“A Reciprocity of Advantages”: Carey, Hamilton, and the American Protective Doctrine

Abstract

The roots of Mathew Carey’s protectionist ideas, and their connection with those of the most famous early proponent of protection for domestic manufactures, Alexander Hamilton, are subjects of dispute. Carey himself disclaimed much knowledge of political economy before 1819, and, until recently, the historiography on Carey echoed him. After 1819 Carey claimed the mantle of Hamilton’s protectionism, a claim that scholars have come recently to deny. The denial is due to doubts not about Carey’s trade doctrine but about Hamilton’s. This essay argues for the continuity of Carey’s protectionism over the course of his career as a publisher and polemicist, dating from his early efforts in Ireland up to 1784 and continuing afterward in the United States, and for the commonality of his doctrine with Hamilton’s. The argument turns on Hamilton’s notion, in his Report on Manufactures, of “a reciprocity of advantages.”

Ireland’s Role in British Colonial Capitalism: “Men of Capitals” and Pitt’s Irish Proposals, 1784–1785

“…111 Carey soon fled Ireland for his safety and settled in Philadelphia, where he was to receive a more favorable hearing for his economic ideas. 112 In Ireland, Carey's nemesis resorted to carrot as well as stick by introducing significant new bounties for Irish manufactures, but Foster's scheme did little to mollify Dublin's manufacturing communities. They were furious at the refusal of the Irish parliament to restrict English imports, and turned to stricter, often violent, enforcement of non-importation and non-consumption campaigns against British goods.…”