ABSTRACT
The agitation for a duty on hops varies in strength with the fluctuations of the crop from year to year. Before the Hop Committee of 1908 the growers demanded a duty of not less than 40s. per cwt. Mr. Chamberlain's Tariff " Commission " recommend a small duty as of 5 to 10 per cent. Mr. Chamberlain, however, proposed no duty on hops, and he distinctly promised not to tax raw materials. Hops form a brewers' raw material, and we see that under Protection no material would be safe from taxation. As a matter of fact, foreign competition in the hop market has not increased, and on the average the home growers already possess the greater part of the market. What the hop-growers want to do, of course, is to raise prices; as the Hop Committee reported to the House of Commons:
