The Reciprocity
Treaty Included Three Essential Provisions - The Rights Of Fishery On A
Shore Line Of 1,500 Miles, The Free Navigation Of The St. Lawrence, And
The Free Interchange Of Productions Between The British Provinces And
The United States.
(The beneficent theory of the treaty was to make two
countries, politically distinct, commercially one, and to induce the
Two peoples, otherwise opposed, to live in co-operation and in peace.)
The provision as to the fisheries had settled for the time difficult
questions leading, in past days, and over and over again, to dispute,
collision, and sometimes the imminence of war. The free navigation of
the St. Lawrence and of Lake Michigan had removed jealousies and
fostered the idea of common interests in the great waterways to the
ocean, while the results of trade had been so happy that a total annual
interchange of commodities of a value of nearly 10,000,000l. a year
in amount between the British Provinces and the United States now
existed. They were now threatened with the termination of this treaty
at the end of twelve months, and no hope appeared to be held out, so
far, of an amicable revision and extension of its benefits. The
consequences to commerce were evident, and at first would be most
serious. Trade at last, no doubt, would take other channels, and the
British Provinces, trading between each other and with the Mother
Country, and reducing their duties to a low rate, might at the end be
largely benefited at the price of a present loss; but that was merely
the money view, and such a gain would be dearly purchased at the cost
of humanity and civilization if it broke up the commercial and social
union heretofore existing.
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