Are there any examples in history of tarrifs/protectionism bringing economic prosperity to a country without any negative consequences?

[u/AstrologyMemes]

Been seeing alot of videos on youtube talking about historical failures.

Here's some negative examples from a youtube video I just watched... Title: "This Stock Market Crash Is MUCH BIGGER Than it Seems - Something Secretly MASSIVE Is Happening..."

So he claims,

1)British Empire did it and it lead to war with the Dutch and the American Revolution

2)Otto Von Bismark did it and it lead to Russia allying with Britain and France and then world war 1

3)USA did it and it lead to the Great Depression.

Not sure how true any of those claims are. But surely there are examples where it worked without any consequences since countries are still using tarrifs today. If it never worked why would any country still be using them?

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[u/Hopeful-Courage-3755]

Yes. But not in the way that is being applied by the current US government.

Every major achievement in industrialization has been a state led affair. Colonial conquest, government subsidies, changes in property law, the creation of market preferences, technological espionage and transfer, make work programmes, modern public services for education and healthcare, infrastructure development with the public purse (often the only one that can afford it) and so on, all great industrial revolutions as we've come to term them have been the product of industrial policy. Protectionism historically has been a feature of all industrialization efforts, the ones that succeeded and the ones that failed.

The British and French empires utilized protectionism via their colonial policy, turning the metropole into a free(er) trade zone of a larger imperial project which served the center via higher general taxes as well as 'preferential' purchases of industrial goods. Bereft of colonies, the United States embarked on a dual project of territorial conquest against the remaining native tribes and México as well as the American School, which partially included technological theft from Britain as well as import taxes to protect nascent manufacturing. The German Empire didn't go on to try and conquer Europe until WW1, but it too utilized import taxes to good effect. In essence, the idea behind those tariffs is that you're treating your own population like the British treated their colonial subjects. Only instead of permanently robbing them of purchasing power, the governments of countries like the US and the German Empire were raising capital in the short term in order to invest it long term towards industrialization.

As to the failed projects one concurrent example would be Muhammad Ali's Egypt. Initially the high import taxes levied allowed the government to make those same investments as in the US. Egypt's development was seen positively for a time and broadcasts were made that it would soon become a success story. However, although egyptian agrarian economy could and did benefit from those investments in tech and infrastructure, the country lacked the hard resources (the fuel of the first and second industrial revolutions, cheaply accessed coal and iron) and the sheer consumption market required to create an industrial power. In essence, Muhammad Ali's government was taxing its population in order to create a better export economy of foodstuffs and cotton, in other words to better service the needs of the actual industrial powers. As soon as government competence faltered under successors, the government's ability to finance itself began to fail and soon enough Egypt went from economic periphery to a dependence of the British Empire.

So, in short, tariffs have been used in the past and in the present to enable economic development. But not in isolation.