ABSTRACT
The complexity of the real world often defies such properties as clarity, unity, consistency, and generality. This chapter presents the development of agricultural trade policies over two centuries, centering first on Europe and gradually widening the horizon. The major continental countries chose a different route. They built up protective mechanisms that by present standards would be considered mild but that nevertheless were a marked departure from liberal trade principles. The United States introduced high tariffs in 1930 but moderated their effects through the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934. A set of policies designed to protect domestic interests was also introduced under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. An evaluation of the history of agricultural trade policy based on the free trade model alone is likely to yield dismal results. The core assumption of the theoretical approach to an evaluation of alternative trade systems lies in the postulate that maximization of total product is the overriding objective of economic policy.
