ABSTRACT
In a sense tariff wars were the logical consequence of rising tariffs in Europe after 1879. Most such tariff wars were counterproductive, launched, as Conybeare has suggested, by smaller economic powers, who met with swift retaliation by larger ones. The impact of tariffs wars in Europe is, however, difficult to quantify. In most cases, it seems likely that only a small percentage of trade was affected, but in Russia's case the tariff war may well have accounted for the substantial replacement of Russian grain exports to Germany by American ones. At the same time, Germany did grant Britain most-favoured nation status, while pursuing an aggressive policy against Canada, having launched a tariff war against the Canadian granting of preference to Britain in 1897. This 'war' simmered in the first decade of the twentieth century, an augury of the conflict that a switch from free trade to imperial preference might entail.
