ABSTRACT
Peel had set in motion a revolution in Imperial commercial policy: one of the principal tasks of his successors was to complete it. The Canadian grievance might be met by a special treaty with the United States, as the foreign nation principally concerned; but Canadian discontent was not the only item in the case against the navigation laws. In the Australian Colonies there were occasional complaints of foreign ships returning empty, but the question was hardly a burning one. The elimination of preferential duties from colonial tariffs was only one aspect of Imperial commercial policy as envisaged by Lord Grey. The supreme control of commercial policy must remain in Imperial hands; and the Imperial Government must see that colonial tariffs continued to aim at revenue only, and that the colonies conformed with the principles of sound commercial policy.
