Protection or Free Trade: An Analysis of the Ideas of Henry George on International Commerce and Wages

Thomas L. Martin

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1989, vol. 48, issue 4, 489-502

Abstract: Abstract. Henry George, the 19th century American economist and social philosopher, abandoned protectionism and became a free trader when he engaged in the great tariff debate of the last quarter of his century. In the controversy, a true follower of Adam Smith, he anticipated neoclassical positions on the tariff question, particularly the Stolper‐Samuelson theory which predicts that free trade will increase the prices of the abundant factors of production relative to the prices of the scarce factors. George's concern in the great debate was labor; he was convinced that only certain interests representing capital or resource ownership would benefit from protection at the cost of labor and the enterprises in fields with more abundant resources. But the free trade effort failed and in 1894 the Wilson‐Gorman tariff increased the exactions to the highest level yet. The protectionist tide, only slowed by the Woodrow Wilson Administration, was not reversed until after World War II.

Date: 1989
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