened in 1895 at Kola, in Russian Lapland. Dalny, adjoining Port Arthur, was a free port during the Russian occupation; and Japan after the war decided to renew this privilege as soon as practicable.The number of free ports outside Europe has also lessened. The administrative policy of European countries has been gradually adopted in other parts of the world, and customs duties have become almost universal, conjoined with bonding and transhipment facilities. In British colonies and possessions, under an act of parliament passed in 1766, and repealed in 1867, two ports in Dominica and four in Jamaica were free, Malacca, Penang and Singapore have been free ports since 1824, Hong-Kong since 1842, and Weihaiwei since it was leased to Great Britain in 1898. Zanzibar was a free port during 1892-1899. Aden, Gibraltar, St Helena and St Thomas (West Indies) are sometimes designated free ports. A few duties are, however, levied, which are really octroi rather than customs charges. These places are mainly stations for coaling and awaiting orders.Some harbours in the Netherlands East Indies were free ports between 1829 and 1899; but these privileges were withdrawn by laws passed in 1898-1899, in order to establish uniformity of customs administration. Harbours where custom houses are not maintained will be practically closed to foreign trade, though the governor-general may in special circumstances vary the application of the new regulations.Macao has been a free port since 1845. Portugal has no other harbour of this character.The American Republics have adopted the bonding system. In 1896 a free wharf was opened at New Orleans in imitation of the recent European plan. Livingstone (Guatemala) was a free port during the period 1882-1888.
In following the history of these harbours in Europe, it is to be observed that in Great Britain free ports have never existed. In 1552 it was contemplated to place Hull and Southampton on this footing, but the design was abandoned. Subsequently the bonding and not the free port system was adopted in the United Kingdom.
Austria-Hungary.—Fiume and Trieste were respectively free ports during the periods 1722-1893 and 1719-1893.
Belgium.—The emperor Joseph II. during his visit to the Austrian Netherlands in June 1781 endeavoured to create a direct trade between that country and India. Ostend was made a free port, and large bonding facilities were afforded at Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and Louvain. In 1796, however, the revolutionary government abolished the Ostend privileges.
Denmark.—In November 1894 an area of about 150 acres at Copenhagen was opened as a free port, and great facilities are afforded for shipping and commercial operations in order that the Baltic trade may centre there.
France.—Marseilles was a free port in the middle ages, and so was Dunkirk when it formed part of Flanders. In 1669 these privileges were confirmed, and extended to Bayonne. In 1784 there was a fresh confirmation, and Lorient and St Jean de Luz were included in theordonnance. The National Assembly in 1790 maintained this policy, and created free ports in the French West Indies. In 1795, however, all such privileges were abolished, but large bonding facilities were allowed at Marseilles to favour the Levant trade. The government of Louis XVIII. in 1814 restored, and in 1871 again revoked, the free port privileges of Marseilles. There are now no free ports in France or in French possessions; the bonding system is in force.
Germany.—Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck were reconstituted free towns and ports under the treaties of 1814-1815. Certain minor ports, and several landing-stages on the Rhine and the Neckar, were also designated free. As the Zollverein policy became accepted throughout Germany, previous privileges were gradually lessened, and since 1888 only Hamburg remains a free port. There an area of about 2500 acres is exempt from customs duties and control, and is largely used for shipping and commercial purposes. Bremerhaven has a similar area of nearly 700 acres. Brake, Bremen, Cuxhaven, Emden, Geestemünde, Neufahrwasser and Stettin possess Freibezirke areas, portions of the larger port. Heligoland is outside the Zollverein—practically a foreign country.
InItalyfree ports were numerous and important, and possessed privileges which varied at different dates. They were—Ancona, during the period 1696-1868; Brindisi, 1845-1862; Leghorn (in the 17th and 18th centuries a very important Mediterranean harbour), 1675-1867; Messina, 1695-1879; Senigallia, 1821-1868, during the month of the local fair. Venice possessed warehouses, equivalent to bonded stores, for German and Turkish trade during the Republic, and was a free port 1851-1873. Genoa was a free port in the time of the Republic and under the French Empire, and was continued as such by the treaties of 1814-1815. The free port was, however, changed into a “deposito franco” by a law passed in 1865, and only storing privileges now remain.
Rumania.—Braila, Galatz and Kustenji were free ports (for a period of about forty years) up to 1883, when bonded warehouses were established by the Rumanian government. Sulina remains free.
Russia.—Archangel was a free port, at least for English goods, from 1553 to 1648. During this period English products were admitted into Russia via Archangel without any customs payment for internal consumption, and also in transit to Persia. The tsar Alexis revoked this grant on the execution of Charles I. Free ports were opened in 1895 at Kola, in Russian Lapland. Dalny, adjoining Port Arthur, was a free port during the Russian occupation; and Japan after the war decided to renew this privilege as soon as practicable.
The number of free ports outside Europe has also lessened. The administrative policy of European countries has been gradually adopted in other parts of the world, and customs duties have become almost universal, conjoined with bonding and transhipment facilities. In British colonies and possessions, under an act of parliament passed in 1766, and repealed in 1867, two ports in Dominica and four in Jamaica were free, Malacca, Penang and Singapore have been free ports since 1824, Hong-Kong since 1842, and Weihaiwei since it was leased to Great Britain in 1898. Zanzibar was a free port during 1892-1899. Aden, Gibraltar, St Helena and St Thomas (West Indies) are sometimes designated free ports. A few duties are, however, levied, which are really octroi rather than customs charges. These places are mainly stations for coaling and awaiting orders.
