The scientific tariff: from origins to the travails of F. W. Taussig

The idea of a scientific tariff took root in the US after the Civil War. Generally, the idea was that tariffs could best be made by executive action under advisement of appointed experts; specifically, tariffs should counterbalance unequal costs of production between foreign and domestic producers. Economist Frank W. Taussig campaigned publicly for the establishment of the US Tariff Commission as a council of experts. Later, beginning in the 1920s, he was dismayed when it became a vehicle for implementing the scientific tariff. This article tells the history of the scientific tariff with particular attention to Taussig's ambivalence.