The impact of tariff policy on the industrial development of the USA: from protectionism to liberalization (19th – first third of the 20th century)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to clarify how the tariff policy of the United States during the19th and the first third of the 20th century functioned as a key mechanism of the country'sindustrial development, and how changes in customs legislation interacted with thetransformation of the economic structure of the United States. The study focuses on thehypothesis that tariffs during this period were not merely a fiscal instrument but served as aform of indirect industrial support that enabled the emergence of young industries, thestrengthening of the domestic market, the development of industrial clusters, and the formationof a national economic model oriented toward large-scale industrial growth. The article examines the main stages of tariff policy, starting with the early protectionismof the first half of the 19th century and ending with the shift toward reciprocal tariff reductionsin the 1930s. The scientific novelty of the study lies in further developing the understanding of theconnection between the evolution of U.S. tariff policy and the formation of the industrial modelof the national economy, which makes it possible to characterize tariff policy as a keyinstrument of U.S. industrialization in the 19th and the first third of the 20th century. The papershows that changes in the level of tariff protection were not only a response to economic crisesor political conflicts but also a form of implementing a long-term development strategy thatcontributed to the rise of the country's industrial power and its transition to a global economicrole in the mid-20th century.