Overview

Has America always been the champion of free trade? Debates about free trade and protection are one of the dominant features of nineteenth century economic discourse. The writings of the British classical economists, in particular, have been the subject of extensive secondary literature. In contrast the writings of their American counterparts have often been overlooked. This collection will help to rectify this, by giving immediate access to an extensive range of nineteenth-century American writings on trade issues. Many of the pieces selected are extremely and practically unavailable, even in America. Each has been carefully retypeset so that the collection as a whole is attractively presented and easy to read. Early American economics is often criticised for lacking the theoretical sophistication of European economics. The picture which emerges from these texts is more complex. It seems that far from being of universal application, the ideas of the English classical economists did not fit neatly in the context of nineteenth-century America, and it is much harder to draw a sharp doctrinal divide between protectionists and free-traders. The texts reproduced discuss: * 'the American system' of protection for infant industries *the North/South divide in the US, made manifest by the slavery question and the civil war * the role of institutions in the development of American economic thought Taken together they raise a number of critical questions about the standard interpretation of the general controversy on free trade and protectionism in the nineteenth century.

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9780415181211

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