America Was Founded as a Protectionist Nation

huffingtonpost.com — Protectionism's first American theorist was Alexander Hamilton -- the man on the $10 bill, the first Treasury Secretary, and America's first technocrat. As aide-de-camp to General Washington during the Revolution, he had seen the U.S. nearly lose due to lack of capacity to manufacture weapons. (France rescued us with 80,000 muskets and other war materiel.) He worried that Britain's lead in manufacturing would remain entrenched, condemning the United States to being a producer of agricultural products and raw materials.

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