Tariffs

Component identifier:

Series 20

Content Summary:

During the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, the effect of import tariffs on the Australian economy and on world trade was of great interest to Copland. Late in 1927 he was asked by the Prime Minister, S.M. Bruce, to join Professor L.F. Giblin, Professor J. B. Brigden, C.H. Wickens, and E.C. Dyason in investigating 'how far the tariff policy which has been pursued has been successful, and exactly what have been the economic results of it'. (See Bruce's letter to Copland, 15 December 1927). Subsequently, Copland expressed his own individual views on protection, imperial preference, and various trade treaties. His published work in the 1930s include 'A neglected phase of tariff controversy' (Quarterly Journal of Economics, xlv, February, 1931), 'Is our tariff a handicap? Effects on Australia's recovery' (Herald and Weekly Times, 1934), 'A note on tariff policy' (Economic Record, X, June 1934), and Australian trade policy: a book of documents 1932-37 with C.V. Janes (A, 1937). All of the material in tariffs in the Copland Papers is in Series 20. There are two subseries.

Subseries 1 refers to the writing of the 1929 report published as The Australian tariff: an economic inquiry by Melbourne University Press. The paperback edition, priced at half a crown, sold out within a fortnight. The preparation of the report can be traced in the subseries, through handwritten and typed drafts, statistics, notes, cuttings, correspondence, and telegrams. The principal correspondents are naturally the other authors and there are also letters to Copland from Bruce and J. Simpson of the Prime Minister's Department.

The remainder of Series 20 covers 1925-1938 but includes a small number of items dated 1954-1960. There are press articles by Copland on the tariff, lecture notes on protection, Tariff Board and League of Nations reports, subject files on 'Japanese-Australia trade relations' and on 'Imperial preference' and articles by W.S. Kelly and G.G. Foletta. Because of the significance of the 1932 Ottawa Conference to Australia's recovery from the Depression, however, Copland's memoranda to Lyons on the position Australia's delegates should present to it are in Series 23. A number of letters in General correspondence (Series 1) should also be consulted for information on tariffs.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Lady Copland presented the personal papers of Sir Douglas Copland to the National Library in September 1973. Additions to the collection were received from the Copland Family between 1977 and 1981.

Names:

Copland, D.B. (Douglas Berry), 1894-1971

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