The 1869 Copper Tariff: The Politics and Geography of Postbellum U.S. Development in World-System Perspective

Abstract

Traditional approaches to the political economy of tariffs usually examine formal politics within the state or look at the economic interests of the producers involved. World-systems approaches to tariffs try to integrate the two approaches, by examining how economic interests fit into the world-economy, and how this influences their politics. Despite being a little-remembered piece of Reconstruction-era legislation, the 1869 copper tariff allows an opportunity to reexamine an episode of the United States' development within a world-systems context and help to broaden our understanding of the politics behind its emergence as an industrial power. Simultaneously, it allows us to explore the salient physical and technological issues that underlie natural resource tariffs.