The Chambers of Commerce and Tariff Reform, 1903-1913

Abstract This chapter surveys the trend of opinion on the fiscal issue in the chambers of commerce before the First World War, and gives a clearer picture of the factors which influenced the formation of Tariff-Reform sentiment over time than has been possible so far. Detailed treatment is necessarily restricted to a narrow range of sources covering nine Chambers, but references to other Chambers in those sources, and the piecing together of the story of Tariff Reform in the twice-yearly meetings of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom (ACCUK), enables a wider perspective. The surviving evidence has its limits, particularly due to the fact that Chambers were not one-trade. Since votes were almost never ascribed to individuals, it is usually impossible to discern interest- or industry-alignments within each Chamber: the examples of Macclesfield and Bradford below are very much the exceptions. Chambers generally had a mixed membership, in which merchants and accountants could count alongside the representatives of large, nationally known firms. This weakness of the evidence would not be overcome by a wider survey of Chambers than has been attempted here. On the other hand, study of Chambers of Commerce does allow an insight into fiscal attitudes in those small- and medium-sized firms which, though so characteristic of British industrial structure, are prone to be overlooked.