A parliamentary committee which in the course of the World War made a careful study of the prospects of British industry and trade reached the following conclusions as regards conditions in the previous decade. England had taken but a small part in the development of some modern industries, particularly the chemical and electrical; the country had made comparatively little progress in the iron and steel industry, in which it was entirely overshadowed by Germany and the United States; but it had shown wholesome vigor and capacity for growth in some great manufactures, such as the textiles, ship-building and some branches of machine-making. British trade abroad was found to suffer from the competition of foreigners who were found, in some cases at least, to be following methods of organization and marketing that were distinctly more efficient than those which the British pursued. =463. (3) Adverse influence of foreign tariffs; proposals to revise the English policy of free trade.=—Under conditions of adversity there is always an inclination to lay the blame, rightly or wrongly, on others. A considerable party in England asserted that the reasons for the recent decline were political rather than economic, resulting from the protective tariffs of other states; and this party asserted that a change in the tariff policy of England and of the colonies was needed to rescue British commerce. There can be no question of the main fact, that protective tariffs had increased considerably during the last quarter of the century. It is estimated that the principal English exports were burdened with duties equivalent to 10 to 30 per cent ad valorem in most states, but amounting to far more than that in some cases (72 per cent in United States, 130 per cent in Russia). There can be no question that England suffered from these restrictions; every commercial state suffers from them. It is, however, open to grave doubt whether England could help herself by a change in policy; and the question of what change, if any, ought to be made, remained unsettled.