Who was the most and least protectionist President ever? (user search)
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  Who was the most and least protectionist President ever? (search mode)
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Author Topic: Who was the most and least protectionist President ever?  (Read 682 times)
Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
North Carolina Yankee
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« on: August 12, 2019, 12:15:55 AM »

Most: Hoover
Least: Probably someone like John Tyler, but in terms of actually effecting policy on a global scale, certainly FDR.

McKinley gets a very protectionist reputation from his days in congress, but towards the end of his life his tune was starting to shift as the realization sunk in that America had reached the top in terms of manufacturing and it needed markets to export to. This was coming on the heels of the 1890's Depression, but of course he was killed so we will never know if he was going to shift more in the direction of free trade as a result.

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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
North Carolina Yankee
Moderator
Atlas Institution
*****
Posts: 54,123
United States


« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2019, 12:39:53 AM »

Iirc McKinley was the only president to ever write a major tariff bill (though to be clear, he did so prior to serving as president), and as president signed into law a major bill that raised tariffs, so he seems like a reasonable choice for most protectionist. JQA, Buchanan, Lincoln and Hoover also signed major tariff rate increases, but it wasn't the major domestic policy initiative for any of them (and Hoover had actually hoped to decrease tariffs). That does leave Harding, who signed a major increase in tariffs in 1922, but in his career he was never as associated with the tariff as McKinley was.

For free trade, FDR probably had the biggest impact in establishing the free trade era, although Truman and Wilson (by re-establishing the income tax) were also quite important in that regard. 19th century Democrats were also very pro-free trade, so you could reasonably argue for Polk or Pierce, who both signed tariff reductions. You could also argue for Clinton, who held office at a time of low tariffs and further increased international trade by pushing through NAFTA and granted permanent normal trade relations with China.

Trade protectionism was a cornerstone of Lincoln's economic philosophy, and his administration marked the beginning of a period in which the American System became firmly established as the dominant economic policy for the next several decades.
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