The tariffs launched by President Trump in his first term were picked up and extended by President Biden and have been at the center of Trump’s second term. The turn by major powers toward tariffs, industrial policies, and privileging domestic production over trade went against political-economic orthodoxy as developed since the Second World War and particularly since the Cold War. In our panel we will revisit the period from 1880 to 1935, the last time such policies were the (controversial) norm. Special emphasis will be laid on how and why the United States advanced its distinctive Open Door policy and on Imperial Preference — the fostering of imperial production behind tariff walls, and protection of preferred imperial access to resources, as a means for all-empire development. This period and these great-power practices are the nearest analogies to the policy shifts transforming global political-economy today.