Tariff Wars and a Model of Conflict

Abstract The article describes and discusses some of the tariff wars which went on between various European states at the end of the nineteenth century. Various countries, such as France and Switzerland, went through periods of building high tariffs against each other to force the rival country into making a favourable tariff treaty. The tariff wars appear to follow the pattern of a short period tariff "escalation" followed by a long period of "seige". A theoretical model is built which attempts to explain this basic characteristic of tariff wars. The similarities between tariff wars and other forms of conflict including violent wars, is discussed in a section at the end of the article.