ABSTRACT
Agricultural protectionism is not new: "Significant protection of agriculture prevailed during the past two centuries throughout Europe except for a brief window from 1860 to 1880. The British Corn Laws, as they evolved over at least four centuries, were a complex set of laws, negotiations, and interventions in domestic and international markets. They included every protective device, save one, rediscovered by modern politicians and bureaucrats" (Johnson, 1988, p. 82). The exception is direct payments to producers, which were introduced in the twentieth century in both Great Britain and the United States.
