Archive of the Tariff Reform League, Formerly the Imperial Tariff Committee

<p>An interesting, if controversial, account of first ten years of the Tariff Reform League is given in: W.E. Dowding: The Tariff Reform Mirage (London: Methuen, 1913)</p>

• <corpname>Tariff Reform League, 1903-c1920</corpname>
• <corpname>Imperial Tariff Committee</corpname>

Established in 1903, the Tariff Reform League (closely allied to the Imperial Tariff Committee, the Birmingham based organisation which it eventually superseded) was set up as a protectionist pressure group, supporting, in particular, Joseph Chamberlain's proposal for Preferential Trade with the Colonies. At its most active, the League was well organised and many local branches and a few women's sections whose activities were reported in the publications listed below, were formed. The League went out of existence some time after the Great War. Its work of propaganda was taken up by other organisations in the 1920s, notably the Empire Industries Association, from which the items deposited here come.

It is understood that the archives of the League do not survive, but alternative record sources have been listed by Chris Cook, Sources in British Political History 1900-1951, vol.1, p.253.