Some harbours in the Netherlands East Indies were free ports between 1829 and 1899; but these privileges were withdrawn by laws passed in 1898-1899, in order to establish uniformity of customs administration. Harbours where custom houses are not maintained will be practically closed to foreign trade, though the governor-general may in special circumstances vary the application of the new regulations.
Macao has been a free port since 1845. Portugal has no other harbour of this character.
The American Republics have adopted the bonding system. In 1896 a free wharf was opened at New Orleans in imitation of the recent European plan. Livingstone (Guatemala) was a free port during the period 1882-1888.
The privileges enjoyed under the old free port system benefited the towns and districts where they existed; and their abolition has been, locally, injurious. These places were, however, “foreign” to their own country, and their inland intercourse was restricted by the duties levied on their products, and by the precautions adopted to prevent evasion of these charges. With fiscal usages involving preferential and deferential treatment of goods and places, the drawbacks thus arising did not attract serious attention. Under the limited means of communication within and beyond the country, in former times, these conveniences were not much felt. But when finance departments became more completely organized, the free port system fell out of favour with fiscal authorities: it afforded opportunities for smuggling, and impeded uniformity of action and practice. It became, in fact, out of harmony with the administrative and financial policy of later times. Bonding and entrepot facilities, on a scale commensurate with local needs, now satisfy trade requirements. In countries where high customs duties are levied, and where fiscal regulations are minute and rigid, if an extension of foreign trade is desired, and the competition which it involves is a national aim, special facilities must be granted for this purpose. In these circumstances a free zone sufficiently large to admit of commercial operations and transhipments on a scale which will fulfil these conditions (watched but not interfered with by the customs) becomes indispensable. The German government have, as we have seen, maintained a free zone of this nature at Hamburg. And when the free port at Copenhagen was opened, counter measures were adopted at Danzig and Stettin. An agitation has arisen in France to provide at certain ports free zones similar to those at Copenhagen and Hamburg, and to open free ports in French possessions. A bill to this effect was submitted to the chamber of deputies on the 12th of April 1905. Colonial free ports, such as Hong-Kong and Singapore, do not interfere with the uniformity of the home customs and excise policy. These two harbours in particular have become great shipping resorts and distributing centres. The policy which led to their establishment as free ports has certainly promoted British commercial interests.
See the Parliamentary Paper on “Continental Free Ports,” 1904.
See the Parliamentary Paper on “Continental Free Ports,” 1904.
(C. M. K.)
1In China at the present time (1902) certain ports are designated “free and open.” This phrase means that the ports in question are (1) open to foreign trade, and (2) that vessels engaged in oversea voyages may freely resort there. Exemption from payment of customs duties is not implied, which is a matter distinct from the permission granted under treaty engagements to foreign vessels to carry cargoes to and from the “treaty ports.”
1In China at the present time (1902) certain ports are designated “free and open.” This phrase means that the ports in question are (1) open to foreign trade, and (2) that vessels engaged in oversea voyages may freely resort there. Exemption from payment of customs duties is not implied, which is a matter distinct from the permission granted under treaty engagements to foreign vessels to carry cargoes to and from the “treaty ports.”
FREE REED VIBRATOR(Fr.anche libre, Ger.durchschlagende Zunge, Ital.anciaorlingua libera), in musical instruments, a thin metal tongue fixed at one end and vibrating freely either in surrounding space, as in the accordion and concertina, or enclosed in a pipe or channel, as in certain reed stops of the organ or in the harmonium. The enclosed reed, in its typical and theoretical form, is fixed over an aperture of the same shape but just large enough to allow it to swing freely backwards and forwards, alternately opening and closing the aperture, when driven by a current of compressed air. We have to deal with air under three different conditions in considering the phenomenon of the sound produced by free reeds. (1) The stationary column or stratum in pipe or channel containing the reed, which is normally at rest. (2) The wind or current of air fed from the bellows with a variable velocity and pressure, which is broken up into periodic air puffs as its entrance into pipe or channel isalternately checked or allowed by the vibrator. (3) The disturbed condition of No. 1 when acted upon by the metal vibrator and by No 2, whereby the air within the pipe is forced into alternate pulses of condensation and rarefaction. The free reed is therefore not the tone-producer but only the exciting agent, that is to say, the sound is not produced by the communication of the free reed’s vibrations to the surrounding air,1as in the case of a vibrating string, but by the series of air puffs punctuated by infinitesimal pauses, which it produces by alternately opening and almost closing the aperture.2A musical sound is thus produced the pitch of which depends on the length and thickness of the metal tongue; the greater the length, the slower the vibrations and the lower the pitch, while on the contrary, the thicker the reed near the shoulder at the fixed end, the higher the pitch. It must be borne in mind that the periodic vibrations of the reed determine the pitch of the sound solely by the frequency per second they impose upon the pulses of rarefaction and condensation within the pipe.
