1936 U.S.C.S. Persuasive Poster Advocating Foreign Trade

A striking piece of persuasive cartography, this map and poster were prepared in 1936 by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the Department of Commerce to advocate for a National Foreign Trade Week. It is notable for taking the unpopular position of advocating for foreign trade at a time of intense protectionism in the U.S.

A Closer Look

A dagger bearing the seal of the Department of Commerce lies before a world map. The handles are connected to the pans of a scale and are labeled 'imports' and 'exports,' with representative goods from each category illustrated and labeled.

Fighting the High Tide of Protectionism

Following relatively liberal trade policy during the 'Roaring Twenties,' in the wake of the stock market crash of 1929, the United States and other countries became locked in vicious trade and currency wars in a desperate attempt to halt their domestic economic collapse. The 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, one of the most impactful changes in trade policy in U.S. history, imposed very high tariffs on hundreds of imported goods. Affected countries launched retaliatory tariffs in return, with the effect being that U.S. foreign trade decreased by two-thirds between 1929 and 1933. Although most economic historians agree that protectionism on its own was not the major cause of the Great Depression, it certainly worsened an already dire situation. In fact, although protectionism remained the guiding principle, there was a limited degree of pushback to Smoot-Hawley. When he won the presidency in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran on a policy of lowering tariffs and signed the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, which allowed for the piecemeal lowering of tariffs. These experiences were an important motivator in developing a framework for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the postwar period, a first step on the road towards free trade and liberalization in the following decades.

The National Foreign Trade Week promoted here was an effort by Roosevelt's Department of Commerce to tout the benefits of foreign trade. Individual port cities had organized national trade weeks in years prior, and the practice was expanded to the national level, overseen by the Department of Commerce, in 1935. The following year (1936), a more concerted effort was made to promote the week on the radio and in print media, including with the poster seen here. The annual event appears to have continued through 1941 but halted afterward due to the Second World War.

Publication History and Census

This poster was prepared by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the Department of Commerce in 1936. No artist is noted, but a contemporary Public Domains Catalog lists J. J. W. Palmer as the illustrator. Aside from their publications with the Construction Unit of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, little information is available on Palmer. They appear to have been an economist or statistician more than an artist. 'C. and G. S. Print' in the lower right corner refers to Coast and Geodetic Survey, a designation sometimes used in the interwar years. Although this poster differs from that office's usual output of nautical charts, its being part of the Department of Commerce made it a convenient outlet when the Department had a need for other cartographic outputs. This poster, or perhaps a smaller printing of it, was included with one issue and one supplemental issue of the Department of Commerce's General Legal Bulletin, but it is not independently cataloged in any institutional collection and is scarce to the market.