The Belgians, being slick business men, managed to get a reduced tariff on their tubes. This is one of the factors that helped them sell so cheaply here.
Here is an article on Tariff Review or the effects of the McKinley Tariff that show just how many guns were being imported from 1886 to 1896(note the big drop in 1892):
http://books.google.com/books?id=WOouAAA...ted+gun+barrels .
I think the main rift between gun dealers in NY was of the between Schoverling, Daly & Gales, who were making a mint, and the rest of the gun making community. Circa 1893 there are accounts of one steamship carrying a lot of 1000 gun barrels and another lot of 1000 gunstocks. The ommission of the term "gun parts" in the original tariff led to the Supreme Court upholding a lower courts decision that the tariff didn't apply. Nelson Dingy or the Dingy Tariff played some part and for now I don't know what.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
