Compared with all other nations, these conditions seem extremely anomalous. They are accounted for by the fact that the Empire itself is in its composition anomalous. In it we find communities existing under widely different conditions, some with vast populations concentrated in a small space, while others have their inhabitants thinly scattered over immense areas; some with wealth which lends itself readily to direct taxation, others which can only collect revenue easily at the ports; some chiefly engaged in manufacture, others in the production of food and raw material; some with capital and cheap labour in such abundance that they can cheerfully face any competitors, others under severe pressure from the competition of commercially hostile neighbours more rich and numerous than themselves. Economic theories are, in fact, being tested throughout the Empire under almost every conceivable condition, to the ultimate advantage, we may hope, of economic truth. Meanwhile, though no serious jar in the national system has as yet been caused by the divergence of trade policies, this divergence is looked upon by many as an almost insuperable obstacle to any closer political union. It is urged that a real national unity cannot exist without community of fiscal system, and in support of this position appeal is made to the examples of the United States, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Switzerland and Canada. In all of these {280} free internal trade followed upon the formation of a Federal system. How, it is often said in England, can we unite more closely with countries which in trade matters are almost as hostile to us as France, Germany, or the United States? How, it is said in the colonies, can we unite more closely with a mother-land which in trade matters makes no distinction between her greatest enemy and ourselves? Of late, as the pressure of hostile tariffs in foreign countries has been more severely felt, the tone of reproach is more distinct in England than in the colonies.