# Dingley Tariff 1897 protective tariff act that raised average import duties to roughly 52%, the highest in American history to that point. Signed under President McKinley, it represented the pinnacle of [[Gilded Age]] Republican protectionism and remained the governing trade framework until 1909. The Dingley Tariff consolidated the alliance between industrial capital and the Republican Party, funded federal spending without an income tax, and illustrates the historical lineage of tariff politics that connects [[McKinley Tariff]]-era protectionism to modern [[Free Trade]] debates.