The customs tariff of 1891 and the apogee of protectionism in the Russian economic literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

The article provides an overview of the discussion in the scientific economic literature on the degree of customs protection of domestic industry, which unfolded after the approval of the protectionist tariff of 1891. It is noted that among its participants, committed free traders were a minority, since freedom of trade has always been considered in Russia only as a distant and elusive goal. Most liberal economists considered the concept of the German economist F. The bill, which provided for temporary selective support for certain promising industries that were much more suitable for Russia, pointed to the bureaucrats' perversion of "true" protectionism and demanded a relaxation of customs duties. The proponents of the prohibitive tariff also agreed with List's ideas in theory, but in practice they advocated a general (indiscriminate) and virtually indefinite increase in duties. To a greater extent than their opponents, they took into account the conditions and needs of Russia, its lagging behind the advanced countries of the West, and also took into account the fact that a strict prohibitive system in foreign trade has long been a national economic tradition, deviations from which occurred quite rarely. In addition, at that time, a significant strengthening of customs protection was a global trend, in line with which the United States and the leading countries of continental Europe built their foreign trade policy, so Russia could not stay away from this process.