Imperial Preference was a system of mutual tariff reduction enacted throughout the British Empire following the Ottawa Conference of 1932. As Commonwealth Preference, the proposal was later revived in regard to the members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Joseph Chamberlain, the powerful colonial secretary from 1895 until 1903, argued vigorously that Britain could compete with its growing industrial rivals (chiefly the United States and Germany) and thus maintain Great Power status. The best way to do so would be to enhance internal trade inside the worldwide British Empire, with emphasis on the more developed areas — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa — that had attracted large numbers of British settlers. The Dominions enacted policies of imperial preference in the late 19th and early 20th century: Canada (1897), New Zealand (1903), South Africa (1903), and Australia (1907). Due to its commitments to free trade, Britain did not reciprocate these trade policies until the 1932 Ottawa Conference amid the Great Depression. The Ottawa Agreement had little, if any, effect on intra-Empire trade. Pre-20th Century In 1660, the practice of "Old Subsidy" gave certain imported colonial products a virtual monopoly in England, effectively starting a form of colonial preference for sugar. By 1840, this had been extended such that more than eighty commercial goods were protected, as the Corn Laws protected some colonial agricultural goods. Colonial conferences held throughout the late 19th century arranged closer economic unions between Dominions and the mother country, with the Dominions giving preferences in exchange for defence commitments or common commercial, patent, immigration and shipping policies. 20th Century In the late 1800s and especially during the early 1900s, Imperial Preference was considered a method of promoting unity within the British Empire and sustaining Britain's position as a global power as a response to increased competition from the protectionist Germany and United States. In the decades before the First World War, the Dominions enacted policies of imperial preference: Canada (1897), New Zealand (1903), South Africa (1903), and Australia (1907). However, Britain did not reciprocate these trade policies towards the Dominions due to its free trade commitments. It was not until the Great Depression that Britain reciprocated. The idea was associated particularly with Joseph Chamberlain, who resigned from the government of Arthur Balfour in September 1903 in order to be free to campaign for Tariff Reform. Among those opposing Chamberlain was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Thomson