A, Tuning wire.
D, Free reed.
R, Reed-box.
B, C, Feed pipe with conical foot.
T, Part of resonating pipe, the upper end with cap and vent hole being shown separately at the side.
The most valuable characteristic of the free reed is its power of producing all the delicate gradations of tone between forte and piano by virtue of a law of acoustics governing the vibration of free reeds, whereby increased pressure of wind produces a proportional increase in the volume of tone. The pitch of any sound depends upon the frequency of the sound-waves, that is, the number per second which reach the ear; the fullness of sound depends upon the amplitude of the waves, or, more strictly speaking, of the swing of the transmitting particles of the medium—greater pressure in the air current (No. 2 above) which sets the vibrator in motion producing amplitude of vibration in the air within the receptacle (No. 3 above) serving as resonating medium. The sound produced by the free reed itself is weak and requires to be reinforced by means of an additional stationary column or stratum of air. Free reed instruments are therefore classified according to the nature of the resonant medium provided:—(1) Free reeds vibrating in pipes, such as the reed stops of church organs on the continent of Europe (in England the reed pipes are generally provided with beating reeds, seeReed InstrumentsandClarinet). (2) Free reeds vibrating in reed compartments and reinforced by air chambers of various shapes and sizes as in the harmonium (q.v.). (3) Instruments like the accordion and concertina having the free reed set in vibration through a valve, but having no reinforcing medium.
AL, Beating reed.
R, Reed box.
Ff, Tuning wire.
TV, Feed pipe.
VV, Conical foot.
S, Hole through which compressed air is fed.
The arrangement of the free reed in an organ pipe is simple, and does not differ greatly from that of the beating reed shown in fig. 2 for the purpose of comparison. The reed-box, a rectangular wooden pipe, is closed at the bottom and covered on one face with a thin plate of copper having a rectangular slit over which is fixed the thin metal vibrating tongue or reed as described above. The reed-box, itself open at the top, is enclosed in a feed pipe having a conical foot pierced with a small hole through which the air current is forced by the action of the bellows. The impact of the incoming compressed air against the reed tongue sets it swinging through the slit, thus causing a disturbance or series of pulsations within the reed-box. The air then finds an escape through the resonating medium of a pipe fitting over the reed-box and terminating in an inverted cone covered with a cap in the top of which is pierced a small hole or vent. The quality of tone of free reeds is due to the tendency of air set in periodic pulsations to divide into aliquot vibrations or loops, producing the phenomenon known as harmonic overtones or upper partials, which may, in the highly composite clang of free reeds, be discerned as far as the 16th or 20th of the series. The more intermittent and interrupted the air current becomes, the greater the number of the upper partials produced.3The power of the overtones and their relation to the fundamental note depend greatly upon the form of the tongue, its position and the amount of the clearance left as it swings through the aperture.
Free reeds not associated with resonating media as in the concertina are peculiarly rich in harmonics, but as the higher harmonics lie very close together, disagreeable dissonances and a harsh tone result. The resonating pipe or chamber when suitably accommodated to the reed greatly modifies the tone by reinforcing the harmonics proper to itself, the others sinking into comparative insignificance. In order to produce a full rich tone, a resonator should be chosen whose deepest note coincides with the fundamental tone of the reed. The other upper partials will also be reinforced thereby, but to a less degree the higher the harmonics.4
For the history of the application of the free reed to keyboard instruments seeHarmonium.
For the history of the application of the free reed to keyboard instruments seeHarmonium.
(K. S.)
1See H. Helmholtz,Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen(Brunswick, 1877), p. 166.2See also Ernst Heinrich and Wilhelm Weber,Wellenlehre(Leipzig, 1825), where a particularly lucid explanation of the phenomenon is given, pp. 526-530.3See Helmholtz,op. cit.p. 167.4These phenomena are clearly explained at greater length by Sedley Taylor inSound and Music(London, 1896), pp. 134-153 and pp. 74-86. See also Friedrich Zamminer,Die Musik und die musikalischen Instrumente, &c. (Giessen, 1855), p. 261.
1See H. Helmholtz,Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen(Brunswick, 1877), p. 166.
2See also Ernst Heinrich and Wilhelm Weber,Wellenlehre(Leipzig, 1825), where a particularly lucid explanation of the phenomenon is given, pp. 526-530.
3See Helmholtz,op. cit.p. 167.
4These phenomena are clearly explained at greater length by Sedley Taylor inSound and Music(London, 1896), pp. 134-153 and pp. 74-86. See also Friedrich Zamminer,Die Musik und die musikalischen Instrumente, &c. (Giessen, 1855), p. 261.
FREESIA,in botany, a genus of plants belonging to the Iris family (Iridaceae), and containing a single species,F. refracta, native at the Cape of Good Hope. The plants grow from a corm (a solid bulb, as inGladiolus) which sends up a tuft of long narrow leaves and a slightly branched stem bearing a few leaves and loose one-sided spikes of fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers. Several varieties are known in cultivation, differing in the colour of the flower, which is white, cream or yellow. They form pretty greenhouse plants which are readily increased from seed. They are extensively grown for the market in Guernsey, England and America. By potting successively throughout the autumn a supply of flowers is obtained through winter and spring. Some very fine large-flowered varieties, including rose-coloured ones, are now being raised by various growers in England, and are a great improvement on the older forms.
