Chapter XII: Breach in the Minimum Tariff

But the structure that looked so solid was really very fragile. M. Méline himself was the first to shake it. The minimum tariff was to be inviolate, but the tariffs of 1892 were hardly established when an agreement had to be concluded with Switzerland, involving a reduction on 55 articles of the minimum tariff. The first agreement was rejected, but the Act of 1895, though only reducing duties on 30 articles, began the work of demolition. M. Méline, who introduced the measure, admitted that the agreement made a breach in the minimum tariff. For the agreement the existing tariff was used by introducing two Bills—one, numbered 2,339, proposing reductions in the French tariff, the other, 2,338, ratifying the agreement with Switzerland on the basis of the reduced tariff.