Why did Chamberlain embark on the Tariff Reform campaign?

Joseph Chamberlain embarked upon the Tariff Reform campaign in the aftermath of the Boer war to rectify two fundamental problems that were plaguing British society and industry. Chamberlain outlines his reasons for embarking upon such a politically risky campaign in his 'Case for Tariff Reform' speech, delivered in Glasgow on October 6th 1903.Chamberlain first cites industrial decline as the fundamental reason for embarking upon the Tariff Reform campaign. Indeed, echoing many notable contemporaries such as Arthur Shadwell and Ernest Edwin Williams, Chamberlain concludes that protective tariffs were injuring British industry, and causing its stagnation and decline in the early Edwardian period. The second reason Chamberlain embarked upon the campaign was to remedy Britain's military decline, this was especially pertinent after the debacle of the South African war, in which it took Britain and her empire three years to defeat an inexperienced angry of only 60,000. Chamberlain overall argued that the British empire could only be saved through commercial union by means of Tariff Reform.

Answered by Bethan K. History tutor

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