FREE SOIL PARTY,a political party in the United States, which was organized in 1847-1848 to oppose the extension of slavery into the Territories. It was a combination of the political abolitionists—many of whom had formerly been identified with the more radical Liberty party—the anti-slavery Whigs, and the faction of the Democratic party in the state of New York, called “Barnburners,” who favoured the prohibition of slavery, in accordance with the “Wilmot Proviso” (seeWilmot, David), in the territory acquired from Mexico. The party was prominent in the presidential campaigns of 1848 and 1852. At the national convention held in Buffalo, N.Y., on the 9th and 10th of August 1848, they secured the nomination to the presidency of ex-President Martin Van Buren, who had failed to secure nomination by the Democrats in 1844 because of his opposition to the annexation of Texas, and of Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for the vice-presidency, taking as their “platform” a Declaration that Congress, having “no more power to make a slave than to make a king,” was bound to restrict slavery to the slave states, and concluding, “we inscribe on our banner ‘Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Man,’ and under it we will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions.” The Liberty party had previously, in November 1847, nominatedJohn P. Hale and Leicester King as president and vice-president respectively, but in the spring of 1848 it withdrew its candidates and joined the “free soil” movement. Representatives of eighteen states, including Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, attended the Buffalo convention. In the ensuing presidential election Van Buren and Adams received a popular vote of 291,263, of which 120,510 were cast in New York. They received no electoral votes, all these being divided between the Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor, who was elected, and the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass. The “free soilers,” however, succeeded in sending to the thirty-first Congress two senators and fourteen representatives, who by their ability exercised an influence out of proportion to their number.
Between 1848 and 1852 the “Barnburners” and the “Hunkers,” their opponents, became partially reunited, the former returning to the Democratic ranks, and thus greatly weakening the Free Soilers. The party held its national convention at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of August 1852, delegates being present from all the free states, and from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky; and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and George W. Julian of Indiana, were nominated for the presidency and the vice-presidency respectively, on a platform which declared slavery “a sin against God and a crime against man,” denounced the Compromise Measures of 1850, the fugitive slave law in particular, and again opposed the extension of slavery in the Territories. These candidates, however, received no electoral votes and a popular vote of only 156,149, of which but 25,329 were polled in New York. By 1856 they abandoned their separate organization and joined the movement which resulted in the formation of the powerful Republican party (q.v.), of which the Free Soil party was the legitimate precursor.
FREE-STONE(a translation of the O. Fr.franche pereorpierre,i.e.stone of good quality; the modern French equivalent ispierre de taille, and Ital.pietra molle), stone used in architecture for mouldings, tracery and other work required to be worked with the chisel. The oolitic stones are generally so called, although in some countries soft sandstones are used; in some churches an indurated chalk called “clunch” is employed for internal lining and for carving.
FREETOWN,capital of the British colony of Sierra Leone, West Africa, on the south side of the Sierra Leone estuary, about 5 m. from the cape of that name, in 8° 29′ N., 13° 10′ W. Pop. (1901) 34,463. About 500 of the inhabitants are Europeans. Freetown is picturesquely situated on a plain, closed in behind by a succession of wooded hills, the Sierra Leone, rising to a height of 1700 ft. As nearly every house is surrounded by a courtyard or garden, the town covers an unusually large area for the number of its inhabitants. It possesses few buildings of architectural merit. The principal are the governor’s residence and government offices, the barracks, the cathedral, the missionary institutions, the fruit market, Wilberforce Hall, courts of justice, the railway station and the grammar school. Several of these institutions are built on the slopes of the hills, and on the highest point, Sugar Loaf Mountain, is a sanatorium. The botanic gardens form a pleasant and favourite place of resort. The roads are wide but badly kept. Horses do not live, and all wheeled traffic is done by manual labour—hammocks and sedan-chairs are the customary means of locomotion. Notwithstanding that Freetown possesses an abundant and pure water-supply, drawn from the adjacent hills, it is enervating and unhealthy, and it was particularly to the capital, often spoken of as Sierra Leone, that the designation “White Man’s Grave” applied. Since the beginning of the 20th century strenuous efforts have been made to improve the sanitary condition by a new system of drainage, a better water service, the filling up of marshes wherein the malarial mosquito breeds, and in other directions. A light railway 6 m. long, opened in 1904, has been built to Hill Station (900 ft. high), where, on a healthy site, are the residences of the government officials and of other Europeans. As a consequence the public health has improved, the highest death-rate in the years 1901-1907 being 29.6 per 1000. The town is governed by a municipality (created in 1893) with a mayor and councillors, the large majority being elective. Freetown was the first place in British West Africa granted local self-government.
Both commercially and strategically Freetown is a place of importance. Its harbour affords ample accommodation for the largest fleets, it is a coaling station for the British navy, the headquarters of the British military forces in West Africa, the sea terminus of the railway to the rich oil-palm regions of Mendiland, and a port of call for all steamers serving West Africa. Its inhabitants are noted for their skill as traders; the town itself produces nothing in the way of exports.
