The impact of tariff regulations on the US economy up to 1921

الملخص EN

The industrial development of the USA depended greatly on the industrial policies of the succeeding governments that ruled the country from its inception in 1783.

These Governments had in common the policy of encouraging creative inventive minds and companies to exploit natural resources to manufacture goods by giving them charters that protected them from any competition.

This policy was introduced by the Republican Party that allowed new industrial sectors to emerge and the existing ones to develop from being local in scope to gigantic corporations that controlled the national economy through the creation of trusts.

Such growing power of the businesses had to be bridled through the lowering of the tariffs as advocated by the Democratic Party since the Civil War.

The aim of this policy was to benefit the consumers and to stimulate competition, and the application of what they called ‘Economic Democracy’ in which low tariffs loosen the grip of the monopolies on the national economy, and enable the small business to compete and prosper.