The 1869 copper tariff: The politics and geography of postbellum US development in world-system perspective

Traditional approaches to the political economy of tariffs usually examine formal politics within the state or look at the economic interests of the p roducers involved. World-systems approaches to tariffs try to integrate the two approaches, by examining how economic interests fit into the world-eco nomy, and how this influences their politics. Despite being a little-rememb ered piece of Reconstruction-era legislation, the 1869 copper tariff allows an opportunity to reexamine an episode of the United States' development w ithin a world-systems context and help to broaden our understanding of the politics behind its emergence as an industrial power. Simultaneously, it al lows us to explore the salient physical and technological issues that under lie natural resource tariffs.