Then Again In Commercial Competition Our Attitude Seems To Me Very
Lacking In Dignity.
We are now just beginning to know it is a
fight, and this commercial war has been going on since 1880 - since,
in fact, France and Germany have recovered from their war of 1870.
And if we are to carry on this commercial war with any hope of
success, we must abandon our "Oh! that's not fair; I won't play"
attitude - and above all we must have no more Government restrictions
on our foreign trade. In West Africa governmental restriction
settles, like dew in autumn, on the liquor traffic. It is a case of
give a dog a bad name and hang him. Moreover, raising the import
dues on liquor may bring into the Government a good revenue; but it
is a short-sighted policy - for the liquor is the thing there is the
best market for in West Africa. The natives have no enthusiasm
about cotton-goods, as they seem from some accounts to have in East
Central, and the supply of them they now get, and get cheap and
good, is as much as they require. And if the question of the
abstract morality of introducing clothes, or introducing liquor, to
native races, were fairly gone into, the results would be
interesting - for clothing native races in European clothes works
badly for them and kills them off. Indeed the whole of this
question of trade with the lower races is full of curious and
unexpected points.
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