Henry Charles Carey Quotes
It is the system now called free trade that tends to the destruction of commerce, as is shown wherever it obtains.
America’s first political economist. The first American Political Economist was a virulent enemy of free trade.
Henry Charles Carey, 1793-1879, Political Economist & Publisher The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign, 1853
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Hoover, a brilliant administrator, seems to have been on the wrong side of most economic issues.
At that period of American History, the Republicans supported high tariffs and protectionism for American companies and it was the Democrats who were the advocates of free trade. Later each of the parties would flip flop their positions and then say that they were advocating their traditional principles.
This summary of the problem of trying to politically “sell” free trade is as good as anyone has ever said it in America. And the problem and argument has not changed since. Free trade is good for most, but really harms some in specific situations. The beneficiaries often do not realize who they are or how they have benefitted, but those who are harmed generally know exactly how and what the damages are.
In addition the companies that are being protected suffer by not getting competitive and not utilizing the most modern and most efficient techniques. Even construction workers are hurt as protected companies do not modernize their facilities as often and build new plants.
Henry Charles Carey was the leading 19th-century economist of the American School, and chief economic adviser to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
