Alexander Hamilton’s system in the 1791 Report on Manufactures is essentially an argument for building a strong, diversified national economy through active state support of industry. Below are a couple of points to consider based on the 1791 report:
Lens:
- Declaration of Independence: Equal station
- Realization that the war debt was a huge problem, both politically (union wise) compare Articles of confederation to Constitution, but also a death knell on the fledgling USA economy.
Main points:
1. Independence vs dependence:
Till that point, the British empire has done everything it could to frustrate if not destroy local development of industry. See steelworks and the restrictions placed upon it.
So, dependence on Europe for essential manufactured goods, especially military supplies was a nono.. Economic independence is part of political and national security.
We see in Trump admin policies and measures this is one of the main items: think steel for the Abrams tank, ships, etc. It was imported and frankly second rate. Strategic vulnerability.
Buy American!
2. Farmers and manufacturers:
Manufacturers add value, multiply production, and expand national income just as farmers do. The advantage of agriculture is, it feeds the populace (autarky) and produces (especially back then) much of the raw materials needed for industrial production ( clothing, leather, wood, flax, linen, etc, etc)
Transposed into our time, Trump: I love our farmers. Deal for the farmers. Also think the crackdown on meat packaging, egg pricing, milk etc. There is a complete food processing industry which relies heavily on imported and chemical shit, but perhaps we will see a break up on these monopolies later to improve health.
Think FSOC ( link below)
in U.S. law [economic security is] to mean the condition of having secure and resilient domestic production capacity, combined with reliable access to the global resources necessary to maintain an acceptable standard of living and to protect core national values.
Read that again, as it contains 4 important objectives.
3. Resilience:
Hamilton believes agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, and finance reinforce one another and create a more resilient society. But, this does especially relate to financial matters.
This is especially apparent when one reads the letter of the chairman of the FSOC - page 4:
U.S. financial system reliably provide the resources necessary to enable the real economy to support domestic production capacity, Americans’ standard of living, and our core national values.
Again we encounter: Americans' standard of living.
But read carefully: it says: REAL ECONOMY.
4. Division of labor increases productivity:
Do one thing good, improve upon it. That's the rational. a healthy economy also provides ample opportunity to develop skills and growth in capacity and capability. So, it is not .gov providing the jobs, but creating the environment in which jobs and business can prosper.
It is interesting to see Trumps focus now on trade jobs.
5. Protective tariffs:
This is one of the means to create a playing field that facilitates domestic economic growth.
Where before you could see de-industrialization, focus on gig and service related jobs, now it is on building stuff. The producing stuff comes after.
Think steel industry. By these tariffs, domestic steel production has a chance to rebirth itself, regain strength and provide jobs, which then lead to a living wage.
6. Immigration of people and capital.
Hamilton believes skilled immigrants, foreign capital, and banking systems are essential to rapid development. Banks expand “active capital,” while immigrants bring industrial skills and labor.
Here we have to make a few comments.
- Trump secured about 18-22 trillion dollars in investments. Even it it were only 10-15 it would be top of the line. An asshat like Carney announcing to have secured 8 billion is in comparison a pittance. I guess a child's hand is easily filled.
- Immigration of labor in them days was not: open borders for everyone he felt like it to come in. No. That would defeat the ideas that lead to the declaration of independence.As Washington noted in his farewell address: "moral, virtue" sustains this republic. So, most immigrants would come from nations which peoples already birthed the young Republic: English, Welsh, Irish, Scotts, Dutch, Flemish, German, Norse, etc.
- The Louisiana purchase was in the works and showed enormous potential for growth ( Trump: settled the wilderness, raised skyscrapers)
Transposing these two considerations in our time, Hire American added to Buy American is only logical. USA has sufficient amount of skilled workers to have a strong self sufficient labor market.
And if immigration is desired, it should be USA policy to seek what is needed, not what is Rules Based International Order (RBIO) requires. Independence here means: pursuit of national interest.
Resume.
Hamilton in short argued to have:
• capital formation, • domestic demand, • industrial clustering, • immigration / retention/ development of skilled labor, • machinery, • supply chain depth, • strategic independence.
And this is important: to remain independent! only then is there a place to be free.
Potential overlapping interests:
When looking at 3 big powers, USA, China (CCP/ROC), Russia ( Imperial, Soviet, Federation) there is a strong overlap in interests and diverging from RBIO.
It is interesting to consider the story written by Isaac Asimov: Foundation. Trantor had become only one big governmental structure, dependent on exterior production and agriculture. This was basically a sign of incoming destruction and demise.
a people, a nation in its own right pursues its own destiny, not because magically the state is sovereign, but the individual people are. And if the state does not pursue the interest of its people, it will die.
In the EU, this is posited as a given: live with it: managed decline., while the system extorts the remaining wealth, and destabilizes the fabric of society by mass immigration of cultures incompatible with the original peoples.
I was driving through northern Arkansas today and saw many, many chicken houses. Large industrial barns where chickens are raised until they reach a certain weight, then slaughtered. Everybody who lives in this area takes it for granted that the only people who will do this types of work, wrangling the chicken when their time is up, is the Mexicans. They can tolerate the hot barn temps and the minimal pay. The toothless whites in this area are more inclined to work in the home brewed pharmaceutical industry, making meth and then sampling their concoctions, thus they have no energy to wrangle the chickens. At the Tyson processing plants they have a large amount of Mexicans processing the chickens. Once again they are not squeamish about chopping the heads off the chickens or dealing with the entails or feathers. I asked my wife if ICE would be making the rounds, collecting the illegals. She said, Nope, because they were the gentile illegals and ICE was only going into the big cities and upending the Latino gangs. She thinks there would not be enough local whites to replace the Mexicans, thus Tyson might shut down for lack of workers.
Interesting idea, we shall see.
There’s a worker visa for that. I have no issue with a worker visa, but they need to be here for x amount of time and then go home for x amount of time. We don’t need them here for 20 years (or forever).
Hamiltonian perspective was looking at things from the perspective of an industrializing North. And was a bit more forward thinking in a planned buildout of industrial capacity. Likely foreseeing which way the wind was ultimately blowing.
The Jeffersonian perspective. Was based more along the lines of what you’d expect of Virginian Gentry. More Agrarian and Decentralized. Favoring the established families and estates as well as those enterprising enough to get their operations off the ground without large quantities of support.
Their perspectives of course being very much colored by their regional heritage. When in turn was holdovers from the English Civil War. Cavilers which were the supporters of the Stuarts and included a large quantity of minor nobility. They Largely settled in the Southern Colonies. Parliamentarians and the supporters of Cromwell largely settled in the Northern Colonies. The Cavilers were more sticklers for tradition. The Parliamentarians were more willing to embrace industry and industrialization. In a sense the American Civil War could be considered the 2nd round of the English Civil War.
It is worth noting. That Aaron Burr had multiple connections to British Nobility and Spy Rings. As well as a questionable enough history that Jefferson made the effort to tip the legal scales to get Burr hung. Not that it worked. But it has sparked speculation among some that someone considered Hamilton more of an actual threat when compared to some of the other Founders.
Not all Founders felt this way. Jefferson wanted government out of business and business out of government.