In consequence of the character of the original settlement (seeSierra Leone), 75% of the inhabitants are descended from non-indigenous Negro races. As many as 150 different tribes are represented in the Sierra Leonis of to-day. Their semi-Europeanization is largely the result of missionary endeavour. The only language of the lower class is pidgin-English—quite incomprehensible to the newcomer from Great Britain,—but a large proportion of the inhabitants are highly educated men who excel as lawyers, clergymen, clerks and traders. Many members of the upper, that is, the best-educated, class have filled official positions of great responsibility. The most noted citizens are Bishop Crowther and Sir Samuel Lewis, chief justice of Sierra Leone 1882-1894. Both were full-blooded Africans. The Kru-men form a distinct section of the community, living in a separate quarter and preserving their tribal customs.
Since 1861-1862 there has been an independent Episcopal Native Church; but the Church Missionary Society, which in 1804 sent out the first missionaries to Sierra Leone, still maintains various agencies. Furah Bay College, built by the society on the site of General Charles Turner’s estate (1½ m. E. of Freetown), and opened in 1828 with six pupils, one of whom was Bishop Crowther, was affiliated in 1876 to Durham University and has a high-class curriculum. The Wesleyans have a high school, a theological college, and other educative agencies. The Moslems, who are among the most law-abiding and intelligent citizens of Freetown, have several state-aided primary schools.
FREE TRADE, an expression which has now come to be appropriated to the economic policy of encouraging the greatest possible commercial intercourse, unrestricted by “protective” duties (seeProtection), between any one country and its neighbours. This policy was originally advocated in France, and it has had its adherents in many countries, but Great Britain stands alone among the great commercial nations of the world in having adopted it systematically from 1846 onwards as the fundamental principle of her economic policy.
In the economic literature of earlier periods, it may be noted that the term “free trade” is employed in senses which have no relation to modern usage. The term conveyed no suggestion of unrestricted trade or national liberty when it first appeared in controversial pamphlets;1it stood for a freedom conferred and maintained by authority—like that of a free town. The merchants desired to have good regulations for trade so that they might be free from the disabilities imposed upon them by foreign princes or unscrupulous fellow-subjects. After 1640 the term seems to have been commonly current in a different sense. When the practice which had been handed down from the middle ages—of organizing the trade with particular countries by means of privileged companies, which professed to regulate the trade according to the state of the market so as to secure its steady development in the interest of producers and traders—was seriously called in question under the Stuarts and at the Revolution, the interlopers and opponents of the companies insisted on the advantages of a “Free Trade”; they meant by this that the various branches of commerce should not be confined to particular persons or limited in amount, but should be thrown open to be pursued by any Englishman in the way he thought most profitable himself.2Again, in the latter half of the 18thcentury, till Pitt’s financial reforms3were brought into operation, the English customs duties on wine and brandy were excessive; and those who carried on a remunerative business by evading these duties were known as Fair Traders or Free Traders.4Since 1846 the term free trade has been popularly used, in England, to designate the policy of Cobden (q.v.) and others who advocated the abolition of the tax on imported corn (seeCorn Laws); this is the only one of the specialized senses of the term which is at all likely to be confused with the economic doctrine. The Anti-Corn Law movement was, as a matter of fact, a special application of the economic principle; but serious mistakes have arisen from the blunder of confusing the part with the whole, and treating the remission of one particular duty as if it were the essential element of a policy in which it was only an incident. W. E. Gladstone, in discussing the effect of improvements in locomotion on British trade, showed what a large proportion of the stimulus to commerce during the 19th century was to be credited to what he called the “liberalizing legislation” of the free-trade movement in the wide sense in which he used the term. “I rank the introduction of cheap postage for letters, documents, patterns and printed matter, and the abolition of all taxes on printed matter, in the category of Free Trade Legislation. Not only thought in general, but every communication, and every publication, relating to matters of business, was thus set free. These great measures, then, may well take their place beside the abolition of prohibitions and protective duties, the simplifying of revenue laws, and the repeal of the Navigation Act, as forming together the great code of industrial emancipation. Under this code, our race, restored to freedom in mind and hand, and braced by the powerful stimulus of open competition with the world, has upon the whole surpassed itself and every other, and has won for itself a commercial primacy more evident, more comprehensive, and more solid than it had at any previous time possessed.”5In this large sense free trade may be almost interpreted as the combination of the doctrines of the division of labour and oflaissez-fairein regard to the world as a whole. The division of labour between different countries of the world—so that each concentrates its energies in supplying that for the production of which it is best fitted—appears to offer the greatest possibility of production; but this result cannot be secured unless trade and industry are treated as the primary elements in the welfare of each community, and political considerations are not allowed to hamper them.
