Title page from Taxation and Work: A Series of Treatises on the Tariff and the Currency

Taxation and Work: A Series of Treatises on the Tariff and the Currency

Atkinson applies the free trade ideas of Bastiat and Cobden to the American situation. He criticizes the tradition of Hamilton, debunks the idea that protection improves the economic condition of ordinary workers, argues that free trade promotes peace and that protection promotes war, and urges the free coinage of gold and silver.