Tariffs in American History

The following is adapted from a lecture delivered in Washington, D.C., on May 6, 2025, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. Sponsored by Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, which is undergoing extensive expansion and renovation, the lecture was delivered in The Heritage Foundation’s Van Andel–Gaby Center. Tariffs are among the oldest of taxes for the simple reason that they are easy to collect. Just send in the tax collectors and don’t let the goods being transported move until the duty has been paid. Being one of the earliest forms of taxation, it is not surprising that tariffs produced one of the earliest forms of tax evasion: smuggling. In America’s colonial period, the east coast of the United States, with its many rivers and inlets that the small ships of those days could utilize, lent itself to smuggling, and the American colonists evaded British tariffs on a grand scale. Indeed, Rhode Island, with its long ... Read full article.