An analysis of tariff formation in antebellum America

The objectives of this dissertation are three fold: the first objective is to determine the political and economic factors relating to the apparent cyclical pattern in the U.S. aggregate tariff rate. The second objective is to determine the economic and political factors relating to passage of key protectionist legislation during America's antebellum period. More specifically, the research is focused towards the passage of protectionist legislation in the 1840s. The third objective is to determine how the woolen textile industry achieved a significant increase in protection in 1828.;The first objective is accomplished by applying a vector autoregressive time series model to the aggregate tariff rate adjusted for changes in the price level; the time period of interest is 1824 to 1933. The second objective is accomplished by applying a principal-agent voting model to antebellum tariff votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The specific pieces of legislation considered are the tariff acts of 1842 and 1846. The third objective is accomplished by applying the case study methodology to the antebellum woolen textile industry.