First edition of a pamphlet which marks the completion of the arc in Carey’s thinking regarding bilateral trade deals, described in his time as ‘reciprocity’ arrangements. Having endorsed such deals early in his career as acts that promoted free trade, in the 1840s and 1850s Carey came to believe that protection was the true ‘road to perfect freedom of trade’, and for that reason he objected to bilateral arrangements with Canada. While his protectionist convictions remained throughout the rest of his life, later in the 1870s and markedly in this present work he adopted a nuanced approach which reconciled reciprocity with protectionism.

Provenance: Aaron Cragin (1821-1898) was a Republican Senator for New Hampshire. At the time this pamphlet was published Cragin sat on the Committee on Naval Affairs and was, presumably, like any self-respecting Northern Republican of the time, operating on a protectionist agenda.