Smoot-Hawley Tariff

Thesis statement The Great Depression was caused neither by the stock market crash of 1929 nor the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act. 

In this essay, I would like to consider why the Great Depression occurred. Some people contend that it was caused by the stock market crash of 1929. Many economists point to the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act as the real reason. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that neither of these factors caused the Great Depression. 

When Congress began debate leading to the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, the importers argued that the relatively few competitive dyes created a domestic monopoly by prohibiting imports, even if only one American maker produced a dye. 

Try as they might, Americans failed in their attempt to disengage from the international political economy after the war, and the synthetic organic chemicals industry remained deeply embedded in domestic and international politics even as most of the intense wartime animosities faded. The Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930 renewed and reinforced most of the very high rates on synthetic organic chemicals critics subsequently included... 

The most concise list of the importers complaints was their brief filed with the House Committee on Ways and Means in 1929 when the Smoot-Hawley tariff was under consideration. House Committee on Ways and Means, Hearings, Tariff Readjustment, 1929, 1 430-45. 

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