ABSTRACT
The introduction of steam and the improvement of Watt's steam engine led to the building of factories and the organisation of the factory system, and for a considerable period this country enjoyed something like a monopoly in the production of machine-made goods. But the people of this and other countries were so poor, the means of communication were so difficult and costly, and, above all, the tariffs of the various countries, and especially of our own, were so prohibitive, that the progress of the trade was seriously retarded. Measured by the truest tests, the comfort and civilisation of the people, the inhabitants of the woollen and worsted districts of Britain are distinctly in advance of those of any protected country in Europe. A colonial preference, as indicated by the resolutions of the manufacturers associations of Canada and Australia, would be a preference of no practical value to British manufacturers.
