… is from page 86 of Douglas Irwin’s remarkable 2017 history of U.S. trade policy, Clashing Over Commerce:
Indeed, [Alexander] Hamilton was skeptical of high protective tariffs because they sheltered both inefficient and efficient producers, led to higher prices for consumers, and gave rise to smuggling, which cut into government revenue.
DBx: Yes.
Hamilton rejected, for poor reasons, Adam Smith’s case for unilateral free trade. Nevertheless, Hamilton – contrary to what many people today assert or suggest – was no enthusiastic protectionist in the mold of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Peter Navarro, Robert Lighthizer, or Oren Cass. Hamilton was a far more subtle, careful, and informed thinker than are those individuals – left, center, and right – who today clamor for the government to punitively tax, by tariffing imports, the efforts of us Americans to get the greatest value for each dollar that we spend.
