TariffsHistory, Purpose& Outcomes

Tariffs are older than most of the arguments made about them. Daniel Bulmez follows American tariff policy across more than two hundred years, from the founding through to current trade disputes, setting out what each round of protection was meant to do and what came after it.

The episodes are the ones that keep resurfacing. The Tariff of 1828. Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression. The part tariffs played in America’s industrial rise. The U.S.–China trade war. The continued use of tariffs under both Trump and Biden, and what tariffs are now doing in technology, manufacturing and climate policy.

The outcomes are given both ways, good and bad, rather than as a verdict. It suits business owners, investors and supply chain leaders, students of economics, policy or history, and anyone who wants the history sitting under the headlines.