VIII.--FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION.


THE periods into which this series has been divided will furnish,
perhaps, some key to the brief summary of tariff discussion in the
United States which follows. For it is not at all true that tariff
discussion or decision has been isolated; on the contrary, it has
influenced, and been influenced by, every other phase of the national
development of the country.

Bancroft has laid none too great stress on the influence of the English
mercantile system in forcing the American Revolution, and on the
attitude of the Revolution as an organized revolt against the English
system. One of the first steps by which the Continental Congress
asserted its claim to independent national action was the throwing
open of American ports to the commerce of all nations--that is, to free
trade. It should, however, be added that the extreme breadth of this
liberality was due to the inability of Congress to impose any duties on
imports; it had a choice only between absolute prohibition and absolute
free trade, and it chose the latter. The States were not so limited.
Both under the revolutionary Congress and under the Confederation they
retained the entire duty power, and they showed no fondness for free
trade. Commerce in general was light, and tariff receipts, even in the
commercial States, were of no great importance; but, wherever it
was possible, commercial regulations were framed in disregard of the
free-trade principle. In order to retain the trade in firewood and
vegetables within her own borders, New York, in 1787, even laid
prohibitory duties on Connecticut and New Jersey boats; and retaliatory