Stock Markets Exposed
Was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff a direct response to the stock market crash of 1929?
Can the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in any way be looked at as a direct political response to the stock market crash of 1929, and if so where may I find sources that prove the fact? If the Smoot-Hawley Tariff was a response to the stock market crash, why were protectionist policies pursued? Is there a reason the US thought protectionist policies would be good for the economy?
Public Comments
- I don't think so, because the bill was in the Senate before the crash, you can read up on it in wikipedia.
- No, not directly. There had been a series of tarriffs created in the 1920's, and Smoot-Hawley was in no small part of that general policy. That, combined with concerns about labor markets in the late 1920's, resulted the passage of the law in 1930. To a certain degree, the timing was incidental; it would have likely been passed whether there had been a crash or not. After the Stock Market Crash, however, and the resulting pressure on available capital, probably Hoover saw it as a means of raising revenue that would not directly burden the American economy. How wrong he was. Cheers.
