Focus questions
TaQ4 In the opinion of this writer, what is the only way a lasting free trade could be achieved?
TaQ5 According to this document, what do the workers and producers think about Federation?
TaQ6 What is expected to be the effect on manufacturing of removing tariffs?

THE REMOVAL OF TRADE SHACKLES

… During the various meetings of the Federal Convention the expediency of intercolonial free trade was practically never really discussed. It had already been virtually taken for granted by the people of the colonies; and even many anti-federalists to-day-men who rail against the proposed Commonwealth – advocate the arrangement of free interchange without political federation. Such a thing could hardly by any human possibility be done in Australia. It is as certain that there can be no lasting freedom of Australasian trade without federation as it is that there cannot be any enduring union so long as Border Custom-houses are doing business. In splendid perorations, rich in rhetoric and sane sentiment, federation has been held up before the mental eyes of the people as the supreme effort of Australian patriotism, and there was little of extravagance in the representation. But by the producers and the working population federation is esteemed mainly because it is an indispensable means to the attainment of freedom of trade within the colonies. To them it is a matter of money as well as a matter of sentiment. It means expanded brotherhood, but it means also the opening of a valuable market which intercolonial jealousies have so long shut against them. If our manufacturers – intelligent, level-headed, practical men – are satisfied on these points, the theorists' fearful fancies may safely be disregarded, and the worker in the towns may rest perfectly content, for any alteration which brings additional orders to his employer improves the condition of his service. The best authorities agree that federation will not diminish in the least the manufacturing activity of Australia. On the contrary, the removal of trade shackles will awaken dormant energies, and special efforts will be made to increase the manufacture of goods which are now imported into this continent. In this way more Australian secondary producers will be employed, and the multiplied wants of this and other sections of the population will have to be supplied by the primary producers – the men on the land …

South Australian Register, Adelaide, 19 April 1898, cited in Scott Bennett (ed.), Federation, Cassell Australia, North Melbourne, p. 27.