ABSTRACT
It was in 1846 that the Canadian Assembly first expressed a desire for reciprocity, and the American tariff of that year, based more than ever upon protection, gave point to the request. In particular, the Canadian farmer was prevented by a duty of 25 cents per bushel on wheat from taking advantage of the fact that in the Eastern States wheat and flour often commanded much higher prices than in Europe. I At the end of the year the British Minister, Pakenham, began negotiations in Washington, but the attention of the States was distracted by the Mexican War. In 1847 Canada abolished her differential duties and thereby reduced the tariff on American manufactures from 12t to 7t per cent., but the Americans were not so obliging as to make that the occasion of a bargain. Early in 1848 Mr. Merritt, a prominent Canadian advocate of reciprocity, visited Washington and saw several leading members of Congress; but it was not till May that the Chairman of the Committee of Commerce of the House of Representatives, with the approval of the Secretary to the Treasury, introduced a Bill. It passed the House, but in July, and again in January 1 849-despite the support of the President himself-failed to pass the Senate. The wheat-growing states disliked the Bill. The manufacturing
interests demanded that certain finished products be added to the list of free exchanges. The Southern members 'regarded the Bill with jealous suspicion as a quasi-annexation measure, which might in the end adversely affect the maintenance of slavery'.!
