The Tariff Thought Of Marx And Engels And The Significance Of The Times

Since the 21 st century,economic globalization has become an unstoppable trend in the world.However,after the subprime crisis,with the weak economic recovery of major capitalist countries,the "anti globalization" trend of thought represented by trade protectionism has been surging.Especially since 2018,the US has threatened to impose tariffs and provoked trade frictions with China,making the tariff issue the focus of attention.In this complex and changeable international trade environment,it is particularly urgent for China to use reasonable tariff policies to solve various trade problems.However,most of the existing literature on tariff issues is based on western economics rather than Marxist economics.Although there is a reasonable aspect,it tends to take economic interests as the only goal,ignoring the class and historical factors behind tariff issues.In order to make up for this deficiency,this paper discusses the tariff thought of Marx and Engels and the significance of the times.Up to now,some literatures have discussed Marx and Engels' thought of tariff;However,there is no comprehensive and systematic exploration,carding and deepening of Marx and Engels' tariff thoughts.This paper attempts to make up this deficiency.This paper also explains the era significance of Marx and Engels' tariff thought.The historical development since 1895 shows that the tariff thought of Marx and Engels is not out of date.In order to achieve the above objectives,I took the complete works of Marx and Engels as the text and searched the keyword "tariff".This work is important in three ways.Firstly,we can know the dynamic characteristics of Marx and Engels' study on tariff.It can be found that when Marx and Engels studied the tariff problem,there were two relatively concentrated periods.In the first period,both Marx and Engels were involved in the study of the tariff problem.Marx's period is 1845-1863,Engels' period is 1845-1853.Marx said that the debate over free trade and protectionist tariffs was one of the first motivations for his economic research.In the second period,Engels was the principal investigator,from 1879 to 1894.It follows that Engels was still concerned about tariffs shortly before his death.Secondly,the background factors influencing Marx and Engels' study on tariff can be more clearly understood.Engels lived and worked in Manchester,England,in the early 1840 s and witnessed the great trade policy debate that was raging.Therefore,the historic change of British trade policy from mercantilist protectionist trade policy to free trade policy had a profound impact on him.As for Marx,in the early 1840 s,through the published of ,protectionist policies has become a popular theory in Germany,and that with the method of main political economists tend to free trade has formed a strong contrast,and the debate about trade policy in mainland Europe such as Germany also had a great effect.In addition,in the late 19 th century,especially in the 1970 s,the depression had a great impact on Europe.Continental European countries broke the "Cobden-Chevalier" treaty,and the free trade system promoted by Britain was severely damaged.There was also a great tariff policy debate in the United States in the 1880 s and especially in 1888.In this context,Engels launched the second wave of intensive discussion on the tariff issue,expressing many new views.Thirdly,it can let us know among all the documents of Marx and Engels,which articles are related to tariffs.With the above preparations,we can discuss the basic contents of Marx and Engels' tariff thoughts.To sum up,this includes four aspects.(1)Marx and Engels made a profound discussion on the impact of the change of tariff policy on the interests of different classes.In the view of Marx and Engels,changes in tariff policy would have a short-term impact on the interests of the working class(in this case,wages measured in purchasing power),but the predominance of capital in the labor market would inevitably lead to the minimum wage for workers in the long time.Therefore,the claim of the British free traders that promoting free trade would improve the living conditions of workers is nothing but a false lie aimed at gaining more support by deceiving the working class.For the capitalist class,however,the impact of trade policy is different.Marx and Engels believed that free trade protected the interests of strong capital in the world market,while protectionist trade protected the interests of industrial capital in the domestic market.Still,there is a difference between free trade and protectionist trade in driving social revolution.Marx believed that free trade had the significance of promoting social revolution.That is why Marx tends to support free trade.(2)A country needs to adopt different tariff systems at different stages of development.Not to mention that the British industrial system developed in the last three decades of the 18 th century on the back of protective tariffs,even the later development of the United States depended on continued high tariff protection after the civil war.But by the time a country has reached a certain point in its development,its capital has become strong capital,and the pursuit of profits in world markets through free trade has become the natural choice of the bourgeoisie--as it was in Britain in the 1840 s and 1850 s,and also as it was in the United States in the 1880 s and 1890 s.In the case of strong international capital,if the later-developing countries want to develop their own industry,they cannot rely on free trade,but need to create the necessary market space for their domestic capital through protective tariff policies.In their view,backward economies such as India and Ireland,once independent,should develop their industries with a protective tariff system.