I was looking through this catalog of the 1887 Paris Exhibition, trying to find new gadgets as usual. No new gadgets, but a good lesson in the PURPOSE of industrial policy and tariffs.
The book includes 90 pages of excruciatingly detailed French tariff regulations. Why? Because Exhibitions were sponsored by governments to bring in new industries and importers. France wanted prospective importers to understand the regulations before attempting to penetrate the market.
Let’s look at two pages that include stuff I’ve been discussing lately.
First cocoa beans.
Second, magic lanterns and stereotype plates.
Large magic lanterns were taxed as Philosophical Machines ie science equipment. Small magic lanterns were taxed as mercery** or toys. Engraved plates for printing on cloth or wallpaper were taxed separately from engraved plates for printing on paper, and the matrices for casting plates had a third tariff.
Third, tariffs on oils from the earth. (Vegetable and animal oils occupied many pages.) The only commercial use for petroleum was lamp oil, and all the tests and tariffs were designed to parse out the fraction of oil suitable for lamps.
The list of exhibits includes many pages of steam engines, parts for steam engines, and machines for making and repairing steam engines. “Other than steam” was a leftover:
Three companies showed electric motors, one company showed ‘hydrocarbon engines’.
Hmm. What happened in 1886? Benz.
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THE MAIN POINT:
When a bureaucracy gains most of its profit from tariffs, it writes microscopically detailed regulations for tariffs. Each of those regulations is the result of a negotiation between domestic industries and the government. The domestic industry wants to minimize its imports in order to minimize its taxes. A non-globalist government recognizes that it needs active domestic industries to keep its taxes flowing, so it doesn’t push too hard.
The VAT is the best motivator of all. A government that profits from VAT will strongly encourage local value-adding industries, thus improving the skill level of the country. The Soviet system worked mainly on VAT, leading to zero offshoring and maximum skill development.
Globalists eliminate tariffs, which kills domestic industry and ALSO drops tax revenue. The result is a system that works solely on Share Value and Debt. We’re there now.
The last serious Worlds Fair was here in Spokane in 1974. Nixon came here to keynote the fair, and the fair keynoted Nixonian destruction of America. The fair’s theme was environmentalism, Nixon’s main killing machine. The fair wiped out a huge railroad yard and industrial district along the river, replacing it with a useless but “beautiful” park area. Investors cheered at the removal of dirty filthy unclean jobs, which is another way of saying JOBS A MAN CAN DO. Now our downtown is a dirty filthy meth district like most downtowns, and all the jobs are employing and paying men in China and Vietnam and India.
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** Mercery seems to be the same category that department stores used to call Notions. Misc household goods related to sewing and cooking, but not clothing or pots and pans.
Polistra's Mill 