RE LAZY FARE VERSUS PROTECTIONISM

A propos a comment by TOF on David Kaiser's blog re Anti Intellectualism Again, on the topic of economists' contradictions and the clear advantages of free trade over protectionism, one needs to review the history of industrialization in America in the 19th Century, and the crucial role protectionism played in that industrialization.

Protectionism was copied, largely through Friedrick List's program, in Germany, at roughly the same time, for very similar reasons, and to counteract mainly the same laissez faire industrial monopolist, the first such one, Britain.