ABSTRACT
The relation of the fiscal question to this trade is exceedingly important. All the raw materials of the bootmaker are manufactured articles. The bootmaker buys, from other manufacturers, leather for uppers and leather for soles, linings, thread, eyelets, nails, buttons, machinery, &c., not to mention the manufactured articles which have to be bought when his factory is built and equipped, and in the upkeep of his establishment. The avowed policy of the Protectionists is to tax manufactured articles in order to raise home prices (see Balfour). The immediate result of the adoption of Mr. Chamberlain's programme, or of the programme of Mr. Chamberlain's Tariff " Commission," would be to raise the price of leather and of the other materials of the boot manufacturer.
