<P> Embargo Act of 1807 was designed to force Britain to rescind its restrictions on American trade, but failed, and was repealed in early 1809 . </P> <P> During the Civil War period, leaders of the Confederacy were confident that Britain would come to their aid because of British reliance on Southern cotton . The Union was able to avoid this, through skillful use of diplomacy and threats to other aspects of European - U.S. trade relations . </P> <P> According to Michael Lind, protectionism was America's de facto policy from the passage of the Tariff of 1816 to World War II, "switching to free trade only in 1945. . It has been argued that one of the underlying motivations for the American Revolution itself was a desire to industrialize, and reverse the trade deficit with Britain, which had grown by a factor of ten in the space of a few decades, from £ 67,000 (1721--30) to £ 739,000 (1761--70). </P> <P> According to Paul Bairoch, since the end of the 18th century, the United States has been "the homeland and bastion of modern protectionism". In fact, the United States never adhered to free trade until 1945 . A very protectionist policy was adopted as soon as the presidency of George Washington by Alexander Hamilton, the first US Secretary of the Treasury from 1789 to 1795 and author of the text Report on Manufactures which called for customs barriers to allow American industrial development and to help protect infant industries, including bounties (subsidies) derived in part from those tariffs . This text was one of the references of the German economist Friedrich List (1789--1846). The United States has become the main opposition to free trade and this policy remained throughout the 19th century and the overall level of tariffs was very high (close to 50% in 1830). The victory of the protectionist states of the North over the free trade southern states at the end of the Civil War (1861--1865) perpetuated this trend, even during periods of free trade in Europe (1860--1880). </P>

As a major importer of products from other countries the united states has