ABSTRACT
The introduction of protective legislation in 1879 was in reality the revival of a national tradition. German economists of the Free Trade school have often contended that the departure from the old protectionist lines was made too quickly and at last too completely. Perhaps the only class of the community which was altogether won over to a policy of Protection was the agrarians, comprising at that time not only the large proprietors but the small owners and cultivators, for the fall in agricultural prices had injured all equally. The operation of the new tariff was the signal for a strong wave of Protectionism which, first sweeping over the Continent, passed thence to the United States and the British Colonies. Before Protection was introduced there were far-seeing politicians who suspected that although agriculture was brought last into the scheme of fiscal reform it would end by taking the first place.
