In 1833 the Compromise Tariff was introduced gradually reducing tariffs over a nine-year period. High tariffs under the American System were implemented in 1824, and raised even further in the 1828 ‘Tariff of Abominations,’ as it was described by Southern free-trade advocates. Following the War of 1812, Henry Clay developed the idea of the American System consisting of an integrated economy where tariffs excluded European producers, and federal investments in a vast network of internal improvements-roads, canals, harbor facilities, and eventually railroads-would supplant the trans-Atlantic trade with a new pattern premised on internal economic autonomy. The last great antebellum tariff battle, the Morrill Tariff of 1861, was adopted only two days before the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, and largely defined the dimensions of American international trade policy for the next fifty years. Yet tariff arguments continuously attracted the attention of Congress from its first meeting in 1789 until the Secession Winter session of 1860-61. But as an object of antebellum national political discussion, tariffs occupied a distant secondary place behind slavery. Tariffs played an important role in the early development of secessionist constitutional theory. Tariffs also spawned corruption and political favoritism for some industries over others. Tariffs were also used for protectionist purposes, benefiting largely northern manufacturing businesses and effectively raising the costs to southern agricultural exporting industries. ![]() ![]() Tariffs are a tax levied on imported goods and were the dominant source of the federal government’s revenue in the 19th century.
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