Published: October 03, 2008 04:45 pm            

Historical Treasure: Richard Thompson and the history of the American Protective Tariff

TERRE HAUTE — Tariffs are taxes imposed upon goods when they move across a country’s border. A protective tariff, in particular, is intended to inflate the prices of imported goods in order to protect local industries from foreign competition while simultaneously raising government revenue. Throughout American history, the protective tariff has played an important role in the political and economic success of our country. Ironically, the protective tariff has also served as a source of political contention and sectional controversy.

As early as 1789, the United States incorporated the use of protective tariffs in order to achieve economic independence from Britain and the rest of Europe. This aggressive tariff policy allowed the United States to curb the threat that cheap products manufactured by Europe’s “pauper labor” posed to American commerce. This shrewd trade policy helped the new nation grow into one of the world’s most powerful economic powers.

Philosophical and political differences between the north and south regarding the use of protective tariffs served as one of the most significant causes of the Civil War. Most of America’s industry was concentrated in the north; so many northerners supported protective tariffs that made their products more competitive with foreign imports.

The south, on the other hand, had an economy based on the export of raw agricultural materials and the importation of foreign goods. Many southerners were displeased with paying tariffs on foreign goods and detested the fact that most of the revenue raised by tariffs was used for public projects in the north.

In 1888, Richard W. Thompson, a well-known Republican congressman and former U.S. Secretary of the Navy from Terre Haute, authored a popular treatise on economic protection titled “The History of Protective Tariff Laws.” This highly acclaimed study of the history of American protective tariffs outlines, in detail, how protectionism fostered both economic success and political discord from the birth of the United States through the Civil War, and onward to the late 1880s.

A great portion of his study is devoted to advocating the use of protection to secure American interests and promote fair trade.

This week’s Historical Treasure is a first edition copy of “The History of Protective Tariff Laws.” The newly acquired text has been added to the museum’s impressive collection of Richard Thompson artifacts, papers and memorabilia.

Visit the museum to learn more about the life and accomplishments of Thompson, one of Terre Haute’s finest citizen statesmen.

        

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