He could accept the American tariff on English manufactures; that was a plain position, simple damage, a blow full in the face, not to be dodged.

But the offer of better business in the English colonies in exchange for a duty on the corn and meat of foreign countries--he could see too deep for that.

The colonials might or might not be good customers; he knew how many decanters he sold in the United States, in spite of the tariff.

He saw that the tax on food-stuffs was being commended to the working-man with the argument of higher wages.
Higher wages, with the competition of foreign labour, spelt only one word to English manufacturers, and that was ruin.

The bugbear of higher wages, immediate, threatening, near, the terror of the last thirty years, closed the prospect for Charles Chafe; he could see nothing beyond.