Tariff time: Free trade skepticism deeply rooted in US history

One of the more surprising developments in recent American politics has been the backlash against free trade.

As recently as a decade ago, Democrats and Republicans alike generally favored free trade. But with the 2024 presidential election just days away, both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris are leaning hard on protectionism.

The Trump campaign in particular is promoting tariffs that would be difficult to imagine coming from a Republican presidential candidate just a decade ago.

This new post-neoliberal moment might seem confounding. But it hearkens back to economic policies – and political parties – from around the time of the nation’s founding, and it offers clues to our divided present.

Back in the late 18th century, the Founding Father Alexander Hamilton helped put in place a set of policies designed to encourage US industry and to promote economic development and innovation.

That arrangement, which laid the groundwork for what became known as the “American System,” emerged in part as a counterbalance to British conceptions of free trade. And the American System quickly grew as accepted economic policy as a young America developed its industrial strength.

Hamilton’s economic nationalism

In the early years of the republic, the US didn’t have much of a trade policy at all.

When the US officially achieved independence in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the Articles of Confederation – the nation’s first constitution – greatly limited the federal government’s powers, including its ability to regulate foreign trade.

These restrictions reflected the reality of 13 very different states that had been more united against the British – and their trade controls – than in support of a common