TheTariff Reform League (TRL) was aprotectionistBritishpressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreignimports and to advocateImperial Preference to protect Britishindustry from foreign competition. It was well funded and included politicians, intellectuals and businessmen, and was popular with the grassroots of theConservative Party. It was internally opposed by theUnionist Free Food League (later Unionist Free Trade Club) but that had virtually disappeared as a viable force by 1910. By 1914 the Tariff Reform League had approximately 250,000 members.[1] It is associated with the national campaign ofJoseph Chamberlain, the most outspoken and charismatic supporter of Tariff Reform. The historian Bruce Murray has claimed that the TRL "possessed fewer prejudices against large-scale government expenditure than any other political group in Edwardian Britain".[2]
The League wanted to see theBritish Empire transformed into a single trading bloc, to compete withGermany and theUnited States. It favoured imposing duties on imports—as did Germany and the US—and the channelling of the money raised from these duties into social reforms. High import duties, the League claimed, would make increasing other taxes unnecessary. However opponents claimed that protection would mean dearer food, especially bread.
SirCyril Arthur Pearson was its chairman and, with SirHarry Brittain, a founding member. SirHenry Page Croft was chairman of its organisation committee. Pearson was later succeeded as chairman of the League byViscount Ridley.[3]
In December 1903 Joseph Chamberlain announced the establishment of theTariff Commission under the auspices of the Tariff Reform League.William Hewins the economist and first director of theLondon School of Economics from 1895 to 1903, was Secretary and SirRobert Herbert, the first Premier of Queensland, Australia, was Chairman. The Commission consisted of 59 business men whose brief was to construct a "Scientific Tariff" which would achieve tariff reform objectives.[4]
Tariff Reform split the MPs of the Conservative Party and their government coalition allies in theLiberal Unionist Party and was the major factor in its landslide defeat in1906 to theLiberals who advocatedFree Trade. The Conservative Party underBonar Law slightly downplayed Tariff Reform as official policy, abandoningBalfour's pledge that it would be put to the public in areferendum. Some wartime tariffs ("McKenna Duties") were, ironically, introduced by the Liberal ChancellorReginald McKenna in 1915.
Shortly after theFirst World War the TRL was disbanded, although other organisations promoting the same cause were still active in the 1920s. One such organisation was theFair Trade Union created by Joseph Chamberlain's son,Neville, and the Conservative MPLeo Amery. TheBritish Commonwealth Union, led byPatrick Hannon, was another. Tariff Reform became official Conservative policy underStanley Baldwin and was the major issue in the1923 general election. The party lost its majority in the election and Tariff Reform was again dropped until the 1930s. Protectionism was eventually introduced by theOttawa Agreements in 1932 (Joseph's sonNeville Chamberlain was Chancellor at the time) and then dismantled at US insistence (Article VII of the wartimeLend Lease Agreement) in the 1940s.
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