d consequent
stimulus to the establishment of manufactures in the eastern states
resulted, in the period 1808 and 1815, from the embargoes and the war.
On the return of peace imports were resumed on a large scale and the
call for a higher tariff was loud. In the revision of 1816, rates in
a number of cases were fixed higher than those before the war. Average
rates are said to have been about 20 per cent. The rate on both cotton
and woolen goods was 25 per cent (and the minimum on cotton goods was
a specific rate of 6-1/4 cents a yard). High rates were imposed on pig
iron (50 cents a hundred), hammered bar (75 cents a hundred), and
rolled bar ($1.50 a hundred, equivalent to about 100 per cent _ad
valorem_). Rates were raised on many other articles. The average _ad
valorem_ rates collected in 1821 attained the remarkably high figures
of 36 per cent on dutiable goods, and almost 35 per cent on free and
dutiable together.

In 1824 in response to the growing sentiment in favor of the so-called
"American policy of protection," many rates were still further
increased, as those on cotton goods and woolen goods (to 33-1/3 per
cent) and some kinds of iron. Cheap wool was now taxed 15 per cent and
that valued over 10 cents a pound at 20 per cent (to be 30 per cent
after 1826). In 1828, in the "tariff of abominations" which evoked
much bitter criticism, the rates on all these goods were again raised,
those on woolen goods being in some cases 100 per cent on the value,
and those on iron being from 40 to 100 per cent on the value, and
duties were levied on molasses, hemp, and flax. The results appear
in the statistics of 1830, showing the average _ad valorem_ rates on
dutiable imports to be nearly 49 per cent, and on free and dutiable
together to be over 45 per cent. This marks a temporary high point in
tariff rates. Revenues were then becoming excessive and that year the
rates on tea and coffee and some other goods were reduced.

Violent protests, especially from the South, were made against the
protective system, and the tariff became a more important political
issue. Then in 1832 a number of changes were made, mostly downward;
the iron tariff, for example, being reduced to about the level of
1824. Average rates were thus brought down to about 33 per cent on
dutiable goods. The compromise tariff act of 1833 provided for a
process of reduction during a period terminating in 1842, the cut to
be small at first, then to be made more