In the economics term, an infant industry is a new industry which in the early stage the industry found difficulty or incapable to compete with established foreign competition. Therefore, the infant industry needs protection either in the form of tariff or subsidies in their early stage of development until the industry can attain similar economics of scale with competitors abroad. Mercantilism or commercialism is an economic system, dominant in modernized parts of Europe during 16th century to 18th century which the country attempts to accumulate wealth through international trade and the country’s export must greater than its import in order to say that the country is wealth. Besides that, mercantilist is an ideology relating economic production …show more content…
Furthermore, this is not only ensures their own industrial production capacity and fosters new industries but also provides abundance of employment opportunities for their people. Mercantilists think that the principle means of market protection are tariff system and the monopolized management system of international trade, for instance, regarding quota, administrative management, tariff and exchange rate as the main reason to develop and protect their own manufacturing. Mercantilism stressed the necessity to protect their own market by using the state power to protect their domestic industries, and develop the world market. Its essence is the “national industrialism” which recognized in the early economic thinking to protect the national industry. In addition, there are people believe that the policy orientation of mercantilism is, in fact, the economic nationalism or the country’s economic policy of nationalism. In any case, mercantilist is the origin of industrial protection theory or is the mercantilism is actually the source of the idea of trade …show more content…
He also initially advocated the free trade. As an ambassador to the United State America in 1825, List turned to advocate the trade production and protection due to the influence of Hamilton’s ideas and also the effectiveness of the United State America’s trade protection policy. Furthermore, the infant industry protection which regards productivity theory and the theory of the stages of social development as the foundation and the protective tariff policy as the core is proposed in his 1841 work. The core idea of Liszt’s infant industry protection theory can be summarized as the following