Stated in its simplest form, the principle which underlies the doctrine of free trade is almost a truism; it is directly deducible from the very notion of exchange (q.v.). Adam Smith and his successors have demonstrated that in every case of voluntary exchange each party gains something that is of greater value-in-use to him than that with which he parts, and that consequently in every exchange, either between individuals or between nations, both parties are the gainers. Hence it necessarily follows that, since both parties gain through exchanging, the more facilities there are for exchange the greater will be the advantage to every individual all round.6There is no difficulty in translating this principle into the terms of actual life, and stating the conditions in which it holds good absolutely. If, at any given moment, the mass of goods in the world were distributed among the consumers with the minimum of restriction on interchange, each competitor would obtain the largest possible share of the things he procures in the world’s market. But the argument is less conclusive when the element of time is taken into account; what is true of each moment separately is not necessarily true of any period in which the conditions of production, or the requirements of communities, may possibly change. Each individual is likely to act with reference to his own future, but it may often be wise for the statesman to look far ahead, beyond the existing generation.7Owing to the neglect of this element of time, and the allowance which must be made for it, the reasoning as to the advantages of free trade, which is perfectly sound in regard to the distribution of goods already in existence, may become sophistical,8if it is put forward as affording a complete demonstration of the benefits of free trade as a regular policy. After all, human society is very complex, and any attempt to deal with its problems off-hand by appealing to a simple principle raises the suspicion that some important factor may have been left out of account. When there is such mistaken simplification, the reasoning may seem to have complete certainty, and yet it fails to produce conviction, because it does not profess to deal with the problem in all its aspects. When we concentrate attention on the phenomena of exchange, we are viewing society as a mechanism in which each acts under known laws and is impelled by one particular force—that of self-interest; now, society is, no doubt, in this sense a mechanism, but it is also an organism,9and it is only for very short periods, and in a very limited way, that we can venture to neglect its organic character without running the risk of falling into serious mistakes.
The doctrine of free trade maintains that in order to secure the greatest possible mass of goods in the world as a whole, and the greatest possibility of immediate comfort for the consumer, it is expedient that there should be no restriction on the exchange of goods and services either between individuals or communities. The controversies in regard to this doctrine have not turned on its certainty as a hypothetical principle, but on the legitimacy of the arguments based upon it. It certainly supplies a principle in the light of which all proposed trade regulations should be criticized. It gives us a basis for examining and estimating the expense at which any particular piece of trade restriction is carried out; but thus used, the principle does not necessarily condemn the expenditure; the game may be worth the candle or it may not, but at least it is well that we should know how fast the candle is being burnt. It was in this critical spirit that Adam Smith examined the various restrictions and encouragements to trade which were in vogue in his day; he proved of each in turn that it was expensive, but he showed that he was conscious that the final decision could not be taken from this standpoint, since he recognized in regard to the Navigation Acts that “defence is more than opulence.”10In more recent times, the same sort of attitude was taken by Henry Sidgwick,11who criticizes various protective expedients in turn, in the light of free trade, but does not treat it as conveying an authoritative decision on their merits.
But other exponents of the doctrine have not been content to employ it in this fashion. They urge it in a more positive manner, and insist that free trade pure and simple isthefoundation on which the economic life of the community ought to be based. By men who advocate it in this way, free trade is set forward as an ideal which it is a duty to realize, and those who hold aloof from it or oppose it have been held up to scorn as if they were almost guilty of a crime.12The development of the material resources of the world is undoubtedly an important element in the welfare of mankind; it is an aim which is common to the whole race, and may be looked upon as contributing to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Competition in the open market seems to secure that each consumer shall obtain the best possible terms; and again, since all men are consumers whether they produce or not, or whatever they produce, the greatest measure of comforts for each seems likely to be attainable on these lines. For those who are frankly cosmopolitan, and who regard material prosperity as at all events the prime object at which public policy should aim, the free-trade doctrine is readilytransformed, from a mere principle of criticism, till it comes to be regarded as the harbinger of a possible Utopia. It was in this fashion that it was put forward by French economists and proved attractive to some leading American statesmen in the 18th century. Turgot regarded the colonial systems of the European countries as at once unfair to their dependencies and dangerous to the peace of the world. “It will be a wise and happy thing for the nation which shall be the first to modify its policy according to the new conditions, and be content to regard its colonies as if they were allied provinces and not subjects of the mother country.” It will be a wise and happy thing for the nation which is the first to be convinced that the secret of “success, so far as commercial policy is concerned, consists in employing all its land in the manner most profitable for the proprietary, all the hands in the manner most advantageous to the workman personally, that is to say, in the manner in which each would employ them, if we could let him be simply directed by his own interest, and that all the rest of the mercantile policy is vanity and vexation of spirit. When the entire separation of America shall have forced the whole world to recognize this truth and purged the European nations of commercial jealousy there will be one great cause of war less in the world.”13Pitt, under the influence of Adam Smith, was prepared to admit the United States to the benefit of trade with the West Indian Colonies; and Jefferson, accepting the principles of his French teachers, would (in contradistinction to Alexander Hamilton) have been willing to see his country renounce the attempt to develop manufactures of her own.14It seemed as if a long step might be taken towards realizing the free-trade ideal for the Anglo-Saxon race; but British shipowners insisted on the retention of their privileges, and the propitious moment passed away with the failure of the negotiations of 1783.15Free trade ceased to be regarded as a gospel, even in France, till the ideal was revived in the writings of Bastiat, and helped to mould the enthusiasm of Richard Cobden.16Through his zealous advocacy, the doctrine secured converts in almost every part of the world; though it was only in Great Britain that a great majority of the citizens became so far satisfied with it that they adopted it as the foundation of the economic policy of the country.
