ABSTRACT
The change of transport conditions, the cheapness of sea freight, the extension of the means of communication, reacted on all the conditions of economic and social life. Chamberlain undeterred by misrepresentation, provided means of working out the details of this policy without regard to mere politicians such as were produced by the Liberal party at this time. These resolutions provided for every side of the economic policy which was then required in the interests of the country, and certainly the Conservative party achieved complete union on that basis. No sooner was the Conservative Party united on this policy, which Balfour announced at the beginning of 1907, than intrigues broke out to destroy that unity. What really mattered was that there really were urgent financial and economic problems which had to be solved, and it became a matter of life and death to the Liberal Government to invent a plausible electioneering alternative to the attractive Imperial programme of the Conservative Party.
