Henry Fawcett's “Free Trade and Protection” explains the causes which have retarded the more general adoption of free trade.
J. E. Cairnes's “Leading Principles of Political Economy” gives the ablest discussion of the economic principles involved in the question which has yet been offered to the reader. Moreover, almost all our systematic writers on political economy (excepting, perhaps, Bowen and R. E. Thompson) give the system of free exchange their support on economic grounds.
Appendix I. Bibliographies.
A Brief Bibliography Of The Tariffs Of The United States.
I. General Works.—Young's “Special Report on the Customs-Tariff Legislation of the United States” contains useful extracts from debates of Congress, and also valuable tables of duties; in the Index, p. cciii, under “Tariff Act,” will be found references to, and dates of, all acts to 1870. See, also, Sumner's “History of American Currency,” and his “Lectures on Protection in the United States”; A. L. Perry's “Political Economy,” chap. xiii; Grosvenor's “Does Protection Protect?” A valuable study is E. J. James's “Studien über den Amerikanischen Zoll tariff.” For different views, see Carey's “Social Science”; Bolles's “Financial History of the United States,” vol. ii, Bk. i, chap. v, Bk. iii, chaps. iii to x; and Stebbins's “American Protectionists' Manual.”
II. Earlier Periods.—H. C. Adams's “Taxation in the United States, 1789-1816”; F. W. Taussig's “Protection to Young Industries”; the works of Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Webster, and Clay; “The Statesman's Manual”; and of course the Debates in Congress, etc. See, also, Bristed's “Resources of the United States”; Pitkin's “Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States”; Seybert's “Statistical Annals” (1818); and the “American Almanac.”
III. Noteworthy Documents.—Hamilton's Reports: “Report on Manufactures,” Works, ii, pp. 192-284, or American State Papers, Finance, i, 123-144. Dallas, Treasury Report of 1816, American State Papers, Finance, iii, 87-91.