Chapter VI. The Movement for a Protective Tariff

The depression revived a dormant tariff movement and turned it into something close to a crusade. Rothbard follows Matthew Carey and the Philadelphia protectionists as they organized conventions, flooded Congress with memorials, and pressed the claim that free trade caused depression and protection would restore full employment. A high tariff bill was narrowly defeated in the Senate in 1820, along with companion measures to tax auction sales and end credit on import duties. The free-trade opposition, centered in the export-dependent South and New England shipping, countered that tariffs would deepen the collapse in commerce and agriculture, and that burdens on consumption should be reduced in a depression, not raised. The protectionists lost in 1820 and won in 1824.