other parts of the Empire. The British authorities have removed all restrictions on importations into the United Kingdom that are exported from and are the product or manufacture of the British Dominions, except in a few cases. Australia has partially adopted a similar policy.

Tariff policies are deeply rooted in the sentiments and traditions of nations. In some cases they are vitally connected with their economic welfare. They cannot, therefore, be decided without a careful consideration of all the factors in the case. But one of the factors, a factor made more important by the war and the conditions out of which it sprang, is the necessity for increasing goodwill and harmony among peoples. World, as well as national, interests demand consideration. It may not be expedient for nations to retain all the economic advantages they possess by reason of their immediate position. Tariff discriminations not only accentuate the differences among nations, but may react disastrously on their makers. A time has come when peoples must consider what they can surrender in the interests of better world conditions, but before the principles of adjustment are considered, attention must be directed to another field in which preferential tariff arrangements have flourished.

CHAPTER XV

THE OPEN DOOR AND COLONIAL TARIFFS

"Open door'' defined The closed door" in the old colonial system Return of struggle for colonies in the nineteenth century Agreements relating to the open door - Berlin Conference, 1884-5-Algeciras Conference, 1906 - Open door in China Ingenious ways of closing the "door"-Colonial tariffs The Netherlands - British dependent colonies Spain Germany Italy - France The Philippines Colonies should not be instruments of commercial policy.

The principle of the open door does not imply free trade or even low or revenue tariffs. It implies actual equality and uniformity of treatment in import and export duties, harbor dues, customs regulations, distribution of raw materials, and opportunities for investments or concessions. It may be made applicable in any dependent colony or even in a country, such as China or Persia, where outside Governments are backing the commercial and financial interests of their nationals in their competition for trade, investment, or concessions.

The old colonial system of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was based on monopoly, exclusion, and the "closed door." Colonies were conceived to exist solely for the benefit of the mother country. Mercantilist statesmen looked upon them as a means of enriching the nation. The mining of the precious metals was encouraged. Navigation laws made colonial shipping a national monopoly. Colonies were required to sell their produce to, and to purchase their supplies from, the mother country. Trade and colonial rivalries developed into wars. The British fought successfully in turn the Spanish, the Dutch, and the French, and laid the

foundations of a great empire. It was an age full of heroic achievements but ruled by ideals of combat and dominance - ideals which can find no place in any just plan of world affairs.

The latter part of the nineteenth century witnessed a revival of colonial policy as epochal in its importance as the old colonialism. It came as one of the results of the later phases of the industrial revolution. Mechanical invention and business organization increased production, goods were exported to foreign markets, capital accumulated and sought investment. Colonies, protectorates, and spheres of influence became desirable. Politics began to interest itself in the commercial and financial conditions of distant countries.1

When this revival of colonial interest began, Great Britain discovered that she had under her flag some of the most desirable parts of the earth's surface. France, however, retained only a shadow of her seventeenth century empire. The colonies which the Dutch, the Portuguese, and the Spanish still held were but remnants of their former domains. But there were large portions of the world uncontrolled by any great power. South America was closed to European political interference or control by the Monroe Doctrine. Africa offered the greatest opportunities for colonial expansion, and its partition became a great colonial problem. Great Britain and France, chiefly by pushing inland from their footholds on the coast, obtained more than one-half of the entire continent. France's share of the Dark Continent, approximately 4,000,000 square miles, was largely acquired after 1885. Leopold of Belgium acquired approximately 900,000 square miles; Italy, 600,000; Germany, 900,000. The Portuguese took a renewed interest

1 Cf. Chapter I.

in holdings and claims neglected for years. Spain's acquisitions were insignificant compared with other powers. Nor did the islands of the sea or Asia escape the colonizing fervor. Oceania was taken over, and the integrity of China, Persia, and other Asiatic countries threatened.

The Berlin Conference of 1884-5 met for the purpose of adjusting the rivalries of nations in the Congo Basin. Its significance in this discussion is that it emphasized the importance of the open door in international relations. By establishing this principle for Central Africa, it reduced the hostility with which various nations were regarding proposed acquisitions by others, and thus facilitated that peaceful settlement of territorial claims. which was going on outside the formal sessions of the Conference. France and Portugal had been competitors in the Congo, and the African International Association had at the same time tried to establish an independent dominion. Fearing the encroachment of her rivals, Portugal sought British support, and negotiated a treaty which recognized Portuguese possession of the mouth of the Congo and promised the open door in the colony. Lord Granville reminded the Portuguese that England's recognition of her territorial claims was worthless unless other powers would follow. This treaty was opposed by the other nations, the opposition being led by their merchants, who distrusted or misunderstood the Portuguese promises. After it was abandoned, Bismarck called the Berlin Conference together in the hope that a settlement might be reached with reference to the whole Central African question. In opening the first session Bismarck said: "The fundamental idea of this programme is to facilitate the access of all commercial

nations to the interior of Africa." There was a general acceptance at this international assembly of the proposition that a free zone should be established and the greater part of the discussion related to the delimitation and the neutralization of the territory affected. The principles established were that trade should be free to all nations in the Basin of the Congo, including certain territory east and west to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, with free access to ports and to the Congo and its affluents; that navigation fees, equal for all, should be allowed only to cover costs of improvements; that "import duties" should be prohibited; that no commercial monopoly or privilege should be granted; that foreigners should in all cases enjoy the same rights in the region as did citizens of the sovereign power; and that the execution of certain of these provisions should be in the hands of an international commission. This commission, however, was never appointed, and the administration was left in the hands of the states holding territory in the zone.

Passing over a number of treaties between two or three nations relating to the open door, the most important of which is the one between France and Great Britain in 1898, applying for 30 years the open-door policy to some one million additional square miles of African territory, we come to the Algeciras Conference of 1906, in which again the leading European powers considered the question of commercial equality, this time with reference to Morocco. A uniform maximum import duty of 121⁄2 per cent., applicable to the goods of all nations, was agreed

2 The territory to the west was a comparatively narrow strip, whereas on the Indian Ocean the free-trade zone reaches its greatest extent, north and south.

3 In 1890 the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference permitted a 10 per cent. import duty in the Congo zone.