U.S. TRADE STRATEGY (1890-1909): PROTECTION AT HOME VERSUS FREE TRADE ABROAD

Abstract

American trade strategy is defined by a combination of economic interest groups and competition between political parties. In the economic acts passed by Congress the almost infinitely divisible nature of the tariff, which often allowed the charges to be tailored to particular producers, created a norm of mutual noninterference and a process of legislative award in which virtually all claimants could be satisfied. As a result, the American tariff aimed for equality and uniformity in universally applied taxes. The role of political parties fluctuates depending on the interest group. The Republicans, who had an electoral base in the Northeast and Midwest, were identified as the party of protection, and the Democrats, relying increasingly on the traditionally trade-dependent South, asserted themselves as the party of free trade. From this perspective, tariff fluctuations were explained by changes in party dominance. There were multiple rapid and dramatic changes in American trade strategy; after the Civil War and before 1887, the United States was a relatively passive and highly protectionist nation-state. The rates set were high, non-negotiable and non-discriminatory. The transition from America's passive protectionism of the mid-19th century to its active liberalism of the mid-20th represents an extreme turning point. During the period 1890-1909, there was no unidirectional position regarding American trade strategy on a regular or periodic basis. Rather, trade strategy oscillated and was inferred from debates over tariff policy, the central trade issue of the age and the main instrument through which the strategy was implemented. Trade strategy is, however, different and more general than tariff policy; two (or more) tariff acts may differ in their details, but reflect a single commercial strategy. During this period, five tariff acts were passed by Congress: McKinley Tariff (1890), Wilson-Gorman Tariff (1894), Dingley Tariff (1897) and Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909).