Editing Report on Manufactures

{{short description|1791 report on economic policy by U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{More footnotes|date=January 2010}}
[[Image:Alexander Hamilton A17950.jpg|thumb|right|[[Portrait]] of [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[John Trumbull]], 1792]]

In [[United States history]], the '''Report on the Subject of Manufactures''', generally referred to by its shortened title '''Report on Manufactures''', is the third of [[Hamiltonian economic program|four major reports]], and ''[[Masterpiece|magnum opus]]'', of [[Founding Fathers of the United States|American Founding Father]] and first [[U.S. Treasury Secretary]] [[Alexander Hamilton]]. It was presented to the [[US Congress|Congress]] on December 5, 1791. In the report, Hamilton argued for [[industrial policy]] to support modern [[manufacturing]] technologies in the United States.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sylla |first=Richard |date=2024 |title=Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures and Industrial Policy |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.38.4.111 |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |language=en |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=111–130 |doi=10.1257/jep.38.4.111 |issn=0895-3309|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

It laid forth economic principles rooted in both the [[mercantilist]] system of [[Elizabeth I]]'s [[Kingdom of England|England]] and the practices of [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] of [[Kingdom of France|France]]. The main ideas of the Report would later be incorporated into the "[[American System (economic plan)|American System]]" program by US Senator [[Henry Clay]] of [[Kentucky]] and his [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]]. [[Abraham Lincoln]], who called himself a "Henry Clay tariff Whig" during his early years, would later make the principles cornerstones, together with his opposition to the institution and the expansion of [[slavery]], of the fledgling [[US Republican Party|Republican Party]].

Hamilton's ideas would form the basis for the [[American School (economics)|American School of economics]].

==Economic plan==
Hamilton reasoned that to secure American independence, the United States needed to have a sound policy of encouraging the growth of manufacturing and ensure its future as a permanent feature of the economic system of the nation. He argued these could be achieved by bounties or [[subsidies]] to industry, regulation of [[trade]] with moderate [[tariffs]] (which were intended not to discourage imports but to raise revenue to support American manufacturing by subsidies), and other government encouragement. These policies would not only promote the growth of manufacturing but also provide diversified employment opportunities and promote [[immigration]] to the young [[United States]]. They would also expand the applications of [[technology]] and [[science]] for all quarters of the economy, including [[agriculture]]. In his report, Hamilton advocated rewarding those bringing "improvements and secrets of extraordinary value" to the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ben-Atar |first1=Doron S. |title=Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power |date=2004 |isbn=0-300-10006-X|pages=159–164|publisher=Yale University Press }}</ref> That contributed to making the United States a haven for industrial spies.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Spies Who Launched America's Industrial Revolution |url=https://www.history.com/news/industrial-revolution-spies-europe |website=History.com|date=January 10, 2019 }}</ref>

===Tariffs===
{{See also|List of tariffs in the United States|Tariffs in United States history|Protectionism in the United States}}
Hamilton reasoned that tariffs issued in moderation would raise revenue to fund the nation. The tariff could also be used to encourage domestic or national manufacturing and growth of the economy by applying the funds raised in part towards subsidies, then called bounties, to manufacturers. Hamilton sought to use the tariff for the following:

* Protect domestic [[infant industry argument|infant industries]] until they could achieve [[economies of scale]] and be able to compete with more established firms abroad.
* Raise revenue to pay the expenses of government.
* Raise revenue to directly support manufacturing through bounties (subsidies).

===Industrial subsidies===
Hamilton reasoned that bounties ([[subsidies]]) to industry, which would rely on funds raised by moderate tariffs, would be the best means of growing manufacturing without decreasing the supply or increasing the prices of goods. Such encouragement by direct support would make American enterprise competitive and independent along with the nation as a whole. In part subsidies would be used for the following:

* Encourage the nation's spirit of enterprise, innovation, and invention.
* Support [[internal improvements]], including roads and canals to increase and to encourage domestic commerce.
* Grow the infant nation to a manufacturing power that would be independent of control by foreign powers by relying on their goods for domestic, especially defense supplies.

==Adoption by Congress==
Though Congress refused to accept Hamilton's proposals in 1791 because of opposition from Madison and his supporters, much of Hamilton's third report would later be adopted by the [[US Congress]] despite continued opposition to the support of industry by subsidies. Both sides agreed that manufacturing independence was desirable and necessary but disagreed on how to obtain it. The Jeffersonian [[Democratic-Republican Party]]'s main objection to subsidy was their fear that subsidy would lead to corruption and favoritism of certain sections of the new nation over others: the north over the agrarian south. That divide would return again and again in issues of economic policy until the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]].