(3)Tariff policy is a strategic tool that plays an important role in national competition.History clearly shows that one of the contributing factors to the development of capitalism and national strength in Britain has been the adoption of protectionist trade policies based on mercantilism for a long time.Economically,it promoted the development of modern industrial system;In terms of national strength,it enabled Britain to have an unparalleled power since its defeat of France in 1815.Both of these made its hegemony was established not only in Europe but also in the world.In Marx and Engels' time,strategists believed that industrial capacity was positively correlated with national power.As for industrial capacity,Engels believed that the protective tariff system had the effect of creating a "greenhouse atmosphere",that is,it could shorten the time of the industrial revolution or accelerate it.That was once the case in Britain;and it was also true in the United States.Engels' judgment is: In order to enhance national strength,when the economic development level is still low,the protection tariff system should be adopted to promote the development of domestic competition by protecting the interests of industrial capital in the domestic market;and in order to maintain the dominant position of national strength,when a country's economy develops to an advanced stage,its capital has already had a strong position in the world market,so it should advocate free trade to ensure the proliferation of its strong capital in the world market.(4)Tariff policy is determined by domestic political processes,and there is a mechanism that can be called an "infinite spiral".In trade policy,whether protection tariff policy or free trade policy,are determined according to the demand and power of the capitalist class.When one industry requests tariff protection and it is implemented,it will indirectly affect the interests of capitalists in other industries.Capitalists in other industries will make new demands to protect their interests.And this process will be repeated for a long time,without end.With the death of Marx and Engels,there is no new chapter in the thought of tariff.However,their tariff ideas are of great significance.In this regard,I take 1895,the year of Engels' death,as the time starting point,and divide it into three stages for investigation.The three stages are :(1)From 1895 to 1945.During this half-century,tariffs had tended to fall in the United States which is the world's most powerful country.Despite the Smoot-Hawley tariff act pushed tariffs to the second-highest level in American history,because of the great depression that began in 1929.(2)From the end of world war ii to 2008.During this period,the United States achieved hegemony.Although under the "cold war" pattern,the eastern system and the western system almost confronted each other through internal cycles,within the western system,there was once a challenge from the rising Japan to the hegemony of the United States.In response,the United States adopted mixed means such as trade and finance to make Japan lose its power to challenge the United States through economic and trade war.During this period of more than 60 years,free trade has been further developed and tariff rates have been greatly reduced.However,a variety of non-tariff means have been constantly innovated.At the same time,in the name of fair trade and national security,the legal and institutional construction of trade restrictions has been further developed.(3)From the current financial crisis to now.One of the major changes caused by the current financial crisis is the tectonic decline of major capitalist countries and the collective rise of major developing countries.In addition,economic growth remains sluggish in the post-crisis era,which triggers the conditions for the hegemon,namely the United States,to adopt trade restrictions extensively in pursuit of a better relative position.Different from the Obama era,the trump administration has adopted tariffs as the main means to launch economic and trade wars in an attempt to change the strategic decline.The analysis of these three stages shows that,first,the tariff thought of Marx and Engels is not out of date on the whole,and the changes after 1895 can still be reasonably explained according to the tariff thought of Marx and Engels.Second,nevertheless,in some parts,because the technical conditions of production have undergone some important changes,the conclusions of Marx and Engels based on his era need to be revised to some extent under the new technical conditions of production.Because of this,Chinese marxists need to follow the basic methods and positions of Marx and Engels and write a new chapter of tariff thinking.This paper describes,analyzes,summarizes and compares the characteristics,essence,connotation and evolution of Marx and Engels' tariff thought.Making a study on the combination of ideological history and economic history based on the historical materials of many countries.And it uses the trade policy(mainly the United State's)after Engels' death to show the profundity and effectiveness of their thought.