NSW was a free trade colony while all the others were protectionist
. NSW worried that federation would force them to follow national protectionist policies.
Brian Carrol wrote on then NSW Premier George Reid:
[Reid] likened free trade NSW joining the other five colonies, all Protectionist to varying degrees, to a teetotaller setting up house with five drunkards and leaving the question of beverages to be decided later by majority vote.As adam mentioned on another site, one of the benefits of federalism is that it creates a mini free traded zone. Federation was a very effective method for NSW to get Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia to drop their trade barriers.
