"I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any article of foreign manufacture which can be had of American make, be the difference of price what it may."
--Thomas Jefferson to B. S. Barton, 1815. ME 19:223
"The prohibiting duties we lay on all articles of foreign manufacture which prudence requires us to establish at home, with the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article which can be made within ourselves without regard to difference of price, secures us against a relapse into foreign dependency."
--Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste Say, 1815.
"I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any article of foreign manufacture which can be had of American make, be the difference of price what it may."
I stand corrected , perhaps he did become more of a protectionist as he got older. However that quote is pure economic insanity. What if it costs $100 to produce something in the US, but can be bought for $1 if it's imported. It is totally economically inefficient to buy from the US firm.
TRADE IS GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY. Individuals and Firms only make a trade when it is in their own economic best interests to do so, that is called capitalism, and capitalism is why we are living in times of unprecedented wealth.