It is not difficult to account for the conversion of Great Britain to this doctrine; in the special circumstances of the first half of the 19th century it was to the interest of the most vigorous factors in the economic life of the country to secure the greatest possible freedom for commercial intercourse. Great Britain had, through her shipping, access to all the markets of the world; she had obtained such a lead in the application of machinery to manufactures that she had a practical monopoly in textile manufactures and in the hardware trades; by removing every restriction, she could push her advantage to its farthest extent, and not only undersell native manufactures in other lands, but secure food, and the raw materials for her manufactures, on the cheapest possible terms. Free trade thus seemed to offer the means of placing an increasing distance between Britain and her rivals, and of rendering the industrial monopoly which she had attained impregnable. The capitalist employer had superseded the landowner as the mainstay of the resources and revenue of the realm, and insisted that the prosperity of manufactures was the primary interest of the community as a whole. The expectation, that a thoroughgoing policy of free trade would not only favour an increase of employment, but also the cheapening of food, could only have been roused in a country which was obliged to import a considerable amount of corn. The exceptional weakness, as well as the exceptional strength, of Great Britain, among European countries, made it seem desirable to adopt the principle of unrestricted commercial intercourse, not merely in the tentative fashion in which it had been put in operation by Huskisson, but in the thoroughgoing fashion in which it at last commended itself to the minds of Peel and Gladstone. The “Manchester men” saw clearly where their interest lay; and the fashionable political economy was ready to demonstrate that in pursuing their own interest they were conferring the benefit of cheap clothing on all the most poverty-stricken races of mankind. It seemed probable, in the ’forties and early ’fifties, that other countries would take a similar view of their own interests and would follow the example which Great Britain had set.17That they have not done so, is partly due to the fact that none of them had such a direct, or such a widely diffused, interest in increased commercial intercourse as existed in Great Britain; but their reluctance has been partly the result of the criticism to which the free-trade doctrine has been subjected. The principles expressed in the writings of Friedrich List have taken such firm hold, both in America and in Germany, that these countries have preferred to follow on the lines by which Great Britain successfully built up her industrial prosperity in the 17th and 18th century, rather than on those by which they have seen her striving to maintain it since 1846.
Free trade was attractive as an ideal, because it appeared to offer the greatest production of goods to the world as a whole, and the largest share of material goods to each consumer; it is cosmopolitan, and it treats consumption, and the interest of the consumer, as such, as the end to be considered. Hence it lies open to objections which are partly political and partly economic.
As cosmopolitan, free-trade doctrine is apt to be indifferent to national tradition and aspiration. In so far indeed as patriotism is a mere aesthetic sentiment, it may be tolerated, but in so far as it implies a genuine wish and intention to preserve and defend the national habits and character to the exclusion of alien elements, the cosmopolitan mind will condemn it as narrow and mischievous. In the first half of the 19th century there were many men who believed that national ambitions and jealousies of every kind were essentially dynastic, and that if monarchies were abolished there would be fewer occasions of war, so that the expenses of the business of government would be enormously curtailed. For Cobden and his contemporaries it was natural to regard the national administrative institutions as maintained for the benefit of the “classes” and without much advantage to the “masses.” But in point of fact, modern times have shown the existence in democracies of a patriotic sentiment which is both exclusive and aggressive; and the burden of armaments has steadily increased. It was by means of a civil war that the United States attained to a consciousness of national life; while such later symptoms as the recent interpretations of the Monroe doctrine, or the war with Spain, have proved that the citizens of that democratic country cannot be regarded as destitute of self-aggrandizing national ambition.
In Germany the growth of militarism and nationalism have gone on side by side under constitutional government, and certainly in harmony with predominant public opinion. Neither of these communities is willing to sink its individual conception of progress in those of the world at large; each is jealous of the intrusion of alien elements which cannot be reconciled with its own political and social system. And a similar recrudescence of patriotic feeling has been observable in other countries, such as Norway and Hungary: the growth of national sentiment is shown, not only in the attempts to revive and popularize the use of a national language, but still more decidedly in the determination to have a real control over the economic life of the country. It is here that the new patriotism comes into direct conflict with the political principles of free trade as advocated by Bastiat and Cobden; for them the important point was that countries, by becoming dependent on one another, would be prevented from engaging in hostilities. The new nations aredetermined that they will not allow other countries to have such control over their economic condition, as to be able to exercise a powerful influence on their political life. Each is determined to be the master in his own house, and each has rejected free trade because of the cosmopolitanism which it involves.
