Influence of American Economic Policy

most unanimous in this country among those who hold that the United States must or should take the responsibility for the international order after this war. This belief rests partly on economic theory and partly on the view that economic considerations are decisive in international politics. But, above all, the belief in free trade rests on an analysis of United States international economic policy during the last twenty years. It has become widely accepted, both here and in Europe, that because the United States refused to act the part of a creditor nation, because she increased tariff duties twice during the postwar period instead of decreasing them, because she thus acted against the natural laws of economic life, the United States is largely to blame for the collapse of the postwar economic order. And this belief in the guilt and responsibility of the United States is largely responsible for the ascendancy of proposals for international economic union

Economic policy · Economics · Political science · Economic Theory and Policy