It is often thought that Hamilton's report was completely ignored, but "Hamilton worked to ensure that Congress enacted virtually every tariff recommendation in the report within five months of its delivery."{{sfn|Irwin|2004|pp=801–2. "Although the report is often associated with protectionist trade policies, Hamilton's proposed tariffs were quite modest, particularly in light of later experience [i.e. compared to import duties of the nineteenth century]."}}

Hamilton's revenue-based trade policy, with its more moderate tariffs, meant that by 1794, manufacturers had switched their support from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans, who favored higher, more protectionist tariffs.{{sfn|Nelson|1979|p=977. "By the end of 1793 Hamilton's pro-importer political economy was driving manufacturers from Boston to Charleston into opposition to the Federalists."}}

==Opposition==
Leading opponents of Alexander Hamilton's economic plan included [[Thomas Jefferson]] (until later years) and [[James Madison]], who were opposed to the use of subsidy to industry, along with most of their fledgling [[Democratic-Republican Party]]. Instead of bounties they reasoned in favor of high tariffs and restrictions on imports to increase manufacturing, which was favored by the manufacturers themselves, who desired protection of their home market.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} Although the Jeffersonian stance originally favored an "agrarian" economy of farmers, it changed over time to encompass many of Hamilton's original ideas:{{sfn|Irwin|2004|pp=819–20. "The tumultuous experience of dealing with British trade policies after independence had transformed Jefferson from someone who had written in 1785 that farmers were 'the chosen people of God' and had pleaded 'let our workshops remain in Europe' to conceding in 1816 that 'we must now place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist.' 'Within the thirty years that have elapsed, how are circumstances changed!' Jefferson wrote. "[E]xperience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort"}} Also, "the Madison administration helped give rise to the first truly protectionist tariff in U.S. history."{{sfn|Irwin|2004|p=819}}

==See also==
* [[First Report on the Public Credit]] – Hamilton's report on public finance
* [[Second Report on Public Credit]] – Hamilton's report on national banking
* [[Federalist Party (United States)|Federalist Party]] – Hamilton's political party
* [[Political economy]] – overview of economic theory research
* [[Free trade|Free trade economics]] – opposing school of thought
*[[Report on a Plan for the Further Support of Public Credit]] – Hamilton's report on dealing with public credit after his resignation

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite journal |last= Irwin |first= Douglas A. |year= 2004 |title= The Aftermath of Hamilton's 'Report on Manufactures' |journal= [[The Journal of Economic History]] |volume= 64 |issue= 3 |pages= 800–821 |jstor= 3874820 |doi=10.1017/s0022050704002979|s2cid= 154744569 |url= http://www.nber.org/papers/w9943.pdf }}
* {{cite journal |last= Nelson |first= John R. |year= 1979 |title= Alexander Hamilton and American Manufacturing: A Reexamination |journal= [[The Journal of American History]] |volume= 65 |issue= 4 |pages= 971–995 |jstor= 1894556 |doi= 10.2307/1894556}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last= Ben-Atar |first= Doron |year= 1995 |title= Alexander Hamilton's Alternative: Technology Piracy and the Report on Manufactures |journal= The William and Mary Quarterly |volume= 52 |issue= 3 |pages= 389–414 |jstor= 2947292 |doi= 10.2307/2947292 }}
*[[Herbert Croly|Croly, Herbert]], ''The Promise of American Life'' (2005 reprint)
*Joseph Dorfman. ''The Economic Mind in American Civilization, 1606–1865'' (1947) vol. 2
*Joseph Dorfman. ''The Economic Mind in American Civilization, 1865–1918'' (1949) vol. 3
*[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90104191 Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War'' (1970)]
*Gill, William J. ''Trade Wars Against America: A History of United States Trade and Monetary Policy'' (1990)
*Lind, Michael ''Hamilton's Republic: Readings in the American Democratic Nationalist Tradition'' (1997)
*Lind, Michael ''What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President'' (2004)
*Parenti, Christian ''Radical Hamilton: Economic Lessons from a Misunderstood Founder'' (2020)
* {{cite journal |last= Peskin |first= Lawrence A. |year= 2002 |title= How the Republicans Learned to Love Manufacturing: The First Parties and the 'New Economy' |journal= [[Journal of the Early Republic]] |volume= 22 |issue= 2 |pages= 235–262 |jstor= 3125181 |doi= 10.2307/3125181 }}
*Richardson, Heather Cox. ''The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War'' (1997)
*Edward Stanwood, ''American Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century'' (1903; reprint 1974), 2 vols.

==External links==
{{wikisource}}
* [http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch4s31.html Excerpts from the Report (Columbia University Press, University of Chicago)]

{{Alexander Hamilton}}

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[[Category:1791 in American politics]]
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[[Category:Economic history of the United States]]
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[[Category:Works by Alexander Hamilton]]
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