Open Markets Quotes
Inscribed in the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress. On this subject Jefferson was in agreement with George Washington {37176} and his political opponent, John Adams {592705}.
Harris opened up trade with Japan for the United States. The problem at the time had nothing to do with the potential economic effects of trade on domestic industry or balance of payments, but for the Japanese was strictly a cultural problem. They were in great fear of what today some call “cultural imperialism”--the adoption of a foreign culture. The Japanese had been so fearful of cultural influence of foreigners that when some Japanese fishermen’s boat had been sunk and they had been rescued by foreign seamen and returned to Japan, they were executed as they had been “contaminated” and could “contaminate” the rest of the population.
The Elkins Act was a cornerstone of Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” program. It authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates. The large corporations and monopolies would get rebates from the railroads and thus pay far less than their smaller competitors to ship their goods. It drove thousands of small companies out of business. This was a basic part of American law until the deregulation of the latter part of the 20th century. So what had been illegal, unethical, and immoral for almost a century, became legal, ethical and moral, but again discriminated against small companies.
Turgot was one of the most advanced economic thinkers in Europe and realized, even before most of the Americans, that by freeing itself England, that the Americans would be forced to become free traders and that in turn would make America a major Economic power despite the fact that American economic policy over the years vacillated between protectionism and free trade.
