The scientific tariff: from origins to the travails of F. W. Taussig

Rebeca Gomez Betancourt () and Stephen Meardon
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Rebeca Gomez Betancourt: TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Stephen Meardon: Bowdoin College [Brunswick]

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Abstract: The idea of a scientific tariff took root in the US after the Civil War. Generally, the idea was that tariffs could best be made by executive action under advisement of appointed experts; specifically, tariffs should counterbalance unequal costs of production between foreign and domestic producers. Economist Frank W. Taussig campaigned publicly for the establishment of the US Tariff Commission as a council of experts. Later, beginning in the 1920s, he was dismayed when it became a vehicle for implementing the scientific tariff. This article tells the history of the scientific tariff with particular attention to Taussig's ambivalence.

Keywords: trade; Tariffs; scientism; political economy; experts; expertise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Published in European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2025, 32 (4), pp.596-619. ⟨10.1080/09672567.2025.2530392⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-05219588

DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2025.2530392

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