ENTRANCE FEES

“Tariff Man” has plenty of company: The United States has been taxing an array of offbeat imports for more than 200 years.

2019:

When President Trump’s next tariff round kicks in on December 15, iPhones made in (where else?) China will face a 15% levy, meaning even the cheapest iPhone 11 model will run an extra $100—assuming Apple doesn’t absorb the cost.

1930:

The notorious Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act takes aim at childhood itself, whacking toy dolls with a 90% import fee.

1890:

Before he would rise to the presidency in 1897, Representative William McKinley pushes a tariff bill through Congress that includes a 60% tax on imported eyeglasses and lenses. His future veep, the bespectacled Teddy Roosevelt (above), surely squints in disapproval.

1816:

The first explicitly protectionist trade measure in

U.S. history slaps a 30% tariff on foreign-made umbrellas (among much else)—bad news for Americans that September, when a tropical storm batters the former colonies.