id: https://lotide.fbxl.net/apub/posts/213341
type: Note
name: What Everyone’s Missing About the April 2025 Tariffs: A Historical and Economic Reality Check
media type: text/html
content: Contemporary voices tend to think history began in 1946, and ancient history began in 1900. Recent headlines scream about market turmoil, existential threats to globalization, and catastrophic trade wars—all couched in emotionally-charged language designed more to incite panic than foster understanding. Headlines such as "China vows to fight to the end" or "stocks plunge amid Trump tariff shock" obscure the complex reality that America has been here many times before. As a result, the world looks a lot scarier than it really is. I'd like to give some historical and economic context for recent events that will help everyone understand what's going on amidst a media cycle that has an excess of histrionic fervor and a lack of depth and context. The US has had a number of protectionist regimes through its history, and many of them were far more potent than anything we're seeing out the Trump Administration. In 1807, The Embargo Act effectively banned trade with Britain and France altogether. Considering that they were the biggest trader on earth at the time and the largest manufacturer, that would be like totally banning trade with China. This was done to pressure England and France to respect American neutrality during the Napoleonic wars. The embargoes ultimately led to tensions which culminated in the war of 1812. In 1828, tariffs as high as 45–50% were implemented to protect Northern manufacturers. This "Tariff of Abominations" hit the South hard and sparked backlash - an early sign of sectional economic rifts that would deepen toward civil war. In 1832, those tariffs were dropped to about 35% after the 1828 tariffs nearly resulted in armed conflict between the federal government and the state of South Carolina. That was considered a compromise, but they were still considered quite high. It wasn't until 1846 that tariffs dropped somewhat and represented a shift away from protective tariffs to revenue tariffs, and even then they weren't lower than Trump's across the …
target: https://lemmy.world/c/economics/outbox
published: 2025-04-14T17:31:13Z
to: https://lemmy.world/c/economics
to: https://lemmy.world/c/economics/followers
sensitive: false
source:
  content: Contemporary voices tend to think history began in 1946, and ancient history began in 1900. Recent headlines scream about market turmoil, existential threats to globalization, and catastrophic trade wars—all couched in emotionally-charged language designed more to incite panic than foster understanding. Headlines such as "China vows to fight to the end" or "stocks plunge amid Trump tariff shock" obscure the complex reality that America has been here many times before. As a result, the world looks a lot scarier than it really is. I'd like to give some historical and economic context for recent events that will help everyone understand what's going on amidst a media cycle that has an excess of histrionic fervor and a lack of depth and context. The US has had a number of protectionist regimes through its history, and many of them were far more potent than anything we're seeing out the Trump Administration. In 1807, The Embargo Act effectively banned trade with Britain and France altogether. Considering that they were the biggest trader on earth at the time and the largest manufacturer, that would be like totally banning trade with China. This was done to pressure England and France to respect American neutrality during the Napoleonic wars. The embargoes ultimately led to tensions which culminated in the war of 1812. In 1828, tariffs as high as 45–50% were implemented to protect Northern manufacturers. This "Tariff of Abominations" hit the South hard and sparked backlash - an early sign of sectional economic rifts that would deepen toward civil war. In 1832, those tariffs were dropped to about 35% after the 1828 tariffs nearly resulted in armed conflict between the federal government and the state of South Carolina. That was considered a compromise, but they were still considered quite high. It wasn't until 1846 that tariffs dropped somewhat and represented a shift away from protective tariffs to revenue tariffs, and even then they weren't lower than Trump's across the …
  media type: text/markdown
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summary: What Everyone’s Missing About the April 2025 Tariffs: A Historical and Economic Reality Check