Economically, free trade lays stress on consumption as the chief criterion of prosperity. It is, of course, true that goods are produced with the object of being consumed, and it is plausible to insist on taking this test; but it is also true that consumption and production are mutually interdependent, and that in some ways production is the more important of the two. Consumption looks to the present, and the disposal of actual goods; production looks to the future, and the conditions under which goods can continue to be regularly provided and thus become available for consumption in the long run. As regards the prosperity of the community in the future it is important that goods should be consumed in such a fashion as to secure that they shall be replaced or increased before they are used up; it is the amount of production rather than the amount of consumption that demands consideration, and gives indication of growth or of decadence. In these circumstances there is much to be said for looking at the economic life of a country from the point of view which free-traders have abandoned or ignore. It is not on the possibilities of consumption in the present, but on the prospects of productionin the future, that the continued wealth of the community depends; and this principle is the only one which conforms to the modern conception of the essential requirements of sociological science in its wider aspect (seeSociology). This is most obviously true in regard to countries of which the resources are very imperfectly developed. If their policy is directed to securing the greatest possible comfort for each consumer in the present, it is certain that progress will be slow; the planting of industries for which the country has an advantage may be a tedious process; and in order to stimulate national efficiency temporary protection—involving what is otherwise unnecessary immediate cost to the consumer—may seem to be abundantly justified. Such a free trader as John Stuart Mill himself admits that a case may be made out for treating “infant industries” as exceptions;18and if this exception be admitted it is likely to establish a precedent. After all, the various countries of the world are all in different stages of development; some are old and some are new; and even the old countries differ greatly in the progress they have made in distinct arts. The introduction of machinery has everywhere changed the conditions of production, so that some countries have lost and others have gained a special advantage. Most of the countries of the world are convinced that the wisest economy is to attend to the husbanding of their resources of every kind, and to direct their policy not merely with a view to consumption in the present, but rather with regard to the possibilities of increased production in the future.
This deliberate rejection of the doctrine of free trade between nations, both in its political and economic aspects, has not interfered, however, with the steady progress of free commercial intercourse within the boundaries of a single though composite political community. “Internal free trade,” though the name was not then current in this sense, was one of the burning questions in England in the 17th century; it was perhaps as important a factor as puritanism in the fall of Charles I. Internal free trade was secured in France in the 18th century; thanks to Hamilton,19it was embodied in the constitution of the United States; it was introduced into Germany by Bismarck; and was firmly established in the Dominion of Canada and the Commonwealth of Australia. It became in consequence, where practicable, a part of the modern federal idea as usually interpreted. There are thus great areas, externally self-protecting, where free trade, as between internal divisions, has been introduced with little, if any, political difficulty, and with considerable economic advantage. These cases are sometimes quoted as justifying the expectation that the same principle is likely to be adopted sooner or later in regard to external trading relations. There is some reason, however, for raising the question whether free trade has been equally successful, not only in its economic, but in its social results, in all the large political communities where it has been introduced. In a region like the United States of America, it is probably seen at its best; there is an immense variety of different products throughout that great zone of the continent, so that the mutual co-operation of the various parts is most beneficial, while the standard of habit and comfort is so far uniform20throughout the whole region, and the facilities for the change of employment are so many, that there is little injurious competition between different districts. In the British empire the conditions are reversed; but though the great self-governing colonies have withdrawn from the circle, in the hope of building up their own economic life in their own way, free trade is still maintained over a very large part of the British empire. Throughout this area, there are very varied physical conditions; there is also an extraordinary variety of races, each with its own habits, and own standard of comfort; and in these circumstances it may be doubted whether the free competition, involved in free trade, is really altogether wholesome. Within this sphere the ideal of Bastiat and his followers is being realized. England, as a great manufacturing country, has more than held her own; India and Ireland are supplied with manufactured goods by England, and in each case the population is forced to look to the soil for its means of support, and for purchasing power. In each case the preference for tillage, as an occupation, has rendered it comparatively easy to keep the people on the land; but there is some reason to believe that the law of diminishing returns is already making itself felt, at all events in India, and is forcing the people into deeper poverty.21It may be doubtful in the case of Ireland how far the superiority of England in industrial pursuits has prevented the development of manufactures; the progress in the last decades of the 18th century was too short-lived to be conclusive; but there is at least a strong impression in many quarters that the industries of Ireland might have flourished if they had had better opportunities allowed them.22In the case of India we know that the hereditary artistic skill, which had been built up in bygone generations, has been stamped out. It seems possible that the modern unrest in India, and the discontent in Ireland, may be connected with the economic conditions in these countries, on which free trade has been imposed without their consent. So far the population which subsists on the cheaper food, and has the lower standard of life, has been the sufferer; but the mischief might operate in another fashion. The self-governing colonies at all events feel that competition in the same market between races with different standards of comfort has infinite possibilities of mischief. It is easy to conjure up conditions under which the standard of comfort of wage-earners in England would be seriously threatened.
Since the 9th edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannicawas published it has become clear that the free-trade doctrines of Bastiat and Cobden have not been gaining ground in the world at large, and at the opening of the 20th century it could hardly be said with confidence that the question was “finally settled” so far as England was concerned. As to whether the interests of Great Britain still demanded that she should continue on the line she adopted in the exceptional conditions of the middle of the 19th century, expert opinion was conspicuously divided;23but there remained no longer the old enthusiasm for free trade asthe harbinger of an Utopia. The old principles of the bourgeois manufacturers had been taken up by the proletariat and shaped to suit themselves. Socialism, like free trade, is cosmopolitan in its aims, and is indifferent to patriotism and hostile to militarism. Socialism, like free trade, insists on material welfare as the primary object to be aimed at in any policy, and, like free trade, socialism tests welfare by reference to possibilities of consumption. In one respect there is a difference; throughout Cobden’s attack on the governing classes there are signs of his jealousy of the superior status of the landed gentry, but socialism has a somewhat wider range of view and demands “equality of opportunity” with the capitalist as well.