By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-05 07:16:36 | Updated at 2025-04-05 17:45:14
10 hours ago
Long before Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement, the United States had toyed with imposing high tariffs throughout its history, with inconclusive – and sometimes catastrophic – results.
“We have a 20th century president in a 21st century economy who wants to take us back to the 19th century,” Dartmouth College economics professor Douglas Irwin posted on social media.
The 19th century marked the golden age of tariffs in the United States, with an average rate regularly flirting with 50 per cent.
The century extended a doctrine adopted since the country’s founding, which advocated for the protection of the American economy as it underwent a period of industrialisation.
“Careful studies of that period suggest that the tariffs did help protect domestic development of industry to some degree,” said Keith Maskus, a professor at the University of Colorado.
“But the two more important factors were access to international labour, and capital … which was flowing in the United States during that period,” he added.
