ABSTRACT
All the different opinions on protectionism were based on the common thesis that in a world divided into and among states, the national economy was the fundamental economic structure. Strategic protectionism in no way restrained the resort to economic and other instruments in order to affect the sought-after development of the national economy. Pragmatic, tactical protectionism, for its part, approved of any of these methods. It chose them, however, on more rational grounds, even if under the protectionist option. Operational protectionism, in practice, did not go beyond the area of foreign trade. It reduced the protection of domestic manufacturing to the relatively limited indirect and direct control. J. M. Keynes promulgated one of the most forceful arguments for protective duties. He maintained that, if properly employed, they could help to fight unemployment in a given country. Manoilescu believed that the full satisfaction of the needs of the internal market in the developed countries inclined them to increase industrial imports.
