In recent years the issue of protectionism has become of increasing concern amongst economists and policy makers. Unfortunately the historical analysis of trade policy has severely lagged behind developments in international trade theory. For example, the analysis of the impact of tariffs on the British economy during the interwar years is still based on studies that have relied on traditional theoretical frameworks. This study offers new insights by looking at the disaggregated and macroeconomic evidence on the impact of UK protectionism within a broader empirical perspective. The origin of the research reported here was a research project initially directed by the late Nicholas Kaldor. Although many ideas developed in this book were inspired by working with Kaldor, the work is our own responsibility. In fact, if Kaldor were alive today, he would be the first to take issue with many of our conclusions.

In writing this book we have also received valuable help from Derek Aldcroft, Alec Cairncross, Forrest Capie, Barry Eichengreen, Peter Fearon, Charles Feinstein, James Foreman-Peck, Tim Hatton, Alfred Maizels and two anonymous publishers' referees. We are especially grateful for the advice and assistance given to us by John Rhodes and Nick Von Tunzelmann. We also express our thanks to the ESRC for funding much of this research (grants B00230075 and R000231387).