IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/7825.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Antebellum Tariff on Cotton Textiles Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas A. Irwin
  • Peter Temin

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that the antebellum U.S. cotton textile industry would have been wiped out had it not received tariff protection. We reaffirm Taussig's judgment that the U.S. cotton textile industry was largely independent of the tariff by the 1830s. American and British producers specialized in quite different types of textile products that were poor substitutes for one another. The Walker tariff of 1846, for example, reduced the duties on cotton textiles from nearly 70 percent to 25 percent and imports soared as a result, but there was little change in domestic production. Using data from 1826 to 1860, we estimate the responsiveness of domestic production to fluctuations in import prices and conclude that the industry could have survived even if the tariff had been completely eliminated.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas A. Irwin & Peter Temin, 2000. "The Antebellum Tariff on Cotton Textiles Revisited," NBER Working Papers 7825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7825
    Note: DAE ITI
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w7825.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lance E. Davis & H. Louis Stettler III, 1966. "The New England Textile Industry, 1825–60: Trends and Fluctuations," NBER Chapters, in: Output, Employment, and Productivity in the United States after 1800, pages 213-242, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Peter Temin, 1988. "Vertical Integration and Product Quality in the Early Cotton Textile Industry," Working papers 481, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    3. Bils, Mark, 1984. "Tariff Protection and Production in the Early U.S. Cotton Textile Industry," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 1033-1045, December.
    4. Peter Temin, 1988. "Vertical Integration and Product Quality in the Early Cotton Textile Industry," Working papers 477, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    5. Copeland, Melvin Thomas, 1912. "The Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number copeland1912.
    6. Harley, C. Knick, 1992. "International Competitiveness of the Antebellum American Cotton Textile Industry," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 559-584, September.
    7. Temin, Peter, 1988. "Product Quality and Vertical Integration in the Early Cotton Textile Industry," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 891-907, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Napoleonic blockade & the infant industry argument: caveats, limitations, reservations
      by pseudoerasmus in Pseudoerasmus on 2016-12-26 18:01:04

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tena-Junguito, Antonio & Lampe, Markus & Fernandes, Felipe Tã‚Mega, 2012. "How Much Trade Liberalization Was There in the World Before and After Cobden-Chevalier?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(3), pages 708-740, August.
    2. Stephen Meardon, 2007. "Postbellum Protection and Commissioner Wells's Conversion to Free Trade," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 571-604, Winter.
    3. Réka Juhász, 2014. "Temporary Protection and Technology Adoption: Evidence from the Napoleonic Blockade," CEP Discussion Papers dp1322, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Davis, Joseph H. & Irwin, Douglas A., 2008. "The antebellum U.S. iron industry: Domestic production and foreign competition," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 254-269, July.
    5. Allen, Robert C., 2014. "American Exceptionalism as a Problem in Global History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 309-350, June.
    6. Douglas A. Irwin & Joseph H. Davis, 2003. "Trade Disruptions and America's Early Industrialization," NBER Working Papers 9944, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Saito, Tetsuya, 2006. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: Alchian-Allen Theorem of Various Qualities," MPRA Paper 883, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Nov 2006.
    8. Carter, Colin A. & Chalfant, James A. & Yavapolkul, Navin & Carroll, Christine L., 2016. "International commodity trade, transport costs, and product differentiation," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 65-76.
    9. Brian D. Varian, 2018. "Anglo†American trade costs during the first era of globalization: the contribution of a bilateral tariff series," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(1), pages 190-212, February.
    10. Juhász, Réka, 2014. "Temporary protection and technology adoption: evidence from the Napoleonic blockade," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60697, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:6:y:2008:i:30:p:1-12 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Brian D. Varian, 2023. "British exports and foreign tariffs: Insights from the Board of Trade's foreign tariff compilation for 1902," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(3), pages 827-843, August.
    13. Saito, Tetsuya, 2007. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: Another Proof with A Graphical Representation," MPRA Paper 1297, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Ulaş Karakoç, 2018. "Industrial growth in interwar Egypt: first estimates, new insights," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(1), pages 53-72.
    15. Harris, Richard & Keay, Ian & Lewis, Frank, 2015. "Protecting infant industries: Canadian manufacturing and the national policy, 1870–1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 15-31.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosés, Joan R., 1998. "The choice of tecnology in the Mediterranean basin : some evidence from the Spanish, Italian, British and us cotton mills(1830-1860)," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 6182, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    2. Arif Iqbal Rana & Jawaid Abdul Ghani, 2004. "Dynamics of Outsourcing in Industrial Clusters: a Study of the Gujrat Fan Industry in Pakistan," Asian Journal of Management Cases, , vol. 1(1), pages 7-24, January.
    3. Jawaid Abdul Ghani & Arif Iqbal Rana, 2005. "The Economics of Outsourcing in a De-integrating Industry," Microeconomics Working Papers 22241, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    4. Saito, Tetsuya, 2006. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: Alchian-Allen Theorem of Various Qualities," MPRA Paper 883, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Nov 2006.
    5. Macchiavello, Rocco, 2006. "Contractual Institutions, Financial Development and Vertical Integration: Theory and Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 5903, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Joan Ramon Rosés, 2005. "Subcontracting and vertical integration in the Spanish cotton industry," Economics Working Papers 816, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    7. Joan R. Rosés, 2009. "Subcontracting and vertical integration in the Spanish cotton industry1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(1), pages 45-72, February.
    8. Allen, Robert C., 2014. "American Exceptionalism as a Problem in Global History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 309-350, June.
    9. Saito, Tetsuya, 2007. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: Another Proof with A Graphical Representation," MPRA Paper 1297, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Macchiavello, Rocco, 2010. "Vertical integration and investor protection in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 162-172, November.
    11. Marcela Meléndez, 2003. "A Dynamic Model Of Vertical Integration For The American Pulp And Paper Industry," Documentos CEDE 1912, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    12. H. O'Rourke, Kevin, 2000. "British trade policy in the 19th century: a review article1," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 829-842, November.
    13. Leunig, Tim, 2002. "Can profitable arbitrage opportunities in the raw cotton market explain Britain’s continued preference for mule spinning?," Economic History Working Papers 515, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    14. Timothy Leunig, 2003. "A British industrial success: productivity in the Lancashire and New England cotton spinning industries a century ago," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 56(1), pages 90-117, February.
    15. Kenneth L. Sokoloff, 1986. "Productivity Growth in Manufacturing during Early Industrialization: Evidence from the American Northeast, 1820-1860," NBER Chapters, in: Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth, pages 679-736, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Stephen Haber, 1998. "Financial Market Regulation, Imperfect Capital Markets, and Industrial Concentration: Mexico in Comparative Perspective, 1830-1930," Economía Mexicana NUEVA ÉPOCA, CIDE, División de Economía, vol. 0(1), pages 5-46, January-J.
    17. Harris, Richard & Keay, Ian & Lewis, Frank, 2015. "Protecting infant industries: Canadian manufacturing and the national policy, 1870–1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 15-31.
    18. Brian D. Varian, 2023. "British exports and foreign tariffs: Insights from the Board of Trade's foreign tariff compilation for 1902," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(3), pages 827-843, August.
    19. Rosés, Joan R., 2000. "La competitividad internacional de la industria algodonera española (1830-1860)," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH dh001401, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    20. Leunig, Tim, 2003. "Piece rates and learning: understanding work and production in the New England textile industry a century ago," Economic History Working Papers 22360, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N71 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7825. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.