ABSTRACT
No consideration of the effects of the tariff would be complete without at least some mention of three other interrelated factors of commercial policy. First, in view of the Chancellor’s statement that the tariff would improve Britain’s bargaining strength in trade negotiations, it is worth looking at the trade agreements concluded soon after the introduction of the tariff, and indicating something of the significance these had in British commercial policy in the 1930s. The second factor that requires some mention is the exchange rate, for the abandonment of the gold standard in September 1931 and the subsequent fall in the value of sterling produced some effect on trade variables similar in direction to that of the tariff. Finally some brief discussion is given of the effects of imperial preference. As we have seen in Chapter 8, this had little impact on industrial protection but it did nevertheless affect longer- term trading relations by virtue of the ill-feeling that it generated in important trading partners such as the United States.
