The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which raised U.S. tasks on hundreds of thousands of imported items to list degrees, is America's such a lot notorious exchange legislations. it's always linked with--and occasionally blamed for--the onset of the nice melancholy, the cave in of worldwide alternate, and the worldwide unfold of protectionism within the Thirties. Even this day, the ghosts of congressmen Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley hang-out an individual arguing for better exchange boundaries; virtually single-handedly, they made protectionism an insult instead of a praise. In Peddling Protectionism, Douglas Irwin presents the 1st complete historical past of the explanations and results of this infamous degree, explaining why it principally merits its recognition for combining undesirable politics and undesirable economics and harming the U.S. and global economies throughout the Depression.

In 4 short, transparent chapters, Irwin offers an authoritative account of the politics at the back of Smoot-Hawley, its monetary outcomes, the international response it provoked, and its aftermath and legacy. beginning as a Republican ploy to win the farm vote within the 1928 election by way of expanding tasks on agricultural imports, the tariff quick grew right into a logrolling, beef barrel free-for-all during which tasks have been elevated throughout, whatever the pursuits of shoppers and exporters. After Herbert Hoover signed the invoice, U.S. imports fell sharply and different nations retaliated via expanding price lists on American items, top U.S. exports to shrivel in addition. whereas Smoot-Hawley was once not often accountable for the nice melancholy, Irwin argues, it contributed to a decline in international alternate and provoked discrimination opposed to U.S. exports that lasted decades.

Featuring a brand new preface through the writer, Peddling Protectionism tells a desirable tale choked with priceless classes for alternate coverage today.