http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tariff-act-1789
Again, a duty of Congress to regulate trade with other nations.
Smoot-Hawley is a red herring. There is no serious scholarship which attributes the collapse of trade in the 1930s to Smoot-Hawley.
Germany saw an 80% reduction in both imports and exports and was nearly completely unaffected by the law. The same applies to most of Europe.
The US suffered a 50% loss, coincident with far greater losses of net trade worldwide.
Serious scholarship says Smoot-Hawley contributed to the deflation of the 30’s, but to contend that Smoot-Hawley precipitated that is not supported by any research that I am aware of.
The world economies were already collapsing in upon themselves when it was enacted.
I said ONE of the reasons for the collapse was Smoot-Hawley. It clearly did not help matters and made them worse.
Germany went into the 1930s in a state of collapse perhaps even worse than elsewhere. Hitler’s use of monetary controls crimped imports and his use of the Keynesian economic model saw huge state expenditures on infrastructure and the military. Hardly a desirable goal today.
Just bumping for later